Caboose Fatalities

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

From the description above, it seems like it was a facing-point switch, so see the alternatives for that by zardoz above.  If the track they were lined for had cars in it, then that impact might have been as bad or worse than the emergency stop.  But if the track was empty, it's hard for me to see what the panic was.

As far as negotiating the switch itself - likely it was not any sharper than a No. 6 frog angle (approx. 9-1/2 degrees - approx. 48 ft. from Point of Switch to Point of Frog), and those are all good for at least 10 MPH.  More likely it was a No. 8 frog (approx.7-1/4 degrees - approx. 68 ft. from Point of Switch to Point of Frog), and those are good for 15 MPH, or maybe even a No. 10 (20 MPH).

If it was a trailing point switch - as zardoz says, go ahead and "run through" it rather than risk putting the train on the ground or injuring the crew as did happen.  Some switchstands had and have a "breakable crank" underneath or similar in the switch rods someplace - kind of like a "mechanical fuse", a deliberate weak point like a shear pin to make sure that's what breaks first and not something else more valuable or important.  This kind of thing isn't rare, and can normally be fixed easily enough by the track maintenance guys by just replacing the broken crank and adjusting the switch again - maybe 15 to 30 minutes and $50 to $100 once they're there, and the appropriate and requisite amount of complaining and cussing has been performed (and maybe a beer or two after work to settle up things).  Even if the switchstand didn't have a "run-through" crank, the worst that happens then is that the switch rods or the switch stand gets bent up or broken beyond repair and reuse.  In such cases, it might take a couple hours and maybe $500 to repair it.  I've never heard or seen that running through a trailing-point switch then derailed the train that did it - but to be clear, the switch is out of action until those repairs are made.  Because, if the train then reverses and backs up through a run-through switch, the switch points will then be out of position, and so the train will then "split" the switch, and then it's on the ground for sure.

- Paul North.

 

[AgentKid]

AgentKid

A conductor I knew told me about a wreck he was in in the eighties. His caboose was flipped off the track by the impact with another train and completely rolled once. This was during the early days of US Space Shuttle flights and he and his son were watching it on the news. The conductor said he told his son that he floated inside the flipping caboose just like the astronauts floated in zero gravity before the caboose came to a stop. It went right around him once. Miraculously, he only suffered minor injuries and only missed a few days of work.

 

I reactivated this thread just to let you know that I received a call from my Mother yesterday telling me that the conductor mentioned above passed away on Friday at the age of 77. I guess being a conductor/test pilot didn't end up having too detrimental of an effect on him.

According to his obituary it sounded like he led a good and useful life.

It was while looking for his obituary that I came across the notice about the passing of Donald M. Bain I mentioned in the thread I started last night.

AgentKid

 

[BaltACD]

TrainManTy

zardoz

Getting rid of the caboose made the engineer's job so (relatively) easy....

 

Yeah, FREDs are clamped to the couplers...they can't fall off!

More than one EOT has bit the dust, literally, by falling off the train.  Sometimes the EOT's can be found (sometimes working and sometimes not), sometimes they can't be located.

[Jerry Pier]

In view of this discussion of slack and its effects, some salient points:

1) There are two feet of slack in each car of a train (1 foot at each end). It is there because in the days of friction bearings, a locomotive could not overcome the high breakout friction of all the bearings in the train at once. Slack permittted picking up one car at a time. Roller bearings  don't have anywhere near this level of breakout friction but slack has not changed to the best of my knowledge. Some roads have experimented with four or five tightly coupled cars with a draft gear at each end of the unit. This reduces slack significantly but still lets the locomotive pickup one unit at a time. Works best for single commodity trains.

2) While the primary function of the air brake system is to stop the train, a critical secondary function is to control slack. This latter fuction comprises most of the complexity in the air brake control valve. As long as brake applications are contolled by brake pipe pressure reductions, this situation will remain. Transmission time of an incremental change of pressure in the brake pipe can not exceed the speed of sound (1100 ft/sec) but realistically doesn't exceed 900 ft/sec in emergency applications. Simple math says that the caboose of a 150 car train doesn't get the signal for a little more than 8 seconds and has moved 300 ft since the locomotive came to a dead stop.

3) Electronic brake is the ideal method of controlling slack but reducing it would still be desirable. I have not kept up with electronic freight brake (although I defined a workable system prior to 1980) but in typical railroad fashion, the final default likely is dumping the brake pipe.

This may be more than you ever wanted to know.

Jerry Pier

[txhighballer]

Engineers are also not as air brake savvy these days as railroad management would rather have them use dynamic braking the majority of the time. "Power braking" is no longer the norm, which if you know what you are doing,can reduce slack quite a bit.  I've stopped 100 car plus grain trains with just the air and put her right where I wanted her the majority of the time, with the train stretched out. when I got ready to roll,nice easy start with a minimum of slack. It takes time and practice and the "want to" of doing it right.