Normally I’m hiding out in the MR section of the Forum, but this posting is obviously more at home here.
I’ve been an avid RR nut since the early '50s, and have spent a lot of time trackside all over the country. While I’ve had all this “up close and personal time” with trains, I am still in awe of them.
In example:
Couplers/draft gear can routinely withstand the strain of 100 loaded cars behind them
Mile long trains can routinely take curves without “clotheslining” lighter cars in the middle of the train
Engineers can start up mile long trains without pulling them apart, and stop them at exactly the right spot
Those huge locos and cars stay on the tracks, with derailments a rarity
There are so many other things about trains that still amaze me. Yet, while writing this post I realized that you all probably feel the same way…
How fortunate for you that you are still able to appreciate those aspects of railroading. Many people who have been involved in a particular activity for a while seem to become somewhat jaded towards what got them interested in the first place, whether it be trains, planes, or automobiles. And after doing something for a while, one tends to become focused more on the minutia rather than the overall aspects of the interest.
…I share your wonderment of the couplers / draft parts. Hearing slack run in or out, must shock tremendous force thru these parts.
Another post on here had commented of 3 engines bringing up 15 or 18 or so passenger cars over the Saluda Hill…That must have been a tremendous load on couplers, etc…
As far as “stringlining” with cars rounding a curve…We’ve had that happen at least twice here in Muncie on N S. It happened to be the Triple Crown consist both times.
Stringlining a train isn’t hard to do if you use a heavy hand on the throttle or poor judgment with the application and release of brakes. However, this was not the case at Muncie either time. Neither engineer was ever found to be at fault.
I gather that Triple Crown NOW takes care to put all the loads at the front of the train and the empties at the rear. Am I correct? Being an old N&W enthusiast I be surprised if NS didn’t.
Stopping a train on a dime ain’t as easy as it sounds - trust me. It’s probably my main focus for improvement as I hone my skills at the throttle. And I’m not even talking mile long trains…
That said - a little awe and wonder definitely helps keep the magic going when it comes to train watching.
I’m the same way. I’ve been a rail fan since the early 70s…still enjoy watching trains. Looking back over the years one gains an appreciation for how important it is to continue to have that sense of awe about not only trains but about so many other things. Too many people become jaded as they get older… its good to see and appreciate greatness, whether man made or natural.
I can still remember a summer night in 1958(?) at Jackson,Ohio listening to a DT&I crew flat switch cars over a mile away. All I could do was to listen; there was no sleeping with that racket… You could hear the engine rev, and then a short time later the impact of the cars and couplers. The noise even that distance, was brutal.
The next evening I asked to get one of the folks to drive me down to the railroad to see for myself. Watched for about a half hour; and they were hard at it again. I imagined you could see the cars hit so hard there was daylight between the cars, and their trucks. That close to the action the noise was brutal to hear.
I asked one of the crew who were watching the action, why was it so noisy, and why were they hitting the cars so hard? The explanation was “New Guy” learning to be an engineer. He was ‘connected’ so he could get away with it. As we lef he was still banging away, and did continue for a couple more hours. I had a new respect for how tough cars, couplers and draft gear were.
Heck, watching and hearing couplers pull / push on each other as the train heads up / down hills or changes speed makes you wonder how many times that happens over the parts lifetime.
I don’t know this for a fact, but it appears that the “pin” in the knuckle is the (or one of the) critical parts holding the train together. It looks like about 1 1/2 inch diameter, which is certainly large but still amazing that it does its job so well.
I wonder what their life is, if they are routinely changed out, or if they truly are trouble free?
There was a long discussion on this board some time ago about how a coupler works. The “Knuckle”, the movable part (that is most subject to breaking), is an “L” shape.
The short part of the “L” is what you see on the outside and the “Pin” (or the axle it rotates on) is at the junction of the short and long parts.
The long leg fits deep into the body of the coupler and is somewhat corregated in shape… uh… maybe described as being a blunted “sawtooth” shape. That shape fits into a complimentary shape in the hole in the body.
It is the faces of that shape, deep in the coupler body, where the draw forces are met. Once the coupler is closed, you can actually remove the pin (that the knuckle rotates on) and the knuckle will not fall out and the train can continue to push or pull because the knuckle “L” is trapped in that sawtooth shape.
If you then release the knuckle to uncouple the cars, the knuckle will fall out.
It has some nice photos of the parts and explains how they work and why (it just takes a lot of postings to get it all explained around some major misunderstandings of terminology).
