Some derailments seem to be caused by flat spots on wheels of heavy cars damaging the rail while the train is passing and then braking the rail resulting in derailment. My concerns are the causes of flat wheels, I’m told it’s emergency braking that causes it. But my observations are that it’s very often caused by dragging cars with hand brakes applied when switching. Is there no effective way to reduce flat spots ?
Hand brake policies seem over kill and engine power is so strong that crews can drag sevral cars with brakes on. It seems like alot of damage.
The most common cause is dragging a car around with either the handbrake set or the brakes set period . It’s not only train crews , I have seen a gravel pit do it with a front end loader.
That’s called wheel spalding.It’s when the wheel developes build up of material from the wheel or track .And it also results in micro cracks when you drag a handbrake on a wheel.
On the NS it is prohibited to drag a car around with a brake.But alot of indusrties will do this not aware of the damage that is being caused to their cars or leased cars.
In some rare occasions I have seen it hard not to have a handbrake tied up,like when a car is being spotted up on a chemical rack or a loadout dock.But dragging a car around a whole railroad yard is crazy.
Sometimes an airbrake will not fully release if you have set your brake up when stopped somewhere,and that to will cause flatspots real quik.
I once had to go get a grain hopper out of a siding that had a airbrake that had stuck.It created a 15 inch flatspot ! I dragged it to the nearest home shop facility at 5 mph.It actually was coming off the rail at the recommended 10 mph limit put on by the car shop.
I saw that happen at a flour mill. I was probably a couple of hundred yards away and it sounded awful, it does not seem possible for the locomotive operator to have not known what was going on. I am not sure what was worse, the sound or the smell.
Also, not too long ago, a carman was showing me some almost new brake shoes that cracked from the heat build up from an industry dragging around the cars with the brakes set.
