I live in a Twin Cities suburb and I have a friend who works for BNSF. With all of the worry of an oil train derailing, exploding and possibly making thousands of people evacuate. BNSF has ordered 10 of the new safer tank cars with special wheels on the that have flanges on the inside AND outside, side of the rail. He said they theorize that these new special wheels will better “hug” the rails and reduce “string lining”. These cars will all be painted bright orange and will be placed just behind the buffer car that is federally mandated. These cars are scheduled to arrive in North Dakota around July 1st for their 1st trial run.
I think your friend has partially misunderstood the BNSF approach. As described to me by a Government official, the second set of ‘outer’ flanges is slightly less than 1.5" less in diameter than those in the gauge, so there will not be any issue with picking switches or other difficulty. This is a fruitful example of cross-disciplinary thinking, in this case from the health-sciences field, he said. What worked for Hahnemann also ought to work in other fields. The hope is that at some perceived reduction of outside flange diameter, perhaps 6x to 9x, the self-restoring and other effects of flange action will still manifest themselves without any deleterious allopathic side effects.
There is apparently a parallel research effort in flange lubrication, using biodegradable and metatribological oleum serpente spp. derived from biorenewable sources. Remarkable economies over traditional methods are anticipated.
What day is it?
[(-D]
We have a painting in the offices of the Jackson Street Roundhouse where the flanges are on the outside of the rail for a logging railroad. Apparently the artist was good at trees but never looked at the train’s wheels. So perhaps BNSF’s idea has merit.
Mudchicken seems to me to think today is fancy smiley emoticon day.
The local putt-putt train through town- the Ellis & Eastern- all 4 miles of it, has already figured this out. They haul rock from a quarry on the west side of town to an asphalt plant on the east side of town. Because of track quality through the center of town on old CNW track, they had problems in the past. What they did, was simply turn the wheels around on the inner axles. Each car then has 4 axes. Starting from the front, the flanges go: innie, outtie, innie, outtie. They don’t operate at high speeds, and since they have virtually no steep grades, big turns, or many switches, I don’t know if their application would work on a big railroad.
**Without spellcheck, I can’t tell if I spelled innie and outtie correctly. I may have to go on www.belly-buttonidentification.com to research that a bit.
Oleum serpente spp., indeed! Very good. Happy April Fools Day!
Actually what the BNSF intends to do is install the outside flanges before going through larger metropolitan areas at 35 mph, and then remove them again at the outskirts of the city. Sort of like winter chains on tires.
If you want to see a bewildering photo, take a look at page 12 of J.B. Snell’s classic book “Early Railways,” showing the double flange track work at the Oakley (U.K.) quarries, Blaenau Festiniog. As Snell writes “its intricacy shows why this system never became popular.”
Best regards of the day to you.
Dave Nelson
Somehow, I think we are being" HAD"…
What with this being April 1st? The Date reserved for celebrating of Strange, Weird, Stuff usually reserved for April Fools…
I am not surprised as BNSF has long been at the forefront of technological progress.
The same holds true of it’s predecessor railroads;Why just today I read that, back in the early 20th Century the Great Northern and the ATSF were the first major railroads in the world to issue all fireman with Left Handed Smoke Shifters, which made their jobs much easier…
How did they know if a fireman had a left handed smoke shifter? [*-)]
BNSF Testing Hydrogen Braking System
“The signs seem to be pointing towards the creation of a new generation of LNG-specific locomotives that would, in Thompson’s words, “stop or substantially hold back the transition to hydrogen”, but as hydrogen production continues to gather momentum and researchers find new ways to create hydrogen without emissions, the industry might look back on this as a short-sighted decision.”
http://www.railway-technology.com/features/featurehydrogen-powered-rail-time-convert/
BNSF Railway today announced a further development as part of its ongoing committment using hydrogen to protect the environment.
A company spokesman said research into hydrogen as more than a fuel shows promising results. Hydrogen may make the railroad’s braking systems greener. According to the spokesman, “Hydrogen weighs less than air. Using compressed hydrogen in place of air in our braking systems reduces the tare weight of rolling stock. This will allow us to carry more cargo on existing equipment and reduce our environomental impact.”
Politicians and company officials inspected a locomotive and attached tank car. Compressed hydrogen from the tank supplies fuel for the locomotive and powers
Wouldn’t helium offer the same advantages as hydrogen in the braking systems, but be safer, considering that helium doesn’t-you know- explode?
Another advantage for using hydrogen in the brake lines is that brake reductions will propagate faster than with air as the speed of sund in hydrogen is almost 4 tims faster than in air.
“Helium’s non-flammable nature makes it the only practical lifting gas for manned lighter-than-air flight, but it is scarce and expensive, and the use of helium can reduce a rigid airship’s payload by more than half.”
http://www.airships.net/helium-hydrogen-airships
Helium is totally impractical as a locomotive fuel. Helium has far less lifting power to reduce the tare weight of railroad stock.
Electricty used to extract hydrogen may be generated using wind and solar energy. Hydrogen also burns extremely clean.
In case of an accident involving hydrogen, hydrogen burns completely. Ground water and water shed pollution is not at issue. The same may not be said for diesel, nor crude oil.
Thers’s the April Fool Joke. Hydrogen IS NOT PRODUCED BY ELECTROLYSIS!!! It is produced by reformation of natural gas and from catylitic cracking.
Hydrogen can be manufactured locally from anhydrous ammonia, using a retort. This means that with some minor modifications, locomotives would be able to generate their own hydrogen.
USAF used to use just such equipment for filling weather balloons. (The date notwithstanding, that is true.)
Which the flew at Roswell, NM.
When I saw “dual flange” I knew someone was pulleying my leg.