Bet I got some people’s attention with that!
Went to watch the trains run by last nite for awhile. (For those of you that couldn’t - Neener, Neener!)
Watched two freights and one coal for comparison. Driver pointed out that the freight cars, which happened to be lumber haulers, had drawbars that stuck out farther than, for instance, coal cars. And on the coal cars, the hose is U shaped and hangs down a little. On these cars, the hoses were stretched straight out.
Any explanations?
Mookie
Mookie
the lumber cars are a bit wider than the coal hoppers.
stay safe
Joe
Longer drawbars/couplers may be the result of cushion underframes - transfers less lateral load (ie, slack action) to the car/load. Another factor might be the length of the car and how long the drawbar has to be to compensate for that length.
Brake hoses are probably all the same length. Longer drawbar = stretched out brake hose.
Mookie…
Yes, your driver is right, they are longer, and have a wider swing side to side…
due to the fact these cars are longer than normal, when they move through a curve, the ends have more overhang, and swing in a wider arc than most, so the drawbar is longer, and swings wider to make up for it.
You can find these drawbars on the really long boxcars also.
Some cars also have the cushion under frame tree mentioned, spring loaded to absorb the slack.
Quite a few flats have that too.
The air hoses on the lumber flats (bulkhead center beam flat cars) are on a
hanger that slides…they do have a longer reach to make up for the longer drawbars, there is a extra loop of hose under the car to make up for the longer reach…
Ed
Those long drawbars on the Center-Beam flats are part of what makes them a pain in the behind in our yard, especially in the curves at the lead.
I’ve not seen a Center-Beam car with cushioning devices. Those would only make them worse for coupling to, I fear.
And Joe, just for the record, I suspect that coal cars are wider than the Center-Beam cars. I can’t find a public site right now that shows the distance between truck centers, but I’d bet that they would require these flat cars to be at least a foot narrower than the coal cars, which have no such restrictions.
The longer the distance between truck centers, the narrower the car must be. Certain long tank cars have the tank sides verticle and not circular in the center 1/3 of the car at the “outside” of the “circle” of the tank. Same reason.
I can’t speak for the Center Beams now running around, but in the early 1990’s, they had end of car cushoning That also makes the drawbars (coupler shank) longer. All of the original TTX TOFC flats had end of car. The original Southern Pacific Hydra-Cushion cars handled best, were the safest, easiest to work with. End of car can kill you if you do not watch out for it. Espicially in a caboose after the air comes back from a UDE.
I know what you mean, Carl,
I hate working with those long drawbars…even if you let them go easy down straight track, the bump when they go over frogs can jiggle the drawbar to the side and you get a nasty bypass…and these thing dont just bang into the drawbar pocket, they usually take the angle **** abd cut lever out too…
Ed
Whats this driver you refer too…
Adrianspeeder
You may also hear cerws say that a car has a short air hose.
All air hoses are a standard length. That being said the mount of the air hose bracket and anglecock vary from car type to car type to facilitate the use of a standard length air hose. In predominately terminal envorrnment, there exist ‘shorty’ air hose, an air hose of 6 inches to a foot in length with a gladhand on each end that is used when, account bent of damaged air hose brackets the crews are unable to get the air hoses to couple to each other…the shorty hose facilitaes air hose coupling in these situations. If the FRA saw the hose in a train it is grounds for shopping the cars involved.
I have had several questions on “The Driver!”.
The Driver is my husband - he drives me trackside when he isn’t working. We have a pact in our house - when we go as a couple, he drives. When he can’t go, I drive myself. I never drive him…I think it is a “guy” thing. Plus, I don’t want footprints on the passenger side of the car from him constantly “riding” the brake on that side.
Mookie & “Honey”…