I just read the News Wire article about the Santa Fe tool car. In it was the comment that the “B” end truck had been disassembled.
Are the designations of (I presume) “A” and “B” ends just for convenience and clarity when describing something about the car (e.g. location of needed repair or perhaps records of work done) or are the “A” and “B” ends of a car physically different? If the ends are physically different, what typically are the differences?
If I read things correctly, B end has the brake wheel.
Chuck is correct, when there is only one carbody and one handbrake.
If both ends have brake levers (many articulated double-stack cars, for example), the end is designated. The units are identified according to the end of the car they represent (on a three-unit car, the units are A-C-B; on a five-unit car the units are A-E-D-C-B).
That almost sounds like a lyric from “Gitarzan” by Ray Stevens! Not as funny as “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival” but close.
Reminds me of the old joke about the merger between the advertising agencies Doyle Dane Bernbach and Batton, Barton, Durstine & Osborne in New York. Question was what the merged company would be called. The answer was
BBDODDB-the-the-that’s all, folks!
Thanks, everybody!
I should have thought about the brakes on a single unit, but I never thought about the articulated cars.
I appreciate the training (puns intended)!
Here’s one to ponder. Cabooses?* Or if you prefer; shoving platforms, gang cars, etc.
Jeff
*Sorry, I don’t use cabeese.
I picked up a conductor and engineer at Northtown about 5AM one morning about 2000 and knew the conductor very well. I said, “One caboose, two cabooses, why aren’t two cabooses cabeese”. He laughed and said I had too much time on my hands.
Ed Burns
Cabin cars.
If a Engineer kicks a group of Cabin Cars hard do you end up with Cabins in the Woods?
Just “cabs.”
I use “cabeese” in the spirit of the plural of moose (not) being “meese…” Just a little fun…
Back in the '70s when GE was building EMU rail cars, time came to designate A, B and F ends for the Silverliner IV cars. A and B were no problem; as stated, the B end was the one with the hand brake actuator. Married pairs were no problem, the F end was the cab end, and that corresponded with the A end. Then came the single cars, which of course had cabs at both ends. Uh oh… Now, I honestly do not remember for sure what it was (vague memory says pantograph location…), but something requiring consistency with the married pairs caused the F end of the single cars to be the B end. Needless to say, we in engineering got some “are you sure?” questions, but it was what it was.
I’ve heard a caboose or the plural however you choose also called a van or several vans. John
In a similar vein, I can remember that South Shore’s Insull-era MU cars, which were all single units and double-ended with two pantographs (except trailers), had one end designated as the F end. I have no idea what the deciding factor was.
F denotes the “official” front of the unit. I’ve seen units with a “1”, too.
Everyone seems to focus on the plural for cabooses when I mentioned to ponder them. What I meant to ponder was that they are a single car with a brake wheel at both ends. Do they have an A and B end? How can you tell if they do?
Jeff
(If I remember right, at least Zug and I know the answers. I seem to remember discussing this once before on the forums some time ago.)
Just an outsider’s thoughts:
I figure they must have an A and B end if for nothing else than record keeping for maintenance, maybe just arbitrarily labeled with a stencil or such. The only thing I can think of off hand that’s not symmetrical would be the orientation of the brake cylinder.
Aaaaand I think we have a winnah!
I was taught that the brake-cylinder piston (the ‘pointy end’) points to the B end.
And facing the B end, you number any bad journals or wheels, L1 to L4 on your left, going away toward the A end, and R1 to R4 on the other side. Which is why you need a ‘convention’ to know which end is which.
[tup]
Jeff
This makes a lot of sense.
How then do you number the bearings or wheels on an articulated car? Do you just keep counting all the way to the front? Might you have an L9 or R12 on some of these really long well cars?