http://acelaexpress2000.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=116617 I went up to Palmer Lake, Colorado to fan and was walking near the tracks, now there is a tough grade, so i saw some broken knuckles, but in that picture, i saw and entire coupler on the ground!! why would the entire thing be there?And next time i go up there, if its still there, im takin it
I WOULDNT advise doing that!!
Let’s see, it’s there for the same reason my router table and other tools are where they are…the OWNER put it there!!!
Dave (dwRavenstar)
Kevin,
Good luck, it weighs about 150 lbs…and its broken, the drawbar shank is sheared off where the keeper key goes.
And by the way, taking it is wrong…it isnt yours.
Ed
I sure hope you are kidding us all on taking that broken coupler. Haven’t you read about the guys who stole scrap metal from UP? I’m sure the MOW crew may want some of the useful parts. SO DON’T STEAL IT!
What the heck are you gonna do with that. Hope you throw your back out…
Adrianspeeder
Lifting Old coupler = hernia
Look about 12 topics down, there is one that says if you want to work for UP you have to lift an 84 pound knuckle…
a drawhead is somthing you cant fix line of road… normaly the knuckle would break first…but not always…and pulling it out of the draft gear box is not to common…but it dose happen… and if your engineer gets a drawhead… your realyhurting… your in for a long long ordeal then…
csx engineer
Hey buddy, if you want a broken coupler, I know a couple scrap yards that would probably sell you one pretty cheap. Seriously though man, how did you intend to get that home without attracting attention and/or pulling a muscle?
Back in upstate NY, along what is now the CSX mainline Conrail used to dump all kinds of junk beside their right-of-way. My uncle and I used to look and see what the oldest tra***hey had laying around their Dunkirk yard was. Mostly it was all old trucks (some with journal boxes, even into the 90s they kept showing up) and couplers but we did find a couple of Alco 244 blocks once.
Hey engineers, so what do you do if you break a drawhead on the road? I’d imagine that’s the kind of thing that could slow you down a bit as you wait for some help.
~METRO
CSX - is that the same as the old “drawbar” - I think it was when you break the drawbar rather than the knuckle? Or “Pulled a drawbar” - when you pulled it out of it’s housing?
and a 2nd question - since railroads are so safety-minded - when they teach you how to change out a coupler, do they also include how to do it without straining something? I am sure there must be techniques involved, since at some point, you will have to pick it up.
Maybe it is keep there as a spare due to the grade in case there are not enough knuckles on the train itself if there is a coupler breakage. [:o)]
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Originally posted by FThunder11
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QUOTE: Originally posted by spbed
Maybe it is keep there as a spare due to the grade in case there are not enough knuckles on the train itself if there is a coupler breakage. [:o)]
I doubt it;read ED’s comment . It’s broken.
And I wouldn’t advise taking it,UNLESS you have the
Railroad’s permission.
I have GOT to look through my old MRs for the cartoon of two railroaders watching a railfan, apparently pulling in for some sort of event, with a coupler mounted on the back of his station wagon. “We probably should keep an eye on this one.”
That’s not only funny - you have given me an idea. Poor Millie!
That drawbar/coupler assembly is there on the ground because that hummer broke right there and had to be moved with great effort to get it in the clear. It’s not going anywhere until the crane on a UP section truck gets it. Leave it alone. (It weighs more than you do)
Go stare at the Kaiser-Fraser sign accross the street. You’re way to young to know what that was for.
Before I go, in the picture there is a hole just before the drawbar. Is that where the “keeper key” goes?
Mookie,
Just to the right of the hole you see, the shank begins to taper…there is a slot from side to side, some what oval in shape.
The keeper slides in there…this one is broken at that point…some one hammered the throttle pretty good, or it was a heavy train.
Looking at the photo, this one looks like it came off a big tankcar…
Hmmm…it’s definitely an F-type coupler. But I was thinking from the shape of the shank that it might be a rotary coupler off a coal car. Most drawbars I’ve seen are squarer than that.
That would be my guess, knowing absolutely nothing about coupler design. But Palmer Lake is near the top of the Palmer Divide on the UP/BNSF Joint Line through Colorado, and it is almost exclusively coal drags that roll through here. And I know that loaded, those can get long and heavy.