Anti-Climber how do that work?

[tacohell]

I know are supposed to prevent telscopic wrecks but how do they work? I almost never see freight trains wreck that way

[Firelock76]

Well, if you look at anti-climbers you'll see they're a series of parallel bars, and deep ones too.  In theory the idea was in a collision those bars would interlock and keep one piece of equipment from climbing over another.  How well did it work?  I suppose if the collision speed wasn't too fast they probably worked OK.  If there was a very high collision speed the anti-climbers probably wouldn't have made much difference, you'd still have a lot of mangled steel and fatalities, anti-climbers or not.

A good place to see anti-climbers is on the lead ends of F and E unit diesels and on both ends of trolley and interurban cars.

[NorthWest]

A major part of anticlimbers is that they stop the coupler from moving upward in a collision, and deflect it off to the side, preventing another vehicle from crushing an occupied cab. They are also useful in head on collisions.

[54light15]

Toronto streetcars have them, but they aren't very wide due to the tapered shape of the body at either end. Not to hijack this thread, I saw one of the new cars we're getting last week on Broadview avenue and it's a spiffy one! Five articulated units, four doors down the side, LED lights, air conditioned. They're supposed to run on the Spadina line this year.

[daveklepper]

Most subway cars have anticlimbers.   Most regular streetcars did not, because speeds were considered too low, and most of the rare collisioins were with autos and trucks anyway.   The new Toronto streetcars are an excellent design, and the basic advantage over the current good articulated and four-axle Canadian-designed cars is that they are 100% low floor, easy to board and exit, even for wheelchair passengers.  But I always considered the existing cars as good ones, and hope a sample of each type is preserved, like the one Peter Witt and two PCC's.  Are they still running PCC nostalgia trips on the Harborfront line on weekends?

[oltmannd]

On modern freight locomotives, the anticlimber is just a big shelf at walkway level that is tied into, or an extension of the frame.  It used to be an option, but is now required by law.

Here is a locomotive without

Here is one with

[

[54light15]

No, Dave, the PCC cars are now only available for charter trips. The Peter Witt car I haven't seen in years. The line along Queen's Quay is torn out as they are rebuilding the street with new sewers and whatnot. They plan to relocate the line closer to the lake and have car traffic only on one side. The cars running now are really looking their age, most are pretty rusty. They used to rebuild and repaint them but not anymore.

I have a theory about the CLRV suspension system. They were designed in Switzerland and I believe that someone on the engineering staff owned a Mercedes 300SEL or a 600 (60s vintage) with air suspension because the streetcar suspension system is a duplicate of what the Mercedes had. I used to own a 300SEL and noticed the similarity. A rubber chamber sitting on top of a cone that sits on the truck (on the car it's the lower control arm) and an air valve on the body with a link to the truck or the L.C.A. to open and close the valve. Interesting, I think.  The systems are too similar to be a coincidence.

[daveklepper]

Sorry they have not maintained the existing equipment properly .  They did maintain the PCC's pretty well up to the end of their use, and some are operating in heritage service, San Francisco, Kenosha.  I hope they take care of their new equipment.  They do seem to take care of the track.

Perhaps Mercedes bought/buys the suspension system from the sqme supplier!

[54light15]

I think it's a case of new stuff coming in, why bother with the old. Yes, that's entirely possible about the suspension, I'd like to learn the whole story about it. The only real difference between the two is is that the streetcar components are a lot bigger. The streetcars do ride well. The TTC is constantly maintaining and replacing track. The track on Kingston road was totally redone last year. A lot of the Spadina line was redone as well, even though it's only been about 15 years since the line reopened after being abandoned since 1948.

[tacohell]

WOW! Disco era Desials!!

[narig01]

Here is a front picture of a NYCTA subway car.

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?71690

If you look at the front of the car at about the frame height you will see a set of ribs on the end of the car. In a collision the ribs interlock together to keep the cars from running over each other.

To understand how they are supposed to work spread your fingers out in front of you and then push them together so the fingers of the lopping hands are between eacjmh other until the tips touch the web of your hand.

In theory it keeps the cars from telescoping. It works well at slower speeds. If the cars are of a different design it does not tend to work as well or at great speed.

Rgds IGN

[K. P. Harrier]

Two types of impacts are highlighted in this thread:  (1) light rail commuter cars, and heavy rail locomotives.

With light rail, the dreaded phenomenon is telescoping.  Of course, with the cracker-box commuter cars that are being put out by most manufactures these days, one’s life is entrusted to coin flips.

In freight railroading the dreaded phenomena is climbing.  Since the prime mover, generator, and electrical cabinet are in the way, telescoping just doesn’t happen.  But climbing does.  And, the anti-climber prevents that.

One of the saddest wrecks I know of was in Cajon Pass of Southern California on April 6, 1974.  Two DDA40X’s (UP 6903 and 6924) approached a red AT&SF intermediate signal.  Hearing the radio say the Santa Fe train ahead had a green now, the UP kept going at speed, probably 25-30 M.P.H.  It rounded the curve, and to the head-end crew’s shock, a second train was stopped!  The train was immediately put in emergency, but impact resulted.  Just before impact, the engineer wisely laid down on the floor, the front brakeman ran out the left side back door.

At impact, the Santa Fe caboose, which obviously was lighter than a double-engine DDA40X, climbed UP 6903’s front, sheared off the cab, and went right over inches away from the laying down engineer’s head.  The front brakemen didn’t fare as well, and was decapitated about two-thirds of the way back on the very long walkway.  Caboose and DDA40X then went down the embankment and came to a rest.

Later that very year, on the Southern Pacific this time, at El Monte, CA, a speeding westbound with a U25B on the point took an erroneous high green signal, and went into the El Monte siding.  An eastbound SP with SD45 Cotton Belt (SSW) 9063 was waiting in the siding about a quarter of a mile away.  That crew saw what was happening, and immediately jumped!  The lighter unit, the U25B, climbed the heavier SD45 and sheered the SD45’s cab off.  The U25B’s crew was killed, probably from being thrown around the cab.

Soon afterwards, anti-climbers came into vogue and widespread use, and the rest is history.

-----

As a side note, UP 6903 and SSW 9063 had the same numerals, except in a different order.  How ironic was that?

[NorthWest]

Thanks, KP, you've put this well. The NYC Subway anticlimbers serve primarily one aspect, being heavy steel cars. In a collision, they stop the cars from climbing up into the ceiling when stopped suddenly.

[tacohell]

Tank Cars seem to need a version of the Anti-Climber to prevent the cars from being punched in from the front by the knuckler

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

tacohell

Tank Cars seem to need a version of the Anti-Climber to prevent the cars from being punched in from the front by the knuckler

They already have one, shelf couplers were developed to serve that purpose.