Cowboys and torpedoes

[Anonymous]

A late night channel showing a B&W fifties cowboy movie had the hero (Randolph Scott, I believe) shoot at some train torpedoes wrapped around a coupling, just as the baddies arrive. The torpedoes explode and the coupling come apart, and the baddies are left swearing on an uncoupled car.
Could train torpedoes actually explode when fired at? I suppose, theoretically it's possible since torpedoes explode when iron wheels run over them.
Any opinions?

[edblysard]

Yes, they can explode if you shoot them, or hit them with a hammer, or subject them to a sharp, severe compression, its what they are designed to do. No, they couldnt blow a couple apart, if they were that strong, they would shatter a wheel, especialy the older, cast wheels.
A few years ago, we were stuck in a sideing, waiting for another train to finish its work. My helper had boosted a torpedo out of a road engine.
He was standing outside, with the torpedo clipped to a signpost, and was throwing rocks at it. Had been chuncking rock for a while, baseball is not the career this kids should pursue, down to his last rock, he was turning away to come back up on the motor, and just tossed it, not even a real throw, and of couse it landed dead center. Scared the heck out of the kid, he wasnt even try to hit it.
Torpedoes are a good amount of black powder inside a light cardboard envelope, which is coated with the same substance as you find inside a road flare, in a salt form. If you scrape the "salt" off of the outside of one into a pile, and step on it, then twist your foot, it will ignite. Cant remember the name of the chemical in the salt, but it does contain sulfer.
By the way, thats a good way to ruin a pair of workboots.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ed!

[Anonymous]

I don't know exactly what torpedoes are made of but it isn't black powder. If you take the paper off one it is a cake made of a white granular material pressed together.

I knew an engineer that use to put a torpedo on the end of a railroad spike. While going over a bridge he would drop it on the concrete piers in an attempt to get it to explode. I did see him succeed a few times.

[Anonymous]

Sir, not to change the subject but I have a humeruos story about torpedoes. Near were I grow up there is a cement plant that used to be swiched by the I.C.G. The switch for getting into the plant was located in a stand of timber near some corn fields. Deer were plentiful at this location and so were poachers. The train crews switching there would set out torpedoes for protection and also to inform them when the train had traveled enough to clear the switch. Well one night a crew was working and the train set off one of those torpedoes. Out of the timber comes a game warden gun drawn. He orders everyone off the train and hand-cuff's them. He then starts to search the train saying "I know there's a gun and dead deer on this train some where for I heard the shot." It took them over an hour to explain the torpedoe and how it is used. The railroad was informed of this matter, a big fuss was raised and this game warden was transfered to parts unknown.
TIM ARGUBRIGHT

[wabash1]

you shoot a torpedo and it will exsplode. noo if or might to it.

[edblysard]

Your correct, pfrench68,
Opened one up, showed it to my brother-in-law, (he is a civil and chemical engineer), he said it appears to be trinitrotoluene (tnt), with a neutral agent to slow the explosion, most likely corn starch. Seems the corn starch also keeps it from sweating. The salt on the outside is also tnt, with a chloride accelerant. The salts on the outside burn hotter, to make sure it goes off, the retardent keeps it from exploding so quickly it shatters the wheel.
He said change the retardent, and add one or two more chemicals, and you would have a close relative of plastique, or c-4. No, he wouldnt tell me what to add.
He had never seen one before, had no idea what we use them for, after I explained, he wanted to put it back together and go stick it on the tracks. He settled with going out into the field behind his house, taping it to a tree, and when the kids in his neighborhood started their fireworks at dusk, he shot it with a 22 rifle. Trust me, they do explode when shot, took a good size hunk of bark off the tree.
Based on its weight and size, he said it appeared to be equal to 1/8 to 1/4 of a stick of blasting dynamite.
Wonder who manufactors them, would like to ask them also.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Mookie]

You're right Tim - That is funny!

Jen

[kenneo]

Ed --
Prior to 9/11 they might have told you, but probably not, for fear you would try something. Which I think you might (grin). With the USA/Patriot Act, a lot of people could go to jail for telling you, and with the knee-jerk reactions of the FBI since then, you could be arrested as an enemy combatant. Just a couple of weeks ago, some folks that had been handling fireworks tried to get on a plane at PDX and the sniffer machines detected gun powder residue on their clothes. It has been well proven what their situation is (they were unloading a truck load of pyrotechnics for a July 4th show), but they are still in jail on Patriot Act charges. It is just getting plain wierd.

A friend that still works for a RR says that they have been advised, that if they are going to be near an airport to shower, shampoo and change in newly washed clothes after leaving home because handling torpedoes and flares/fusees can leave some of the same residues on you.

I guess it pays to take the train. (What's going to happen when they start "sniffing" you at the freway restarea? Have to be safe, you know.)

Eric

[zardoz]

sorry, forgot what i was going to say

[cabforward]

QUOTE: The train crews switching there would set out torpedoes for protection and also to inform them when the train had traveled enough to clear the switch.

i don't get it.. torpedoes detonate when the first wheel impacts.. a car clears a switch when the last wheel passes thru it.. how does this work?

[Anonymous]

I don't get it either... i must be to new for this system

[edblysard]

You put the torpedo about two or three car lengths past the switch, so when the car you let roll down there is a car length past the switch, it explodes the torpedo, and you know its in the clear. Or, lets say, you need to shove about 11 car lengths past a switch, in a reverse move, and want to cut off some cars clear of a switch, or just about any point. On your way past where you want your rear car to end up, you drop off someome, who sets a torpedo out, say 15 cars back from the switch. He then reboards the train, you keep going, do your work. Now its time to shove back, and cut off some cars, to go into a plant or industry. But your helper, rear brakeman, who ever, is up front with you, and it would take time to get him to the rear of the train, watch the shove, then walk back up to the head end, because it will take both of you to work this plant. So you make the cut, streach the car apart, baldhead the joint, (close both knuckles so they wont couple back up) tie a few brakes on the 11 cars you need to shove past the switch, then come back against the cut, and shove gently, until you hear the torpedo go off. Because the torp was 15 cars past the switch, and you had cut on 11, you know the leading wheels of the rear car are at least 15 car lengths from the switch. You only cut on 11, so the cars are 3 lengths in the clear of the switch. Now you can drag the rest of your train on, and go about your business, knowing the cars you left are clear of the switch. Used this one a lot out in the weeds, it saves a lot of time.
Stay Frosty,
Ed