How do theay load a whole train of auto-racks? I mean how do theay get the cars inside? Then how do theay drive them between the couplers/spaces in-between the cars?
Generally only five to eight cars are loaded in a single string. A portable ramp is rolled up to the end of the string. At some auto facilities, there are fixed ramps at the ends of tracks (but this is less common). The ramp levels are either fixed (for tri-levels or bi-levels) or can be adjusted hydraulically. the doors are opened and folding deck plates are laid down between the cars. Then a highly paid skilled driver with nerves strung like a piano wire runs to the auto, starts it, revves the gas several times to make sure the tachometer can go past the red line, races around to the ramp, zooms up it, drives to the far end, brakes to a halt in a cloud of smoke, wiggles out the window, and runs back to the car park to start again, narrowly escaping being flattened by the former open-wheel champion in the next car. (I exaggerate slightly). Another crew, or sometimes the same as the driver, uses tie down straps to lash the auto to the deck. That’s why autos have those wimply little “tow hooks” welded at their corners, or in the olden days when frames were made of real steel, a slot in the frame corners for a chain hook.
After each string is loaded, a switch engine couples up all the strings and assembles the train. A typical auto ramp capable of handling a solid train has room for six to nine 5-8 car strings, or around 60-80 cars. Big ramps can handle 10 times as much, but most of the ones I’ve been to can only take 1 or 2 trains at a time.
RWM
[tup] that description ! [(-D] I can think of a lot of high school boys who would do that - “And we get paid, too ?!?”
I found some really good photos, but the links are pretty long. So:
Go to Google “Advanced Image Search” and in the “All these words” box input: “autorack” and “loading” separately.
On the 1st page of thumbnails that comes back - and there are some others that are good, but this is the best one there - at the lower left should be one that is from www8.cpr.ca
Click on that, and you should get the 1st page of a Canadian Pacific page about “General Information”, with this URL:
http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/English/Customers/Existing+Customers/DPCS/Tips/Automotive/General+Info.htm
(See what I mean ?)
Anyway, at the upper right of that page is a little box that is captioned “RELATED”. The 2nd line in that box is “Bridge Plates”. Click on that, and it will take you to the next page with more than I ever knew about this before, at:
http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/English/Customers/Existing+Customers/DPCS/Tips/Automotive/Bridge+plates.htm
The next page - “Chocking” - illustrates some of what RWM described.
Hope this is helpful. And a big [tup] to CPR for having these images on line !!
- Paul North.
That reminds me of the Pullman conductor who wrote a series of articles for Trains going on forty years ago. Early in his employment, he was assigned to a Philadelphia Broad Street Station to Pittsburgh parlor car run, which took him out of Philadelphia before the pay office (at 30th Street) was open, and back into Philadelphia after it was closed. It was a time when parlor car space was at a premium, and he received enough in tips for arranging seats for passengers when no seats were apparently available. After about three months on this run, he was called in to explain why he had not picked his checks up–and replied, “You mean I get paid, too?” (p. 42, Trains, May 1972)
Johnny
You forgot about the peeling out and doing donuts before driving up the ramp. Of course there is the occasional drag race through the auto carriers.
Hey Justin -
Your question has been answered, now here’s one for you to exercise your mental muscles. Note the emphasized portions of RWM’s answer (below) [emphasis added - PDN.]. Here’s the question:
Why is the train broken down into strings of 5 to 8 cars ?
I can think of 3 or 4 answers, but let’s see what you come up with. We’ll let RWM be the judge of the correct answer, if he’s willing. Let’s see what you come up with by, say, Wednesday evening. Have fun !
- Paul North.
[quote user=“Railway Man”]
Generally only five to eight cars are loaded in a single string. A portable ramp is rolled up to the end of the string. At some auto facilities, there are fixed ramps at the ends of tracks (but this is less common). The ramp levels are either fixed (for tri-levels or bi-levels) or can be adjusted hydraulically. the doors are opened and folding deck plates are laid down between the cars. Then a highly paid skilled driver with nerves strung like a piano wire runs to the auto, starts it, revves the gas several times to make sure the tachometer can go past the red line, races around to the ramp, zooms up it, drives to the far end, brakes to a halt in a cloud of smoke, wiggles out the window, and runs back to the car park to start again, narrowly escaping being flattened by the former open-wheel champion in the next car. (I exaggerate slightly). Another crew, or sometimes the same as the driver, uses tie down straps to lash the auto to the deck. That’s why autos have those wimply little “tow hooks” welded at their corners, or in the olden days when frames were made of real steel, a slot in the frame corners for a chain hook.
After each string is loaded, a switch engine couples up all the strings and assembles the train. A typ
Cue the Dukes of Hazzard music…LOL!
OHHH! Paul has put me to a challange! Well off the top of my head it would get tiring running down 20-30 car lenghts at a time for the loader. 2. It would probably trap fumes in the car making the loader feel goofey… uhhugeooh… 3. Maby the train would get too heavy for the switcher. 4. There isn’t enough space in the loading facility. 5. So the loading crews can load a train in diffrent shfts. 6. To limit the # of auto races in the auto racks… And in resopnse to what Dan said. So there won’t be too many pretty women flooding the train and it’s crew causing them too get distracted…[4:-)]!!! Well I hope I passed the quizz!
Hey, those are pretty good and imaginative. I’d say you’re getting there - your 3. and 5. are ones I didn’t think of, and might be contenders for the correct answer. Your 4. is also 4th on my list of possible reasons.
But you haven’t quite gotten to what I think is the best answer, or to my 2nd or 3rd ones - which are kind of similar to each other and to your 5. So - a little more thought is needed to get to the answer that I think is the most likely, and you still have more than a day of time left to finish your answer. Here’s a hint: Reread RWM’s response - the clue is there. Think about another aspect of your 1st answer.
Looking forward to your answer !
- Paul North.
Oh no I’m runig out of time…[:O] Maby I’m thinking too hard. Is it beacause the demand isn’t there? Maby beacause the factory can’t load more than 80 cars at a time? Is it too dangerous for the loader to run so far in the cars? Oh dear I’m still thinking…
Oh Oh oh Oh Oh! Is it so the loading facility can keep as many workers working for the greatest period of time in this economey? Is that it?
Justin -
These loading ramp yards are permanent facilities. So the track layout and switching pattern to break an 80-car train up into 5 to 8 car “strings” would be pretty much fixed and set for a long period of time.
The track layout and operating patterns wouldn’t be changed as quickly as the economy or demand has recently. And unfortunately, the loading facility isn’t there to keep many people working for the greatest period of time. Instead, the loading facility would rather be more efficient and have less people working there for a shorter time, if they possibly could, and still get the necessary work done in time and safely.
You’re right that maybe the factory can’t load more than 80 cars at a time, so that’s why the whole yard wouldn’t be much bigger than that, as RWM said. But that still doesn’t explain why the 5 to 8 car “strings”.
Here’s how I came at it (no - I’m not going to give away my answer just yet !): From the railroad’s standpoint, wouldn’t a single long track at least 80 car-lengths long (or more) be better than 6 to 9 short tracks ? After all, each of those tracks needs a switch - and a switch engine and crew there to break down and reassemble the trains ? Why would the railroad agree and commit itself to having to build that much more track, and do that much extra work for every auto-rack train that comes and goes ?
Let’s go back to your 2nd post above - I believe that you’re closer to my answer than you might think. Imagine that you’re one of those drivers. Now, how would you feel about working to load cars in each of the following 2 configurations:
- A single long track of 60 cars of auto racks. For the first cars, you’d have to drive all the way down to the far end, t
After reading youre’ post Paul I think I now understand… If I was the car loader at a auto loading facility and I had to load a single string of 80 autoracks, like you said that’s over a mile, I would have to run/walk back to the end of the train. Me being a rather “big” guy would get pretty tuckerd out. So here is my answer for now. I think that if you had multaple guys, say three, loading 3 strings of cars to = 80 autoracks that would make thing run a lot smoother, and we wouldn’t get into each others way as mutch. If we had three guys loading the same 80 car string we would probably get in each others way, thus making thing evan less safe and efficant. So If a loading facility had 3 tracks loading an 80 car train and each of us 3 guys were responsable for loading our own string that would be faster than 1 guy loading a single string of 80 cars. Is this right? see you tommorw evening.
Now that the “deadline” has passed, I an going to ask, how many handbrakes do they set on those strings? If “common practice” is to only tie down the first car in the string for loading, I can see why they might want to limit the length of the string of autoracks.
As for unloading, here are some of the required instructions on this process as used @ Turner yd in KCK. 1. Loaded racks must be spotted so vehicles can be driven off in forward direction. 2. Deck heights must not vary more than three inches between coupled cars 3. Similar type cars can be coupled together, rigid cars may not be coupled to flex deck cars 4. Enclosed cars may be coupled to non-enclosed cars only if the enclosed cars are on the rear of cut. 5. Cars must be spotted so that drawbars are not compressed. 6. Air brks must be set on all cars, hand brks set on 1st, 4th and last cars of each trk. 7. , Blue flag protection applies to these trks when being loaded/unloaded 6. Cars must not be kicked or dropped (common sense).
Certianly, I understand thay don’t whant the cars rolling away… Road trip for the car loader!!!
over here it is 100% hand brakes and we haft to spot the cars with a cetain distance between cars for ramps can be dropped and secured between cars, Most generally we (was)are loading 80-100 cars per 8 hour shift. ( cars meaning auto racks) this also means spotting also, but cars are loaded in groups or distination, and you always dont have enough autos released to fill the auto racks of that destination but the ones that are released will be loaded and pulled . if you had all the cars in a line it take forever to group and block the cars and thats just in loading that dont include us railroaders job.
wabash1,
When you say 100% does that mean you set the hand break on all the cars?
[emphasis added - PDN.]
Hi, Justin -
Sorry to take so long to get back to you - the Forum was down for a couple of hours this morning, and I’ve been involved in other things things this afternoon.
Well, the part I emphasized above is the answer I came up with, and the one that I was looking for. So: Yes, I’d say you’re right ! [ding !, ding, ! ding ! bell sound] We can work on some of the details later.
My 2nd answer for why the railroad would want to break down a 60 to 80 car train into so many little strings was that each string of cars would then be for a different destination. But I could see that maybe some places would get only 1 or 2 cars, and others might get 15 - so I wasn’t sure how that would work out with the stated strings of 5 to 8 cars. But then I read wabash1’s post above about how his operation does it, and now I’
Evening Paul!
I too have enjoyed our little game show! I am soo glad I got it right. Maby a little less thinking will get me more sometimes! Have too go sadly. See ya tommorow!