A few years back I saw a tank of Alcohol next to the tracks in the Oak Island Yards
Poured some in my thermous and took a swig and lived to tell about it.
So in addition to thawing out frozen railroaders how is alcohol applied to a mile long freight train to thaw out the lines…Were do they pour that stuff in?
I dont know but in trucking we would do it at the trailer glad hands.
Hardly anything got frozen with today’s technology but we also had to watch out because some trailers would actually “Fall apart” inside the Brake chambers if certain chemicals get into them.
There was a point in time where truckers had to refill alcohol tanks connected to their air brake reservoirs. These provided enough dessicant into the system to keep the air dry, which prevented water from forming, which prevented ice from forming and clogging lines. It isn’t used, as far as I know, on newer model tractors, but then again, truckers drain their air tanks at the end of the work day. (Or they are supposed to, anyway.)
I don’t think the railroads use a similar system, but then again, they might have.
Erik
Lucky you. Wrong alcohol, surprised you did not end up in the hospital. Makes a nice story though.
Railroads used to bring out the alcohol to manually pour into brake pipes to remove condensation from the trainline but it is frowned upon by the FRA and the practice has mostly stopped.
Who in their right mind finds a bottle or can along the tracks marked alcohol and takes a taste? Living wrecklessly? Trying for a Darwin award? Have any idea of which first aid proceedures to use?
Would this come under Rule G? [:D]
My guess is that either I did not take enough because I added it to my coffee or that the railroad boaght alcohol or rather ethonal in bulk and the bulk shipment of ethonal are not denatured but is in fact straight moonshine.
I am asking "Looking at the brake pipe system in a railroad airbrake or Westinghouse Air Brake (WAB) were is the vauve that you would pour the moonshine in?" "and how much?
There is no set amount. You just pour more and more in until the obstruction is cleared. What you are trying to do is unstick the components within the control (triple) valves that are not allowing the brakes on the cars to set or release.
Condensation is really a problem for trains which leave a warmer rainy area and run into a cold front or higher elevation area. When they get into the below freezing area the air brakes become problematic. Especially if the temps suddenly become sub zero.
When the practice was allowed - it’s now banned most everywhere - you added the alcohol to the brake line through one of the air hose glad hands. The locomotive air driers do a pretty good job of keep the brake air dry.
Railroads in cold climates have differing train length based on temperature, to combat the freezing of the brake lines. As the temperature decreases, so does train length.
Nick
Yes but WHERE do you pour in the Alcohol…In all my years on the rails I have seen water,diesal oil and sand but not seen this practice…Is on the cars or where on the engine?
“the railroad boaght alcohol or rather ethonal in bulk and the bulk shipment of ethonal are not denatured but is in fact straight moonshine.”
Chances are, it was denatured. Any ethanol sold that’s not denatured has to, by law, be sold and taxed the same way that alcohol intended for consumption would, even if that’s not the intended use. The taxes on a bulk shipment of non-denatured ethanol would likely be astronomical.
Methanol, which is the most common denaturant for ethanol, is pretty toxic stuff.
Yes but that would be in retail sales?
The reason truckers dont use much today is because some Airdryers do a very good job. The only time you get frozen is in the far north if it gets wet somehow on the wheels themselves and the pads stick. At that point you need a ball peen hammer, wheel chocks (Many) and some courage to knock em loose.
You send the carman or brakeman back to where the brake cylinders are sticking and break the air hoses apart between the cars. Lift up the hose towards the rear of the train and pour a load of alcohol in with the angle cock left open. Pour in a good slug and then reconnect the two hoses and open the angle cock towards the locomotives. The air pressure will distribute the alcohol towards the end of the train. Repeat at other locations as is necessary to make all the cylinders function well enough to pass the air brake tests…
NOTE: The filters have hit this reply. In this case **** represents the four letter word representing valve. It begins with C
cock
Ethanol is denatured at the point of manufacture if it is destined to be used as a chemical additive or sold to be mixed with gasoline. Pure ethanol is the stuff we drank in college known as PGA [200% Pure Grain Alcohol]. Non-denatured ethanol is as described above[Corn squeezings-moonshine.]
A number of years ago, a company I worked for at the time had a contract with the newly arrived Burlington Northern in Memphis. They bought 1 gallon black plastic jugs , to supply alcohol to the cabooses, [the black piggment plus labels were to keep crewmen from consuming it.] I was told they poured alcohol in the brake lines in winter. I do not know where they dumped the alcohol in the lines, I kinda suspected they had someplace on the caboose to dump it and it would run into the trainline. For about three years I hauled about four trailer loads( about 1700 jugs) a year to the stock room at Tennessee Yard in the late summer.
The use of any alcohol in brake lines or valves is now concidered illegal by FRA. The Alcohol will damage neoprene parts inside the valves.
Not to mention that it will destroy the rubber of the trainline air hose between the cars.
csx engineer
Putting the alcohol into the trainline at the cabooose would do nothing but pool the alcohol in the air brake system at the caboose. It needs to go into the brake pipe ahead of the freezing and condensation in the train. The only reservoir for the alcohol is the plastic jug you hold in your hands.
The trainmaster or yardmaster trying to get the train out of the yard in a timely manner could give a rip about whether or not the chemical destroys the parts inside the brake components or the air hoses. He wants the train out of his yard now. He never stops to think that perhaps some of the air brake problems causing him grief now are the result of some other yardmaster or trainmaster in a similar situation contaminating the system with alcohol and the degraded components inside the control valves.
What goes around may indeed come around…with a vengence. .
Mostly correct answers here.The FRA forebids the use of any liquids in the trainline.It causes so many problems,like mentioned.
The NS has a temp. chart that is (supposed) to be followed.If the temp. is lower than 34f. were not suppose to run anything over 200 coal loads,and I think 10,000 ft.,I’d have to look to be sure.
I’ve had air problems so many times it isn’t funny.One time last winter when the temp. was around 23f. with just 100 loads of grain.It took almost 2 hrs. to gain enough air to do a brake test[banghead]!
Does humidity matter?