Broken Coupler

[louisnash]

As a quest to get this forum back to the basics as it used to be, I have but yet one more question for you railroad guys and gals. I hope that I am not asking something that may have already been asked in the past.

When a coupler comes apart on a moving train, does it throw the train into emergency? What actually happens. How many couplers are actually kept in the locomotive should this happen? I know that Ed and Wabash (j) should have a first hand account they could share.

Thanks for any replies. You guys are really helpful to us that don't get to be on the trains.

BRIAN (KY)

[wabash1]

I know ed is better at indept exsplanations. but in short when a engineer gets a knuckle thetrain will go into emergency. from this point of seperation this is where the brakes start setting up and the train stops some times the cars are only a few feet apart and sometimes its several cars apart. this in itself is due to the tonage type of cars speed and soforth. another thing is the engine has ( all new engines) have a 20 sec delay before the pcs drops out. (meaning the engines will continuee to put power to the rails pulling or braking if in dynamic) this way you can run from the train if going down a steep grade. Now all engines have 2 of each type of knuckle. just incase the engineer is mad at the conductor.

[CShaveRR]

One thing that should be pointed out...the coupler knuckles are the only "spare" coupler parts kept on the train itself. Knuckles are the most likely component of a coupler to fail. If the failure is due to the coupler casting itself (drawbar), you've got problems...if it drops onto the track it's very capable of derailing part of the train. The car usually has to be set out--not much of a problem if the locomotive's attached to the car with the failed drawbar, but a lot of fun if it's the forward drawbar of a trailing car that fails.

[edblysard]

Hi Brian,
Yes it put the train into emergency. When the air hoses come apart, the brake system vents to atmosphere, and the brakes come on full force, starting from the point of seperation and moving away from that point.
The brakes will stayt to set on the cars closest to the break, so the locomotive will still be pulling, until the brake application reaches it. the lead car in the rear portion will set up first, with the rest following. On a curve, this can cause problems, because the lead car has its brakes on, but the following cars are still pushing it, a derailment is quite possible, even more so if the lead car is empty, and has several loads behind it. For the front part, it presents several problems too. The engineer has to bail off the independent brake(locomotive brake, a seperate braking system for the locomotive only) to keep from sliding the wheels, and with the brakes setting on the rear first, if there is enough pull from the locomotive and the other cars, its easy to break the train again, bet on it if the rear cars in the front section are loads.
On older locomotives, the pcs relay would open instantly when the train went into emergency, cuting the traction motors out to prevent just such a thing from happening. But on a down grade break apart, the rear section can run into you if the front section happens to stop quicker. Now the pcs relay will wait 15 to 20 seconds before cutting the motors out, allowing a good engineer to put some distance between him and the rear section.
Only real problem I have had occured with a empty stack train, we had a stringline derailment.
WE picked up a empty stack train at Barburs cut, and were taking it back to Pasadena for BNSF to put a crew on. Some one at BN had goofed up, and a loaded five unit well car had been on the rear, but on the rear of the wrong train, this car was suppost to go to BUSF hub yard, not Barbors Cut. So the docks never unloaded it, just left it on the rear. We were going through a left hand curve when the train went into emegency. My engineer and I both looked back to see what happened, from my side everything looked ok, my engineer just said oh ****.
I was wondering what he was that mad about, from where I was, the cars all looked ok, upright on the rail, so I was guessing we had just had a hose/gladhand come apart. My engineer said" you have got to see this, Ed" and montioned me over to his window. I went over, looked out, and was trying to figure out why there was another rail laying beside the tracks, when it hit me, that was the tracks, and I was looking at a train that was in a almost straigh line, when it should have been curving away from me.
Got down on my side, the inside of the curve, and I be darned if the inside rail hadnt pulled away from the ties and ballast, and slid under the cars when we streched the train. Later measurements had us 23' away from where the rail should have been. What happened was the rear car had a bad break valve, and had dyanamited on us when Richard had done a brake reduction as we were entering the curve. It went into emergency, and being a five unit loaded well car, it stopped, period. The rest of the train was empty cars, so when the rear stopped, all the slack ran out and we were still pulling on the front, we pulled the train into a straight line, with the rear anchored by the loaded car, and the locomotive streching it out. The inside rail couldnt withstand the strain, and some of it rolled under, and the rest just pulled out of the tie plates, or just drug the ties with it. You got to have a sense of humor when stuff like this happens. This was old SP track, under deferred maintinance for years and years, old, rotted ties and jointed rail, that hadnt had a track crew tighten a joint bolt in years.
Our trainmaster made a joke when he got there, he pointed out we had only derailed half of the train, the outside half, the inside half was still sitting on the rail, most of it anyway. It just happened to be 20 feet away from where it was started out that morning. Oh, and the rear car that caused all the problem in the first place never got on the ground. It and the one ahead of it stayed up on the rail, which didnt start to fail for a few yards in front of the next to last car. UP sent a switcher out, and pulled them back to Strang yard.
Didnt get any days off fired, it was put down as a combination of track failure and a BO car.
Bet dollars to dime I never haul a single heavy behind a string of lights again. Even if I have to take that sucker apart and put the heavy behind the motor, and walk set the whole train, I wont make that mistake again.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[adrianspeeder]

What do you do if the trailing car's drawbar fails? Does another loco come from behind? What if it can't?
-Adrian

[CShaveRR]

In a case like that, it would have to be chained to the car ahead of it, then taken to the nearest point where it could be set out for repair. You wouldn't be pulling more than the car with(out) the drawbar with the chain, so the rest of the train would still be tying up the line until you could get your train (sans the drawbar car) back together again.

[Anonymous]

Chains? We have those neet Carry-lite drawbar straps. Ratchet them down and voilah, instant chain replacement. Only one problem, you can't un ratchet the darn things. They cinch down so hard that you gotta cut them off after you move the car. Oh well, I guess it is better than toting a chain 50 cars.
Ken

[banjobenne1]

Hello, Many years ago I was firing for the Canton in Baltimore MD. We were on the Hill trip (round trip to Eastern Stainless Steel)headed downhill, I was in the engineers seat. We had about 18 cars some loads some emptys. Picking up speed, about 20 mph, put the controller in run 0,I let off 10 to 15 pounds of air on the train brake, at the same time releasing the independent brake, lapped it until we slowed to 8 mph, and then full release. I then put the controller in 2 or 3 and was feeling petty good with my performance as I grabed the whistle cord to blow for a crossing. All of this in the presence of the rest of the crew who acted like they could care less. A minute, maybe a minute and a half and WHAMO the slack ran in. No one was hurt, knocked off their seat or fell down. We all got dusted from the ceiling but nobody said anything. I should have spoke up but I didn't. To this day I don't know what I did wrong. I think I should have let off all but 5 pounds of air, and everything would have been cool. Any suggestions? Ben