i'm new with many questions

[NSlover92]

Ok, Lauren in North America, they use an Automatic Knuckle Coupler, which automatical closes itself when it interlocks with another coupler. These couplers have a large knuckle that opens and closes to hold the train together (closed) or seperate it (open). Coupling is fairly simple, the engineer will take his loco and what ever cars he has if he has some, and slowly back into the cars he wants. (Around 5 MPH or slower) When the two couplers hit the knuckles of each push on a peice of metal inside the couple which causes both knuckles to be closed and after they reach the closed position a large metal pin drops and holds the knuckle shut. Uncoupling is also quite simple, After an engineer stops the train and has the brakes set, a workman will go to where they want to uncouple the loco from the cars or farther back saying they only want to leave 2 or lets say 5 cars. He pushs up on a long lever conected to that pin mentioned earlier that is holding the knuckle shut, at this time while he is holding it up the engineer slowly moves away from the cars which in turn pulls open that knuckle of the car on which the workman is pushing that lever up on. Now in the UK they use a buffers and chain system, now as I do not model UK operations I have no idea how these work but I will include a photo. Mike

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Railroad_coupler.agr2.jpg

Knuckle Coupler, These cars are coupled

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tow_hitch_5.jpg

Knuckle Coupler it self uncoupled (but the knuckle is closed)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:European_coupler_on_loco.jpg

Chain and Buffer uncoupled

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eisenbahn_Schraubenkupplung_1.jpeg

Chain and Buffer Coupled

 

[NSlover92]

http://www.kadee.com/

This company makes the most popular N. American style.

For models not the real thing, but without a doubt Kadee couplers are the best HO scale couplers. Thats what I use. Mike

[Anonymous]

ok, thanks. now i get that. but does anyone know how the buffer and chain systems work?

~Lauren

[ghonz711]

Going on very vague memory.  I think what happens is that there is also a hook on each of the cars, found between the buffers and very close to the chain.  If cars were to be coupled, a workman would have to walk the to the specific car and wrap the chains around the opposite car's hook.  Here they would also connect any air hoses to control the Air breaks (although I don't think early European cars had air breaks).  The buffers... I think were merely used to protect the train cars from hitting the solid car frame.  Buffers were sprung so that they could absorb some of the pressure in order to protect a careless engineer from backing too far or too quickly without enough time to stop. 

Now don't take this for sure but this is from what I remember on the Thomas the Tank Engine shows when I was four :P

Ghonz

[CMSTPP]

I have a video for you of a Amtrak train coming through a Pennsylvania town.

http://www.sd45.com/SandPatch2003/pages/015amtrak.html

The video is at the bottom of the picture. The locomotives on the train are GE Genesis AMD-103s. Most of the train consists of bilevel passenger cars and a few baggage cars on the end

Happy railroading

James

Isn't this the same video used where it shows some man crossing the tracks seconds before the train looks like it's going to hit him? I KNEW IT WAS FAKE!  I know someone had posted on these forums a while back but I don't have the link.

Nope I don't think this is the right one. This is simply an Amtrak train. But a man was killed at the crossing a week before the video and photo were taken. It says that the engineer was blowing the horn so much because of that accident.

James

[dinwitty]

unasked question about couplers but I'll chime it in anyways about couplers. Link and Pin couplers were in use in the early days of railroading, simply each car had an extension and a link like a large chain loop, then a pin on each car coupler shank, the brakeman pulls out the pin and inserts the link into the shank and drops the pin back in when the cars are mated. Hardly automatic.

Think of it like a rubberband between a left and right hand.

Lots of cutoff fingers and a redesign made a side opening so the loop could be held while the cars were closed together and not get injured. You wont see this anywhere except at museums now.

Keep on asking, we're here and love to answer... 8-D

its the sharing of the hobby. 

[twcenterprises]

A more specific and accurate annswer about "A" and "B" units...

Way back when the EMD FT's were introduced, 4 of them toured the country as demonstrators, traveling on several dozen railroads so they could give them a "test drive".  Since the locos were generally kept together as a set, they were numbered 103A, B, C, and D.  The reason was that, during that era, management feared that railroad crews would claim that each diesel with a different number was a different locomotive, thus requiring a separate crew.  The numbering with one number and using letter designations for each unit skirted this potential issue.  Some railroads continued with this tradition for a few years, especially with drawbar equipped units (units permanently connected by drawbars, they did not have couplers between them).  Later, railroads and EMD equipped the F units with couplers, and railroad unions didn't object to using diesels as multiple units, so each unit got it's own number.  Imagine maintenance crews trying to keep track of maintenance with units having the same number, but a different letter.

This tradition continues today, look at any articulated car (such as a 2 unit auto rack, or a 5 unit well car).  Each piece has the same car number, but is lettered "A" or "B" (or "C", "D", and "E" on the 5 unit well car).  Oddly enough, the well cars are configured as A-C-D-E-B, as "A" indicates the front unit (carried over from the old F units), and the "B" unit actually indicates the "brake" end (the end of the car that has the handbrake on it).  Freight cars DO have an A or B end, cars aren't usually marked, but the end with the handbrake is the "B" end.

Brad

[jasperofzeal]

This tradition continues today, look at any articulated car (such as a 2 unit auto rack, or a 5 unit well car).  Each piece has the same car number, but is lettered "A" or "B" (or "C", "D", and "E" on the 5 unit well car).  Oddly enough, the well cars are configured as A-C-D-E-B, as "A" indicates the front unit (carried over from the old F units), and the "B" unit actually indicates the "brake" end (the end of the car that has the handbrake on it).  Freight cars DO have an A or B end, cars aren't usually marked, but the end with the handbrake is the "B" end.

Brad

Not to nitpick, but the articulateds are configured as B-C-D-E-A.  These also have brake wheels at both ends as well.

[Anonymous]

Another question!

What's the difference between bay window cabooses and cupola style cabooses? What exactly are each?

Thanks for the help!

~Lauren

[OzarkBelt]

Well, i am not the expert authority on this, but...

The cupola style caboose were made in the steam era so that the crew could see OVER the cars in the train. in more modern times, the rolling stock is a lot higher so in comes the bay window caboose. the bay windows are to see AROUND the cars. hope that helps.

[NSlover92]

Ok, I am going to not just cover cupola and bay window but all cabooses, and get photos of each. I love talking about cabooses and they are my favorite railcar. Enjoy, The caboose provided the train crew with a shelter at the rear of the train. From here they could exit the train for switching or to protect the rear of the train when stopped. They also used windows to inspect the train for problems such as shifting loads, broken or dragging equipment, and overheated journals (hotboxes). The conductor kept records and otherwise conducted business from a table or desk in the caboose. For longer trips the caboose provided minimal living quarters, and was very frequently personalized and decorated with pictures and posters. Early cabooses were nothing more than flatcars with small cabins erected on them, or modified boxcars. Side door cabooses remained in service until outlawed due to their danger, but the standard form of the American caboose had a platform at either end with curved grab rails to facilitate train-crew members' ascent onto a moving train. A caboose was fitted with red lights called "markers" to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase "bringing up the markers" to describe the last car on a train (these lights were officially what made a train a "train". Cabooses are non-revenue equipment, and on the poorer lines were often improvised or retained well beyond the normal lifetime of a freight car. Tradition on many lines held that the caboose should be painted a bright red, though on many lines it eventually became the practice to paint cabooses in the same colors as locomotives. Ok, here is some info on the cupola. The most common caboose form in American railroad practice has a small windowed projection on the roof, called the cupola. The crew sat in elevated seats in order to inspect the train from this perch. (Which BTW: to get to the seat up there you have to climb up a ladder built into the side of the bunks, which I have found at many museums, its very easy to fall from there, that might be why alot of conductors were injured from falling.) The position of cupola varied. In most cabooses the cupola was in the center of the car, but some western railroads (most notably the Santa Fe) preferred to put it at the end of the car. These cars presented some operational issues because they had to be turned in order to face in the proper direction. Ok now the bay window, my personal favorite. On a bay window caboose, the crew monitoring the train sits in the middle of the car in a section of wall that projects from the side of the caboose. The windows set into these extended walls resemble architectural bay windows (Lauren if you remember in my kitchen we have a bay window), so the caboose type is called a bay window caboose. This type afforded a better view of the side of the train and eliminated the falling hazard of the cupola. It is thought to have first been used on the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad in the early 1920's, but is particularly associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which built all of its cabooses in this design starting from an experimental model in 1930. On the west coast, the Western Pacific Railroad was an early adopter of the type, building their own bay window cars starting in the early 1940's and acquiring this style exclusively from then on. Many other roads operated this type, including the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Southern Railway, the Milwaukee Road, and the New York Central Railroad. Now lets talk about the cupola's cousin. In the Extended Vision (EVC) or Wide-Vision caboose, the sides of the cupola project beyond the side of the carbody. Rock Island created some of these by rebuilding some standard cupola cabooses with windowed extensions applied to the sides of the cupola itself, but by far the greatest number have the entire cupola compartment enlarged. This model was introduced by the International Car Company and saw service on most western and many eastern lines. The expanded cupola allowed the crew to see past the top of the taller cars that began to appear after World War II, and also increased the roominess of the cupola area. Ok, here is about one of the stranger one the transfer caboose, a transfer caboose looks more like a flat car with a shed bolted to the middle of it than it does a standard caboose. It is used in transfer service between rail yards or short switching runs, and as such lacks sleeping, cooking or restroom facilities. The ends of a transfer caboose are left open, with safety railings surrounding the area between the crew compartment and the end of the car. Now the Drovers caboose is a fairly rare one, Drover's cabooses looked more like combine cars than standard cabooses. The purpose of a drover's caboose was much more like a combine as well. On longer livestock trains in the American southwest, the drover's caboose is where the livestock's handlers would ride between the ranch and processing plant. The train crew rode in the caboose section while the livestock handlers rode in the coach section. Drover's cabooses used either cupolas or bay windows in the caboose section for the train crew to monitor the train. Lumber companys used smaller cabooses commonly called "bobbers", the small, two-axle cabooses that were widely used during the latter part of the nineteenth century were called "bobbers," which term described their riding characteristics on the relatively uneven track of the time. Bobbers tended to produce an unpleasant pitching motion that was usually not present in more modern, two truck models. Sadly all this couldn't last long, until the 1980s, laws in the United States and Canada required that all freight trains have a caboose. Technology eventually advanced such that a caboose was unnecessary, providing improved bearings and lineside detectors to detect hot boxes, and better designed cars to avoid problems with the load. The caboose was also a dangerous place, as slack run-ins could hurl the crew from their places and even dislodge weighty equipment. The final nail for the caboose's coffin came with an electronic box with the innocent name of "FRED," an acronym for flashing rear-end device, or "EOT," End-of-Train device. A FRED/EOT could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train's air brake pressure and report any problems back to the locomotive (If you ever have to wait for a train, when you go over the crossing if you can still see the end of the train you will see one of these). The FRED/EOT also detects movement of the train upon start-up and radios this information to the engineer so that he/she will know that all of the slack is out of the couplings and additional power can now be applied. One can't forget the distinguishing feature of a FRED/EOT: its blinking red light warning other trains of what's ahead. With the FRED/EOT on the job the conductor moved up to the front of the train with the engineer and year by year, cabooses started to fade away. Very few cabooses remain in operation today, though they are still used for some local trains where it is convenient to have a brakeman at the end of the train to operate switches and the like. Also they pulled on trains that are carrying special loads that need gaurds, normally bombs, tanks, nuclear waste, the gaurds will stay in the caboose while the cargo is taken to its destination. Also they are used as shoving platforms as on the NS they are put in the front of the train when a crew needs to push a train more then a mile. A recent variation on the transfer caboose is the "pushing or shoving platform." It can be any railcar where a brakeman can safely ride for some distance to help the engineer with visibility at the other end of the train. Flatcars and covered hoppers have been used for this purpose, but often the pushing platform is a caboose that has had its windows covered and welded shut and permanently locked doors. CSX uses former Missouri Pacific Railroad "shorty" transfer cabooses and marks them as pushing platforms. Ok, thats alot of info and I'm sure that will open up more questions. I am going to put a link for every caboose mentioned and the FRED's/EOT's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Caboose_interior.jpg

Inside A caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cupola_caboose.jpg

Cupola Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bay_window_caboose_CNW_10304.jpg

Bay Window Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BN_caboose,_Eola_Yard,_1993.jpg

Extended Vision Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CR_18065_IN_Porter.jpg

Transfer Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:RR-1431.jpg

Drover's Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DRG_bobber_caboose_at_CRM.jpg

Bobber Caboose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FRED_cropped.jpg

FRED/EOT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CSXT900071.jpg

A Caboose Being Used As A Shoving Platform

                                                                            Mike

[Midnight Railroader]

This thread's looking very odd to me.

"Girlfriend" posts question and "boyfriend" answers it. Over and over.

Maybe you two need to get a room.

[pcarrell]

Ozark pretty much nailed it.

The spotting differences are pretty easy.

Here's a couple of capola style caboose.  There is a set of windows set in a box on top of the caboose.  The box can be on one end of the caboose or in the middle, they serve the same function.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/afs.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Captured2006-6-24.jpg

Here is a bay window caboose.  The windows are in a bulge in the side of the caboose and the roof is flat.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/afk.jpg

Then there was a few railroads that tried to experiment a bit by combining the two types.  They came up with all sorts of designs, but generally they are referred to as an extended vision caboose.  Here's one of them.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/afq.jpg

And then there's the transfer caboose.  This one usually has large porches on either end of the car.  This one was used mostly in shorter run service where lots of switching or backwards running was expected to be made.  Here is a very tierd old L&N transfer caboose.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/afc.jpg

The caboose started out as a wooden car and through the early 20th century steel became the more common material of choice.  The caboose is mostly a thing of the past now, but there are a few still in use.  I caught this one just a couple of weeks ago arriving on the local to do some switching.  They picked up a few cars, tacked the caboose on the end, and headed down the tracks.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07.jpg

Thats probably more then you wanted to know, but there it is.

[pcarrell]

Darn, you two posted while I was writing!

[NSlover92]

Maybe you two need to get a room.

Very Funny , but if you guys could answer before I do we wouldn't have that problem plus all the questions she has asked I knew about except the chains and buffers thing, I still dont know alot, so im sure she will ask a question I dont know. But beside the point have you ever tried to write all that and teach someone through AIM? Mike

[NSlover92]

Thats probably more then you wanted to know, but there it is.

I think we both may have swamped her in info. lol

[Anonymous]

ok... i think i understood most of it, but i have a few questions.

 you talked about hotboxes (and overheated journals (hotboxes).)... i have a feeling this is something really basic that i've heard before... but what is that? 

You talked about a transfer caboose (Ok, here is about one of the stranger one the transfer caboose, a transfer caboose looks more like a flat car with a shed bolted to the middle of it than it does a standard caboose. It is used in transfer service between rail yards or short switching runs, and as such lacks sleeping, cooking or restroom facilities. The ends of a transfer caboose are left open, with safety railings surrounding the area between the crew compartment and the end of the car. )   what exactly is it used for... like how is it used.. i don't quite understand

and you talked about shoving  and pushing platforms (Also they pulled on trains that are carrying special loads that need gaurds, normally bombs, tanks, nuclear waste, the gaurds will stay in the caboose while the cargo is taken to its destination. Also they are used as shoving platforms as on the NS they are put in the front of the train when a crew needs to push a train more then a mile. A recent variation on the transfer caboose is the "pushing or shoving platform." It can be any railcar where a brakeman can safely ride for some distance to help the engineer with visibility at the other end of the train. Flatcars and covered hoppers have been used for this purpose, but often the pushing platform is a caboose that has had its windows covered and welded shut and permanently locked doors. CSX uses former Missouri Pacific Railroad "shorty" transfer cabooses and marks them as pushing platforms. ) why would they have to push a train?

ok, those are all my questions for now... thanks for the replys everyone!

~Lauren

 

[NSlover92]

Ok, I only can only answer 2 of those I know what a hotbox is just i dont know what causes it or anything. But ok a transfer caboose, you know what they look like from the picture, now they are used for short trips, or locals where crews do not stay over night on the caboose. A local is a short switching job which would be like, taking empty boxcars from the yard to the factory, and droping them off and bringing the loaded ones back to the yard. Well they just need that caboose because of law and the brakeman will stay in there when they get to the factory he will get out switch tracks, uncouple the unloaded ones, connect the air hoses to the loaded ones for the return trip stuff like that. Does that make sense if it doesnt tell me what doesnt make sense. Now for pushing a train lets say your a engineer and you need to run a train from the yard into a siding but you cant turn the train around and the locos are on front, you cant pull into the siding because there is only one way into the siding and the locos will be traped behind the train. You will have to push the train to get it up in there, its a rare operation but when it needs to be done they put a caboose on front for the conductor to stand on with a radio and tell the engineer if anything is in the way of the train. Some one else will have to tell you what a hotbox is. Mike

[Anonymous]

ok, i think i get that. but can anyone tell me about the hotbox?

[DigitalGriffin]

ok, i think i get that. but can anyone tell me about the hotbox?

This is an axel bearing that is overheating where it joins the truck.  They would glow red when failing.  Older bearings were packed with tons of greese packed into a "box", hence forth the term "Hot box".

Today's free rolling "roller bearings" rarely malfunction and overheat.  They are also much more efficicient, requiring less lubricant at the bearing.

BTW: Welcome to the club.  I hope you have fun, and don't get overwhelmed.

 

~Don

[Anonymous]

thanks don!

[jasperofzeal]

This thread's looking very odd to me.

"Girlfriend" posts question and "boyfriend" answers it. Over and over.

Maybe you two need to get a room.

You beat me to the comment, except for the last part about getting the room.

NSLover92 and IwHSH, if you two are boyfriend and girlfriend, why not just talk on a private messenger service and answer all her questions?  If there is a particular question you can't answer, THEN have her post here and let the rest of the kind folk here take a stab at it.  It does seem kind of odd that she asks a question, and you answer, not once, but repeatedly and then say "I'm not an expert...etc."  It seems you're very knowledgeable and can handle her questions pretty well.  Is this for show or some kind of sick joke?  I'm not saying don't use this service, it's not my place to do so, but it does seem kind of weird......

[Anonymous]

i'm sorry, but is it really hurting anyone on here that i post my questions here an he answers them? plus then a couple people answer them, worded a little different, which helps me. Also people sometimes add to what he says. and we don't talk on aol cause you can only write so much before you send it. using this he can put pictures up, and write as much as he wants before he posts.

Well to anyone who it bugs, i'm sorry, but i'm not going to stop posting here cause it helps me when other people posts answers too.

To everyone thats posted reply, thanks a lot guys! you've been really helpful!

~Lauren

[bighead]

if this is the way those two want to do Q&A then let them. how is gunna hurt you anyway it's not like it's gunna kill you because these two want to do it this way. and trust me it's harder to do it on AIM or AOL what ever you want to call it. 

 and again a warm welcome hope you find this forum helpful. :]

                            -jake

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jake!

[Midnight Railroader]

But beside the point have you ever tried to write all that and teach someone through AIM? Mike

No, I use the telephone. Sometimes e-mail.

[Anonymous]

But beside the point have you ever tried to write all that and teach someone through AIM? Mike

No, I use the telephone. Sometimes e-mail.

Well see one of us is normally in trouble, and grounded from the phone. or my mom has a home business, so i can't tie the phone line up. and i don't like emails. and like i said before, if we post it on here, other people can answer too, which sometimes makes it simpler for me, getting a few peoples perspectives.

~Lauren

[dinwitty]

But beside the point have you ever tried to write all that and teach someone through AIM? Mike

No, I use the telephone. Sometimes e-mail.

Well see one of us is normally in trouble, and grounded from the phone. or my mom has a home business, so i can't tie the phone line up. and i don't like emails. and like i said before, if we post it on here, other people can answer too, which sometimes makes it simpler for me, getting a few peoples perspectives.

~Lauren

in my life I have seen pranksters faking playing they were a girl when they were a guy and faking everybody out.

I presume we all want to make sure we gotz 2 different people here and not one person  playing kid and answering him/herself.

Cheers and no probs, we love the hobby no matter what.

 

[Anonymous]

Well i'm sorry if this is bugging/confusing people/ causing problems, but seriously we are two different people.

[pcarrell]

Don't worry about it.  Go on and ask your questions.