I was talking with some friends of mine last night and someone brought up the subject of Locomotive craests like they do with cars.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
Do the manufactures craest locomotives?
I had never heard of it but i wouldn’t be suprised if they did.
Later Bill
Well they do design the cabs to withstand crashes somewhat. So I guess they need to test that. I would love to see a pic or watch a video.
Adrianspeeder
At 2 million a pop I don’t think EMD or GE are too anxious to cra***est locomotives. But with all the rear enders lately they probably don’t need to.
You might find them just cra***esting components - like the cab.
full scale craests are no longer performed in real life, we do them in computers using data obtained from cruests on components (struts and the like)
Good point!!
It would be a good idea to do but for the fact of the cost of each loco.
On a different note how long is GE’s test track? How about EMD’s?
GMD in London does "craests" inti auto mobiles, if that counts. I heard the French craested an older TGV set at very high speed…into a standing train. It is always filmed, so get a copy.
I know that some time ago the AAR was doing some cra***ests at their High Speed Test facility down in Pueblo, Colorado. This was a few years ago and they were testing commuter trains in a head on impact (much like automobiles) into a concrete wall and they were showing some of the high-speed footage on the news. Neat to see, however, I don’t know if they have ever tested a freight loco or not. If they ever have, I sure would like to see the video!
Locomotives are still tested at AAR test center in Pueblo Colorado, but not with new locomotives , but older locomotives modified with new cabs.
see:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=56877
About 20 years ago Trains carried a picture of a locomotive (GP9 ?) with several rockets on it which was crashed at high speed into a concrete encased steel cylinder.The cylinder was going to be used for carring nuclear waste.
Here are some sites I found on this subject… the first 2 links have some cool pictures of a locomotive plowing into a semi trailer. it looks like these tests were done back in the late 70’s
http://www.sandia.gov/recordsmgmt/ctb1.html
http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cask.htm
http://www.securityworld.com/library/automotive/rrcrashtests.html
Later Bill
I beleive GE’s test track is about 12 miles. I’m not sure how long EMD’s test track is in London.
The sad thing was that the last film I saw of AAR commuter car cra***ests were done with ex-PRR Pioneer Budd commuter cars, the original Silverliners. Having rode in those cars on the Paoli local it was depressing to see such historic equipment destroyed.
Smith
Not quite the same thing but in 1984 a class 46 loco was deliberately crashed into a nuclear flask at about 100mph to see if flask could stand the impact.
Pictures and video at:
I’ve seen it done with some DMUs and light rail equipment - there was a test involving a Class 158 DMU when they first arrived where a car (wired to show the g forces experienced) was rammed into a stationary loco (I think it was another Class 46 - those locos haven’t had the best of luck in cra***esting!) - the test also allowed the builders to practice their repair techniques. More recently, I’ve seen footage of a German light rail/tram type unit cab design being tested to show what would happen if it hit a conventional rail vehicle - the front end was designed to deform in much the same way as a road vehicle front end, and absorbed the impact without threat to the test dummies.
Locomotives cost too much, just to cra***hem to see what they’d do. Aren’t there several movies and still pictures of modern day engines, and computer enhancements, to determine what to change on a locomotive.??? The CSX pic was an example of what a waste it’d be, to crash it in a test…
If they do them at Pueblo then maybe I can take my grandchildren to watch. Otherwise, it;s down to the basement. BTW, are you sure the Pueblo facility belongs to AAR? It one carried signage for the DOT.
Ah…good old ‘operation smash hit.’ They have the buffers from the front of that loco at the National Railway Museum in York, England. The engine and the three cars behind it were totalled.
Matthew
One of the most famous of such “tests” was no test at all: Buster Keaton (who always did his own movie stunts) obtained a couple of steamers and deliberately ran them into one another – with expected results! No computer simulation here – they did not have them in those days!
Keaton also once did a stunt in which he was supposed to stand under a water tower and have the spout come down and soak him with water. NOT a good idea! The water had so much power behind it that it knocked him head-first into the railhead. He broke his neck and for several days was walking around with a broken neck until the pain obliged him to seek medical attention.
What people won’t do for a laugh!