Bad train pictures

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

QUOTE: Originally posted by Alaskaman

There is a sign on tracks near my house and it says this:
J
1

I was thinking it meant "junction"
Any ideas[?]

I think it means Jim is # 1. [:D] But that is just MY opinion. [:p]

[8] HISS

Mook

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

QUOTE: Originally posted by Alaskaman

There is a sign on tracks near my house and it says this:
J
1

I was thinking it meant "junction"
Any ideas[?]

I think it means Jim is # 1. [:D] But that is just MY opinion. [:p]

[8] HISS

Mook

[edblysard]

Hi Jim,
Heres a simplefied version.
What we call AAR billing.
An example...

UP brings the PTRA a train, in that train are ten cars with minor defects, missing grab irons and sturips, maby one or two that had been cornered slightly.

The premise is that they, UP, should have found and repaired these defects.
Instead they passed them on to us.
We operate under the assumption that they, UP, caused the defects.

We repair the cars, and send the bill, parts, labor, ect to the AAR, who will bill UP.

In fact, it is a system of credits and debits.

The idea is that every railroad should repair defects before interchanging the cars.

In the case of a car being damaged by any carrier, say a wreck, or something like our tankcar/plastic filled hopper party we had last month, the carrier who damaged the car pays for all repairs or replacement, either outright or through their insurance.

Lets say I screw up later today, and corner a hopper, knocking off the grab irons and stirup step.

If we send the car on the, say BN, they will bad order it, and repair the damage.

But, they will also bill us through the AAR at a fixed rate, the AAR has established a fixed cost to repair certain types of damage or normal repair, brakes shoes are billed at this amount, painting at this amount, replacing a hatch or a crossover platform at this fixed amount.

The AAR billing cost dosnt necessarly reflect the cost of the repairs, you buy brake shoes by the thousands at discount, grab irons and stirups, things of that nature are bought in bulk, so the amount you bill through the AAR is almost always higher than your cost of repairing the car.

So, with the hopper I cornered, its cheaper for the PTRA to repair the car we damaged, say at a cost of $500.00 parts and labor, than to past it on to the BNSF, who would also repair it, but bill the PTRA through the AAR at $1500.00.

It makes more economic sense to catch and repair the damaged/defective cars while they are on your property, weither you caused the damage or not, than to allow them to be forwarded to another carrier.
If you do send it on, and the next carrier catches the defect, you get billed for the repair, but at a higher cost than if you fixed it in the first place, regardless if you damaged the car or not.

Car men/inspectors have a book, the field manual of the AAR interchange rules to identify what is or isnt a defect, and it contains a series of codes, the "why made" code, which is what the defect is and how it was made and the "job code" which is the code for the cost and labor to repair.

This last code is what you send to the AAR, who bills the sending carrier at a fixed rate, depending on the code/type of defect.

Why made codes look something like this.
Why made
01= worn out
02= broken
03= missing
04= defective
you get the point.

The job code looks like this
Job Code
7000 Outlet Gate repairs
7002 Cap assembly(includes cap gasket)
7004 End adaptor (includes eyebolts, j bolts)

So if we find a car with a worn out cap assembly, the AAR billing would include the why made code, 02, and the jobe code, 7002.

The AAR bills the UP who brought us the damaged car.

Of course, thats a rather simplified version, in reality there would be a lot more job codes, painting, welding the bolts on, straighting the hinges, stuff like that, each with its own why made and job code.

If the job code is a scheduled maintainance item, say replacing bearings or lubing the car parts on schedule, or testing a part of the car, then the car owner is billed.
In your line of work, I would assume scheduled maintainance items and service is a must, and it works about the same way.

If, on the other hand, say a scheduled pressure test on a tank car was months out of date, we would perform the test, but bill the sending railroad at the AAR cost of the test.
They, in turn, would bill the owner, but at the actual cost of the test, not the higher AAR cost, and have to eat the difference in cost.

In the end, the entire system is designed around the concept that its cheaper to fix them than send them on, and because railroads dont like spending money, they will take the cheaper route and repair any defect found, thus ensuring that the cars they send out are safe for interchange.

Which would you rather pay, the $500.00 bucks for your shop guys to weld on the grab irons I knocked off, or pay BNSF $1500.00 bucks to do the same repair?
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Hi Jim,
Heres a simplefied version.
What we call AAR billing.
An example...

UP brings the PTRA a train, in that train are ten cars with minor defects, missing grab irons and sturips, maby one or two that had been cornered slightly.

The premise is that they, UP, should have found and repaired these defects.
Instead they passed them on to us.
We operate under the assumption that they, UP, caused the defects.

We repair the cars, and send the bill, parts, labor, ect to the AAR, who will bill UP.

In fact, it is a system of credits and debits.

The idea is that every railroad should repair defects before interchanging the cars.

In the case of a car being damaged by any carrier, say a wreck, or something like our tankcar/plastic filled hopper party we had last month, the carrier who damaged the car pays for all repairs or replacement, either outright or through their insurance.

Lets say I screw up later today, and corner a hopper, knocking off the grab irons and stirup step.

If we send the car on the, say BN, they will bad order it, and repair the damage.

But, they will also bill us through the AAR at a fixed rate, the AAR has established a fixed cost to repair certain types of damage or normal repair, brakes shoes are billed at this amount, painting at this amount, replacing a hatch or a crossover platform at this fixed amount.

The AAR billing cost dosnt necessarly reflect the cost of the repairs, you buy brake shoes by the thousands at discount, grab irons and stirups, things of that nature are bought in bulk, so the amount you bill through the AAR is almost always higher than your cost of repairing the car.

So, with the hopper I cornered, its cheaper for the PTRA to repair the car we damaged, say at a cost of $500.00 parts and labor, than to past it on to the BNSF, who would also repair it, but bill the PTRA through the AAR at $1500.00.

It makes more economic sense to catch and repair the damaged/defective cars while they are on your property, weither you caused the damage or not, than to allow them to be forwarded to another carrier.
If you do send it on, and the next carrier catches the defect, you get billed for the repair, but at a higher cost than if you fixed it in the first place, regardless if you damaged the car or not.

Car men/inspectors have a book, the field manual of the AAR interchange rules to identify what is or isnt a defect, and it contains a series of codes, the "why made" code, which is what the defect is and how it was made and the "job code" which is the code for the cost and labor to repair.

This last code is what you send to the AAR, who bills the sending carrier at a fixed rate, depending on the code/type of defect.

Why made codes look something like this.
Why made
01= worn out
02= broken
03= missing
04= defective
you get the point.

The job code looks like this
Job Code
7000 Outlet Gate repairs
7002 Cap assembly(includes cap gasket)
7004 End adaptor (includes eyebolts, j bolts)

So if we find a car with a worn out cap assembly, the AAR billing would include the why made code, 02, and the jobe code, 7002.

The AAR bills the UP who brought us the damaged car.

Of course, thats a rather simplified version, in reality there would be a lot more job codes, painting, welding the bolts on, straighting the hinges, stuff like that, each with its own why made and job code.

If the job code is a scheduled maintainance item, say replacing bearings or lubing the car parts on schedule, or testing a part of the car, then the car owner is billed.
In your line of work, I would assume scheduled maintainance items and service is a must, and it works about the same way.

If, on the other hand, say a scheduled pressure test on a tank car was months out of date, we would perform the test, but bill the sending railroad at the AAR cost of the test.
They, in turn, would bill the owner, but at the actual cost of the test, not the higher AAR cost, and have to eat the difference in cost.

In the end, the entire system is designed around the concept that its cheaper to fix them than send them on, and because railroads dont like spending money, they will take the cheaper route and repair any defect found, thus ensuring that the cars they send out are safe for interchange.

Which would you rather pay, the $500.00 bucks for your shop guys to weld on the grab irons I knocked off, or pay BNSF $1500.00 bucks to do the same repair?
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[mudchicken]

Carefull there Mookie. If they can make the stars green, they can also make them furballs or hairballs............

[mudchicken]

Carefull there Mookie. If they can make the stars green, they can also make them furballs or hairballs............

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Carefull there Mookie. If they can make the stars green, they can also make them furballs or hairballs............

cof, cof, hack, gag.....oops knocked my tiara off!

La Mook!

(must have choked on a CHICKEN bone....

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Carefull there Mookie. If they can make the stars green, they can also make them furballs or hairballs............

cof, cof, hack, gag.....oops knocked my tiara off!

La Mook!

(must have choked on a CHICKEN bone....

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Nora, the card holder is just that, what you saw stenciled above it was "defect card"

That sounds right, thanks for the info. The car was gone when I went back so I'd been racking my brains trying to remember what it said.

--Nora

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Nora, the card holder is just that, what you saw stenciled above it was "defect card"

That sounds right, thanks for the info. The car was gone when I went back so I'd been racking my brains trying to remember what it said.

--Nora

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Lets say I screw up later today, and corner a hopper, knocking off the grab irons and stirup step.

What is cornering? (Is that when you get the car backed up into somewhere it can't get out, and it gets scared and tries to attack?) I found an orange "bad order" card in the street today while on my walk and cornering was one thing on there that I wasn't sure about. The other was "coupler bypass" -- what's that?

--Nora

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Lets say I screw up later today, and corner a hopper, knocking off the grab irons and stirup step.

What is cornering? (Is that when you get the car backed up into somewhere it can't get out, and it gets scared and tries to attack?) I found an orange "bad order" card in the street today while on my walk and cornering was one thing on there that I wasn't sure about. The other was "coupler bypass" -- what's that?

--Nora

[edblysard]

Hi Nora,
Cornering is when you leave a car fouling another track, and then when you
shove or kick a car towards the other track, you clip the corner the car left fouling.
Even notice the gray covered hoppers?
Keep your eyes peeled, you will seen one or the other corner on the end all crumbled, or its all rusty, where whoever cornered it heated the metal up with a welding tourch and tried to straighten it.
I mentioned hoppers because it shows up better on them, but you can corner any car left fouling a track.
The term means exactly what it sounds like, a corner of the car has been damaged by a collision.

Coupler by-pass happens when the couplers dont line up, and they slide past each other, back to back or face to face..

Couplers, especially those on long flat cars or auto rack have a lot of side to side play, so they can pivot, and not bind up in curves.

Often, these coupler drawbars get shoved to one side, as when you un couple a car in a curve.

If you dont stop, and straighten the drawbar(the bar the coulper is attached to) back to dead center, and you try to couple into another car, or kick it while switching, it misses the corresponding coupler on the car you are trying to tie on to, and the coupler can hit the center sill, walkway, un- coupleing lever or angle ****.
If you dont open the coupler, and the car you are kicking against or coupling into has it's coupler closed also, the impact can also cause the closed knuckels to shove to the sides.
Depending on the type of car, you can do a lot of damage, or almost none at all, other than scraping paint.

Both cornering and coupler by-pass are common in switching yards, but can be kept to a minimum if you pay attention to what you are doing.

Good questions Nora, keep them coming!
Stay frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Hi Nora,
Cornering is when you leave a car fouling another track, and then when you
shove or kick a car towards the other track, you clip the corner the car left fouling.
Even notice the gray covered hoppers?
Keep your eyes peeled, you will seen one or the other corner on the end all crumbled, or its all rusty, where whoever cornered it heated the metal up with a welding tourch and tried to straighten it.
I mentioned hoppers because it shows up better on them, but you can corner any car left fouling a track.
The term means exactly what it sounds like, a corner of the car has been damaged by a collision.

Coupler by-pass happens when the couplers dont line up, and they slide past each other, back to back or face to face..

Couplers, especially those on long flat cars or auto rack have a lot of side to side play, so they can pivot, and not bind up in curves.

Often, these coupler drawbars get shoved to one side, as when you un couple a car in a curve.

If you dont stop, and straighten the drawbar(the bar the coulper is attached to) back to dead center, and you try to couple into another car, or kick it while switching, it misses the corresponding coupler on the car you are trying to tie on to, and the coupler can hit the center sill, walkway, un- coupleing lever or angle ****.
If you dont open the coupler, and the car you are kicking against or coupling into has it's coupler closed also, the impact can also cause the closed knuckels to shove to the sides.
Depending on the type of car, you can do a lot of damage, or almost none at all, other than scraping paint.

Both cornering and coupler by-pass are common in switching yards, but can be kept to a minimum if you pay attention to what you are doing.

Good questions Nora, keep them coming!
Stay frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

[8] HISS

Mook

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

[8] HISS

Mook