Bucyrus wrote: Perhaps the biggest improvement would be the elimination of the loose-car concept. In the first place, this would eliminate the compatibility problem that dogs brake and coupler improvements. But the biggest advantage would be the elimination of the tare weight penalty imposed by the need for each car to be strong enough to be the first car in a 200-car train. If the loose-car concept were replaced by dedicated train-sets, those train-sets would be semi-permanently coupled, equipped with electric brakes, and have structurally engineered draft gear to match the tractive load as it lessens from front to rear.
Perhaps the biggest improvement would be the elimination of the loose-car concept. In the first place, this would eliminate the compatibility problem that dogs brake and coupler improvements. But the biggest advantage would be the elimination of the tare weight penalty imposed by the need for each car to be strong enough to be the first car in a 200-car train. If the loose-car concept were replaced by dedicated train-sets, those train-sets would be semi-permanently coupled, equipped with electric brakes, and have structurally engineered draft gear to match the tractive load as it lessens from front to rear.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
BaltACD wrote:
Just because some things are possible, does not make them practical
Reminds Me of something that my Late Grandfather told Me:
"Just because You CAN do something, does not mean that You SHOULD do something"
This has turned out to be very sage advice, many times in my Life.
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Even in the dedicated train concept all cars will have to be able to handle all loads struturally. Loading and unloading locations are not all the same and do not necessarily handle trains sequentially from first car to last car. Some places have limited track space and my load or unload unit trains in 15/20/30/40 car cuts. Additionally train sets need to be turned to equalize the wheel wear that occurs in dedicated service. Throw in the need to shop and repair cars within a train set and abandoning the loose car concept creates many more oprational problems than it would solve in dedicated engineering. Operationally, on some routes trains must get run-around as they traverse some trackage because of the lack of directionally correct wye track facilities at line junctions...therefore, what started out as the head end of the train at origin will become the rear of the train at the junction after the run-around.
In the early Streamliner days of the Pioneer Zephyr etc., the railroads tried the 'dedicated train' concept with articulation between the cars to reduce tare weight. In practice they found that the load factors varied and required addition or reduction of cars to the consist, which could not easily be accomplished with an articulated train consist.
Just because some things are possible, does not make them practical.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Because of the fundamental loose-car railroading concept, there is a need for interchangeability, and with the number of cars involved, any change that affects compatibility meets tremendous resistance. Even if the intent is to change all of the rolling stock with an improvement, it takes a lot of time to accomplish that task.
In the meantime, cars must remain in service and interchangeable. If the improvement affects car compatibility, the improvement needs to work with other cars that may or may not have the improvement. This makes the improvement more complex than it needs to be in order to simply execute its own intent. And that extra complexity is multiplied by all the cars in the U.S. and Canada.
And furthermore, once the improvement is applied to all rolling stock, the extra complexity needed for compatibility is unnecessary, extra baggage. The new improvement can then be streamlined by the removal of the extra features needed for compatibility during the changeover. However, removal of these un-needed features may once again pose compatibility issues during the phase of removal.
Some of the biggest and best yielding potential improvements are the ones that come up against this compatibility requirement because that requirement has forestalled those improvements while the ability to technically execute them has progressed. And also, as the industry has grown, so has the total potential reward for those improvments.
There is great potential benefit in improving braking and coupler systems, but they are subject to the compatibility problem. The same is true with the concept of an automatic air hose connection that would automatically make an airtight connection as the cars are pushed together, just like the knuckle couplers make a mechanical connection. There would be tremendous benefit to the elimination of the need to go between cars and manually couple air hoses.
Another potential improvement would be the addition of a second train line that could be cut in and pressurized to automatically bleed all the cars for switching. With present air hose practice, a second train line would require its own second set of air hoses, which would double the manual coupling effort. However, if an automatic air hose coupler could be developed and applied for the brake train line, it could easily accommodate the second train line for the bleeders.
A carknocker , inspects and repairs trains .
Air brakes are slowly becoming electronicly controlled . They will still use air but assited with electronics from the locomotive , it is currently used on some coal trains , I have seen them on some intermodal cars .
carknocker1 wrote:In my experience it has been weight reduction and air brakes .
Weight reduction seems simple to grasp:lighter materials, better designs. What has or will changed on air brakes?
What is a carknocker?
Murphy Siding wrote: At some point, one must look at modern fright cars and think that after 150+ years of evelution, there's nothing more to improve on them. What kind of things are being/could be changed to improve the economics of various kinds of railcars?
Well, if boxcars are going to survive, even the big ones, IMO it will be necessary for them to give much better access . . . I don't know, something magnetically sprung, on the top, gull wings, something. There may be something of a market for LCL's that can't wait for a consolidator to slowly fill up a cube . . . ?
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