She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
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Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard Headlights... Bet one series of locomotives came from Santa Fe, with the lights up high, and the others are BN units. You didnt say what type of locomotives they were, older units, SD40s, GP60s,? Stay Frosty, Ed
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR I've never seen "Do Not Hump" on aluminum coal cars, and we hump 'em all the time (we never get more than a few that were probably set out of the unit trains somewhere else). Those things aren't any weaker than steel cars (the metal is much thicker on the sides...but still lighter). Certain components, including the center sills (what you'd be most worried about in hump impacts), are steel. I don't know how they conquered the aluminum/steel interface problem, but they must have. There might be specific series, certain types of coal cars, that say "do not hump" for other reasons...try for a reporting mark and number next time! Meantime, you mightn't have seen "do not thaw"? That's on all aluminum cars so they don't use torches to loosen a frozen load, burning through the sides or bottoms. BNSF SD38P 6238 was rebuilt from an SD35 at Paducah (VMV), so that's what the "P" stands for. Was the "sparking" sound more like a "spit" every few seconds, or even more frequently? I think you might have gotten the valve that drains condensation out of the air system...newer ones operate like that (I don't like listening to 'em, either!). It used to be that you'd get a loud "whoosh" of air and moisture every minute or so.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie CSX 7680 and 8370 and Conrail 8666 - one of these units was making a constant sparking sound. Why? (I couldn't tell for sure which one - but it was annoying!)
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR I've never seen "Do Not Hump" on aluminum coal cars, and we hump 'em all the time (we never get more than a few that were probably set out of the unit trains somewhere else). Those things aren't any weaker than steel cars (the metal is much thicker on the sides...but still lighter). Certain components, including the center sills (what you'd be most worried about in hump impacts), are steel. I don't know how they conquered the aluminum/steel interface problem, but they must have. There might be specific series, certain types of coal cars, that say "do not hump" for other reasons...try for a reporting mark and number next time! Meantime, you mightn't have seen "do not thaw"? That's on all aluminum cars so they don't use torches to loosen a frozen load, burning through the sides or bottoms
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR Hey, kiddo! UCEX is Union Electric Company. For some reason they're not in the Equipment Registers, so I can't see what kind of cars they are (next time, just for me, grab a number...one number--or one number each from however many series you see-- will tell me a lot!). Just a wild guess: were these hoppers, and not gons? They may be concerned about impacts affecting some of the unloading mechanisms (though something like that would never happen in OUR hump!). We don't get too many of those hoppers here--either in trains or single cars going over the hump--but if they come up in a hump shove, over they go! (I'll keep an eye out for aluminum unit-train hoppers of the quick-dumping variety, because I suspect that's what you've been seeing). Carl
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