It is the Forum's Fault

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

The Driver and I never argue.

We have eliminated all the sources of most of the arguments between couples: Children(grown), Pets(deceased) and Money(none).

But my posting on B.O. caused quite a ruckus. I print things out and we go trackside every afternoon and discuss answers to questions or just sit and enjoy the trains as they go by us.

Yesterday was no different, except everything that was answered opened up more questions. Our quiet time deteriorated into what must have looked like a bad domestic situation to passers-by: a small car with two people, two sets of binoculars, papers flying through the air, hands waving and if you got close enough, shouting.

I want to set the record straight - the small car is Millie, the binoculars are for eyes that don’t see as well as they used to, the papers are either printouts or scratch paper kept for notes on trains and lots of diagrams (yesterday), the hands waving because we both talk with our hands and the shouting because train traffic was unusually heavy in that hour and we couldn’t be heard above the train horns.

But now we are left with: We got all the bad orders set out. So? We understand some of the mechanical things, sorta, kinda, but:

1 - how are coal gons for example, attached to their wheels? In fact, how are any cars attached?

2 - Carl stated that UP in North Platte has a system to change out defective wheelsets without breaking the (coal) consist (thereby breaking the air) That one really has us puzzled. How can you possibly keep your hoses all intact and still raise the car up to get to the wheelset and then how is the wheelset taken out. You aren’t exactly talking about jacking up something and just rolling the wheels away like a car. Not with cars on either side of those wheelsets.

That will suffice for now and later the Driver will ask me another question trackside and - ba

2

Hi Mookie,

On that wheel change issue, you made me remember a post from 2005, I think. I hope I have this correct:

One of the forum members here posted a story in which someone found a pair of freight car trucks laying next to a mainline. Was baffling. Turns out that miles ahead in a yard, there was a parked freight train that was still "stretched. One of the cars, I think it was a tank car, was coupled and hosed up…The catch was that this car was suspended in the air with no trucks!

If only someone had taken a picture of that!

So I’m wondering if perhaps something similar is possible for UP, of course it’s likely that some type of jig would be used to hold the car up as the wheels are changed out.

Just my [2c]

Take care, Amiga[C):-)][tup]

3

I would imagine that it wouldn’t take too much vertical lift to get a car high enough to allow removal of a wheel truck out the side. I would bet that there would still be engagement between the couplers, and the hoses certainly have enough play in them. The tricky part would be supporting the weight of the car on jacks, especially if it were loaded, and the methodology of pulling the wheel truck out the side.

4

Gravity, BTW, is all that holds pretty much all of the rolling parts of the car together. The car has two pins that fit into matching holes in the top of the truck frame. Even many of the parts of the truck are not really fastened in place. As I understand it, that’s partly be design so that if the car derails there’s fewer big pieces to do damage (especially on tank cars).

I can’t speak with any authority at all on the wheel changing system, but I shouldn’t be the least be surprised if it turns out to be a drop table, with some attendant jacks, etc. Disconnecting and reconnecting brake connections would take longer than actually moving the bad truck out and the new truck in. Either that or I just invented something.

5

For accessible trackside change out, how about a crane w/sling, or “sideboom Cat”

like they use for derailments. Then use some other piece of equipment to move

the old truck out, and new one in?!

6

As for question 2…you don’t jack the car up, you “lower” the track (and the wheel set) out from under it…you hold the car up with…Car jacks"…(you knew that was coming) they look like huge screw jacks or bottle jacks.

A little clarification might be needed here…you don’t remove the wheels or axel by itself…you remove the entire truck first.

Imaging you have the car body supported by jacks or huge jack stands.

You disconnect all the attendant brake rigging from the trucks, lower the track section from under the car till the bolster or king pin clears the bottom of the car, and using Larry’s sliding table, slid the trucks and wheel set out to the side of the car.

A good crew can pick up the truck, swap axle and wheels sets, and have the truck ready to go back in place within ten minutes, nothing but gravity holds the wheel/axel set in place.

Slide the trucks back under the car, raise the panel track back up, and re connect the brake rigging…a good guess is that a dedicated crew with their Indy faces on can swap out a four axle set in under 30 minutes.

As for how the truck is held in place under the car…imagine a cup, with a pin in the center sticking straight up…the top center of the truck.

On the bottom side of the car, on the cross braces or bolsters, is a corresponding cup that fits inside the cup on the truck top…with a hole for the pin to fit in.

A shot of “grease” on the surfaces of the cup, and you can set the car on the truck.

Nothing but gravity is required to hold the car down, or the truck “up” to the car, although some cars have retaining chains to keep the truck with the car in the event of a wreck…if you go over a “bump” in the track that is big enough to cause the car to lift off of this “cup”, you are already in a train wreck!

7

I worry a little bit due to some “Pumping” with about a foot d

8

Unfortunatly, I cant shed any light on the techincal question you asked. My knowledge is still on the front side of the learnign curve.

But I had to comment that you had me laughing pictureing the description of you guys sitting in the car “discussing” issues at hand. [swg] I know my wife and I have done the same thing and it must look like that!

I am in the same boat… just enough knowledge to get myself into trouble.

9

This happened about 6 or 7 years ago, when I was still a conductor. I was on an eastbound manifest (box car type) train. At Mechanicsville, Iowa there is a hot box detector. All the trains that were in radio listening range ahead of us had set off the detector, getting a hot box warning. Everyone would have to stop and inspect and all had been false alarms.

We go over the detector and get an alarm on the north side about 20 or so cars deep. Under the circumstances and rules at the time, I was allowed to get off and have the engineer pull the indicated axle up to me. This we did. I checked the indicated axle and it was cold, no defect. If the stated axle is OK, you have to inspect 20 axles forward and back of the indicated one and on both sides of the train. I start going back checking for a hot bearing. I come up to the second car back, one of the axles no longer has a bearing to check. It had seized up and broken off, letting the truck side frame drag on the ground.

I tell the engineer the good news and he passes it on to the dispatcher. They have the Cedar Rapids car men come out to repair the car right on the main line. The car men arrived about 60 to 90 minutes after we first reported the problem. They came out in 2 trucks. One was a normal sized pickup equipped with tool compartments. The other was a big heavy duty one with a small crane. This one had two wheel sets. The small crane was used to lift on/off the wheel sets. They had me pull the car and the next one behind just enough to separate from the back off the train. Then cut off the head end and pull down it down enough to give them a safe place to work. Once everything was positioned and secured, they used hydraulic jacks to raise the end of the car just a few inches to have the king pin clear the truck

10

…incredibly neat to read about and I wish I could see that sometime!

11

SJ, I will tell you about this in a private e-mail, because we’re not allowed to do extensive quotes on the Forum.

Suffuce it to say, though, that the train itself is not moved, brake rigging is not affected, any axle can be reached, and a drop table is not involved.

If anyone has access to the February issue of Railway Age, it’s the cover story (you could possibly pick up an issue at their Omaha offices). I would post their website, but all they offer is a teaser, and “for more information, subscribe…”

12

I get Railway Age as well (it’s free, and you get what you pay for). From the description, the system is like two BIG forklifts to lift at the affected wheel. The rotary couplers hold together good, and trucks are chained up to prevent falling off, bending brake rigging, etc. The bad axle comes out, and the new one goes in, like in Jeff’s story. Everything comes down, chains removed, etc., and you are on your way. More wheel changeouts on empty trains when possible. Loaded trains get it only if absolutely required.

13

I appreciate the information from everyone. It really is a pretty simple operation - simple in that you are moving a lot of weight fairly easily.

Carl explained North Platte to me behind the scenes and it is pretty clear now. But now - I wonder how they change the tires on those Monster Earth Movers that you see… [}:)][:D]

14

Mookie, you mean something like this?

These huge trucks haul 100 tons of coal (one train car load). A diesel engine runs a generator sending electricity to an electric motor at each wheel. The exhaust flows along the truck bed to prevent the wet coal from freezing in winter. The largest can haul 250 tons.

15

The tires are higher than my 18 wheeler cab, that should give you some perspective.

Ive had those mine trucks zip to and fro at 40+ mph up and down the haul road. They have the right of way. PERIOD.

16

I read your stuff and enjoy it. Besides, anyone who lives in a small town village of a quarter-million people with two rail carriers and at least one rail yard deserves some consideration.

Chicago, hunh? Is it easier where you live to hear people from Chicago screaming than it is to hear people from Cleveland screaming? [:P]

al

17

DF - that’s the one. Now how do you change those tires?

Al - before the forum - I wasn’t even sure where Chicago was and Ohio didn’t even exist. I am expanding my horizons tho’ and find that there really is life east of Omaha! I have explored all of the states west of Lincoln and didn’t figure there was anything worth looking at east of us.

Imagine my surprise when I found out there are a lot of nice people and places in those other itty-bitty states…[8)]