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DERAILMENTS

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, February 20, 2023 7:37 AM

blue streak 1
 
SAMUEL C WALKER

https://www.utrgv.edu/railwaysafety/_files/documents/research/mechanical/ijrt_wayside-hbd-investigation.pdf  IF the NSRR brass were smart, they would voluntarily engage in enhancing HBD's.  

Think about it .  If NS does that now the jury will award more money thinking NS knew that there was a problem.

The best NS and the other RRs is to go to the FRA and say you need to put this defect equipent requirement in.   Then NS at its damage trials can say with a straight face the FRA made me do it,

Getting on Mr. Peabody's "Wayback Machine", my first experience with Hot Box Detectors was in the B&O Dispatchers Office in Akron, OH.  There were two HBD's in place - one West of Akron (exact location is forgotten) and one East of Akron at Munroe Falls (I graduated from the Stow-Munroe Falls School system).  These detectors had graphical read out machines on a shelf behind the Akron Main Line Dispatchers desk.  The read out had two writing devices that traced out the heat signaures of each axle as it passed over the detector in the field, one read out trace for axles on each side of the train.  If there was a trace that was 'seriously' higher than the rest of the traces that was considered a Hot Box and the Dispatcher would instruct the Operators at either Ravenna (Eastbound) or JO Tower (Westbound) to hold their signals until they communicated the information to the crews of the trains involved.  Each of these locations were approximately 12 miles from the Detectors.  This was 'hi-tech' in the late 1960's.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 24,873 posts
Posted by tree68 on Monday, February 20, 2023 7:37 AM

blue streak 1
The best NS and the other RRs is to go to the FRA and say you need to put this defect equipment requirement in. 

There is the law of diminishing returns - right now they shoot for every 20 miles for HBD/DED's.  So we go to 10.  Then something like this still happens so it's 5.  

Detectors on individual cars we have discussed.  Great concept, difficult execution.

The devil on this will be in the details.  As has been noted, roller bearing failures go south very rapidly.  If the investigation reveals such a material failure, well, we'll have to see.  Keep in mind - I'm pretty sure that such bearings are sealed.  It's not like the old days with friction bearings that needed to have oil added on occasion.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,260 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, February 20, 2023 7:28 PM

BaltACD
jeffhergert
CMStPnP 
BaltACD
Go back in time and photos of steam engines being used in switching and local freight type conditions would have a set of 'rerailers' hung on the side of the tender for use by the crew 

I don't see it much today but that practice carried forwards into the Diesel era, Milwaukee Road MP1500 AC used to have one hanging above one of the rear trucks on some of them that were in branch line service in the 1970's.    Have not seen one recently though. 

They don't teach how to use such things anymore.  They don't teach how to chain up a car to move it when the drawbar is broken.  I've seen chains on some foreign line engines, but don't know if their crews actually know how to use them.  Possibly it's just to have them handy when mechanical forces show up.

Jeff 

Back in the day - a lot of railroad hiring in the field was from a pool of farm boys.  Farm boys, of necessity learn basic mechanics and tool utilization since that is a part of the daily lives from about the age of 5 until the leave the farm.

Farm boys didn't need to be 'taught' much about railroad mechanics since they had been dealing with similar situations in their daily lives for years.

Rerailers went away because the railroads decided they didn't want crews to be able to cover up minor derailments anymore, or perhaps strain themselves lifting the heavier 'butterfly' types.  It had nothing to do with crews forgetting how to use them.  

CN still supplies each locomotive with a chain, wrenches, knuckles, air hoses and other such basic things, and crews are expected to know how to use them if needed.  We have a couple job aids about how to change knuckles but I've never seen anything about hoses or broken drawbars, I guess they just expect us to figure it out.  

We did have a newer conductor rip the operating lever off the front of a locomotive by attempting to chain a B/O car to it.  Another guy tried to cut a crossing in the middle of a loaded welded rail train, he figured out how to undo all the wires and blocking devices that prevented him from lifting the operating lever but never thought about why those things were there.  And we've had instances where intermodal cars with power cables strung along them were uncoupled, apparently this makes quite the spark show.  

Having said that, we also still have plenty of conductors and engineers who DID grow up on farms or around mechanics, and do not need to have 'righty tighty, lefty loosey' and other such things explained to them.  

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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