Some questions about the rear end device.Who owns them or accounts for them.Are extras carried on engines.Do they sometimes end up in one far place.Have they ever been crushed by other cars ,when not removed.How much do they cost and is it only on long distance trains they are used.Just curious.Thanks in adavance.
Each railroad owns a good supply of them. They’re accounted for just like any other locomotive or car (on UP, they have their own reporting mark, UPRQ–I suspect that every railroad marks them with a ___Q reporting mark). But they’re pretty interchangable, and I’ve seen evidence of UP trains running with somebody else’s marker.
If they’re properly mounted on a coupler, other cars can be coupled to them without causing damage.
Don’t know what they cost.
They’re required on trains traveling a certain distance beyond yard limits.
End of train devices currently cost in the $3500 to $6000 dollar range when purchased in bulk, and railroads will generally buy several hundred at at time. Some EOT’s are straight battery powered and some have an air operated generator that charges the battery. The air supply is the braking train line of the train.
Without getting knee deep in the regulations, trains of over 4000 tons operating in territory that has a greater that 1% grade are required to have an EOT that is able to initiate and emergency application of the brakes when directed to by the engineer. All trains operating in territory that has greater than a 2% grade are required to have an EOT that can initiate and emergency brake application.
Last time I heard, which was several years ago, F.R.E.D.S. cost $4,000 compared to $80,000 for a staffed caboose.
There are times when say a yard is short on etd’s and a few will deadhead to where they are needed by stashing them on a trailing eng on a heading there. Normally only one is found on a train but there could be a lost or forgotten one that might be hiding in a nose of a eng for example.
Out side of flashing, can someone give a semi-detailed account of all information they supply to the head end?
FREDs transmit brake line pressure data to the engineer every 20 seconds or so. I have heard of instances where FREDs are not compatible between railroads because of the radio frequencies used.
In one instance, I heard conversations between a Union Pacific conductor and dispatcher about a Union Pacific crew getting false readings from a Burlington Northern Santa Fe FRED. After consulting with the UP technical department, the dispatcher told them to stop and exchange it for a UP FRED.
yes you can crush them . all eot are iterchangable now. the ns had eot that only worked with ns hots. the stuff the eot sends to the engineer is brake pipe pressure, movement and if the thing is flashing . they have fell off trains also and caused a unwanted emergency application.
Too add to this…
Trainmasters routinely run around to yards and gather up the EOTs dumped there by crew…they can gather up real quick.
Some local union agreements require the crew to bring the EOT back with them after they yard a train, the conductor has to take it off and load it in the crew van.
UP and BNSF have contracts with UPS to return EOTS…if you find one in a ditch, drop it off at any UPS store, or call UPS and they will come out to your house and pick it up…(like anyone is going to lug one home with them or tell anyone they have it!), but railroads do ship them back to “home” via UPS.
Next chance you get, look at the hose on a EOT, you might be able to see the UPS shipping label there, it is made of nylon.
GCOR requires any train operating in CTC to have a rear end device…during daylight hours, it can be as simple as a red flag for yard to yard transfers or local switching runs…after dark, the EOT has to have a flashing light visible for a certain distance, for trains over a certain length and weight, it has to have telemetry capabilities and be able to indicate an emergency brake application form the rear of the train.
From the G.C.O.R.
5.10 Markers
A marker of the prescribed type must be displayed on the trailing end of the rear car to indicate the rear of the train.
5.10.1 Highly Visible Markers
Display a highly visible marker at the rear of every train as follows:
- From 1 hour before sunset to 1 hour after sunrise.
- When weather conditions restrict visibility to less than 1/2 mile.
A marker equipped with a functioning photo-electric cell will
When DP power is used on the rear, does the rear power unit give this information to the head end?
Depends on the locomotives being used…and they still drop a FRED on the read coupler for the flashing light.
I know BNSF’s Dash 9s “talk” to each other in DPU mode, and you can dump the air from the rear locomotive with a radio signal from the head end.
You can also get the any of the locomotives “stats” on the conductors screen.
FREDS are interchangeble between railroads but they will cost you for the use. BNSF persues returning to the owning railroad pretty aggresively.
Your DP consist relays a lot more information than a FRED, you get operating mode, (Run, Idle,…), what notch the throttle is in, load in Amps or TE, Train brake pipe pressure, Locomotive brake pressure, Air flow, wether brake valve is cut in/ cut out, plus you have the controls to set up the fence, to control the thorttle/dynamic on the DP units independtly of the head end power. PLus you have screens for initiating tests, system checks, and other functions. Depending on the system set up, determines where the information is found.
The FRED on the other hand relays, brake pipe pressure, highly visible marker on/off, movement forward/backwards (this one is sometimes questionable), and emergency capabilty.
A working EOT is also required if you want the train to go above 30 mph. If you lose communication with the EOT enroute, the train becomes a 30 mph train. Everything is supposed to be properly functioning before the train leaves the initial terminal.
As you can clearly see from Ed Blysard’s post, real railroaders call this gizmo an EOT. The thingamabob on the unit that communicates with the EOT (Ee-oh-tee) is the HOT (aiche-oh-tee).
Go tell Fred that Ethel wants to lashup.[(-D]
Passenger trains are required to have an illuminated EOT. Ours does not communicate with the head end, so oiur brake checks are all manual.
If you hear a report of a roll-by, it should include the phrase “complete with marker.” The EOT, whatever form it takes, denotes the end of the train.
Passenger trains (and all trains) require markers, which is not the same as an EOT. A marker is simply a red flag or reflector by day and a red light by night. In a pinch I’ve used a couple of fusees. A dimmed rear headlight can also serve as a marker for light engines or helpers.
For yard to yard transfers, we use flashing red lamps with magnetic bases, that stick on the last coupler. All they do is flash, no telemetry, so we call them blinkers.
An EOT can serve as a marker, but as others have stated, EOTs also transmit brake pipe pressure, movement data, emergency enable status, etc to the head end. I have run into numerous types of passenger equipment that you can’t mount an EOT on. Which is a real pain, because, then I have to find an idler car to couple behind the passenger car to hang the EOT on.
Some places refer to them as ETDs (End of Train Device) and the head end boxes as HTD (Head of Train Device).
We usually don’t get too upset about sending foreign EOTs back until the Mechanical Foreman gets a burr under his saddle about there being too many foreign EOTs in the terminal. Most of the time they stay less then a day or two, before departing on a train.
Nick
The DPU trains that we have up this way do not have an EOT on the hind end. As has been mentioned, the DP unit can report all of the same functions that an EOT can, and initiate an emergency application like many EOTs can. The role of the light is usually played by the rear headlight, displayed dimly.
How much without the staff?