? Part 2

[Mookie]

Before I leave for the weekend:

Last freight car/coal car - air hose - do they plug it? (I can just picture the air "dribbling" out..) [:D]

and....

Full pig train, UPS included. Heading east. Do they always have to go through a classification yard and be torn apart and sorted for their destination or can/do they stop at different locations and set out a section of those cars, then go on to the next stop and set out more cars. Kind of a home delivery if you will....

Reason I ask is that those 5 flat car units look like they should be delivered together. So maybe make a stop and set out a couple of those and then go on.

Or maybe they are just used......just because!

I know this is a little convoluted, but I can't use my hands to explain! Does this make any sense to anyone?

Mook

[Hugh Jampton]

The hosebag of the last car is connected to the FRED. In the absence of a FRED there's an anglecock that can be used to stop the air from dribbling out and making a mess on the tracks.

Usually they go into a classification yard and get sorted out.

[dehusman]

At each end of a car is a valve in the trainline called an "angle ****". If there is no EOT, then the last car in a train will have that valve closed.

Intermodal trains are not usually switched or classified. The entire train normally runs from one ramp to another. If there is a set out, its usually a straight set out for one ramp. An intermodal ramp may serve an area several of several thousand square miles. So that five pack may have trailers for Souix City, Lincoln, Grand Island, Blair and Fremont on it. You steel wheel it to Lincoln, unload all the trailers then rubber tire them to destination. Long haul rail, short haul hiway. The way you "switch" an intermodal cut is you load the boxes on the cars in the right order and at the other end you take them off the cars and rearrange the boxes or interchange them (rubber tire interchange).

Dave H.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dehusman

At each end of a car is a valve in the trainline called an "angle ****". If there is no EOT, then the last car in a train will have that valve closed.

Intermodal trains are not usually switched or classified. The entire train normally runs from one ramp to another. If there is a set out, its usually a straight set out for one ramp. An intermodal ramp may serve an area several of several thousand square miles. So that five pack may have trailers for Souix City, Lincoln, Grand Island, Blair and Fremont on it. You steel wheel it to Lincoln, unload all the trailers then rubber tire them to destination. Long haul rail, short haul hiway. The way you "switch" an intermodal cut is you load the boxes on the cars in the right order and at the other end you take them off the cars and rearrange the boxes or interchange them (rubber tire interchange).

Dave H.

Dave - that was what was running through my mind when I was watching the cars go by. That maybe it went clear to the east coast and was unloaded all at once at a particular destination. It was the sets of flatcars that made me think they may not just "drop a few here and there". Interesting!

Thanx

Mook