How do railroaders get to and reconnect air hoses that become disconnected while on a bridge without walkways?
[[PS: Sorry about the “bride” thing … Am I ever embarrassed …]]
Since the question has been corrected, humor has been removed.
I wonder whether in a pinch it would be possible – or acceptable given safety regulations – to crawl under and between cars as needed, on the ties between the rails, to reach the ‘defective’ hose or component?
Seems to me that a pair of good kneepads and a pair of good gauntlet gloves might make this task relatively simple.
Or, for that matter, something like a mechanic’s ‘creeper’ with extended treads, or with wheels angled to fit the inside lower fillet of the rails (inside the clips, spikeheads, etc.) or some part of inside guardrails when so fitted…
LMAO Overmod, amazing the difference a “g” can make.
And I DEFINATELY ain’t going there. [:D]
…A train going into emergency while traveling at some speed…on a rather high trestle would be a dicy situation in the first place…And then if it stayed on the tracks to get it back together and connected…at night…would seemingly be a challenge. I suppose though if it broke apart on the trestle it {the part that broke}, certainly would not be on the trestle when it stopped. {Of course assuming we’re talking about bridges and trestles}…
I didn’t know Brides came with walkways. Learn something every day.
Actually, I have a daughter who did have a walkway as a bride–in N scale, on the model caboose that went down the aisle at the end of her train.
Slightly less facietious answer: call a manager.
Adding in the missing G…I have had this happen to me on a coke train…we took the part we still had, stashed it in a siding…went back, and one or two at a time drug the remainder off the trestle…engineer would bunch it up, then pull them, brakes and all, till he started to stall. I would cut off what we had pulled to a safe spot, drag up enough to close the angle **** and cut them off, go sta***hem with the rest, ride back to the next joint, drag them out a few more, so forth and so on…took around an hour to get fifteen empties off the trestle…found the BO car five from the other end of the trestle…set it out, went back and got the others, doubled back to the siding and took it in.
If we hadn’t been able to drag them a few at a time, I would have had a trainmaster come out and decide what to do, although there really wasn’t much else we could do, it was single track main, no one on the other side, and no way to get a motor on the other side of the trestle and drag them the other way, so he would have had to walk the bridge tie by tie and find the BO…
Ed
I’ve seen hoses come apart on bridges before.Yes walkways are legal,because the NS in the last few years have installed them in places where they hadn’t exsisted.What we normally do around here is hang on for dear life and not look down [(-D] .No seriously,we get a time track permit 23-a (if a double track bridge),and walk beside the train and turn the angle **** closed,have the engineer back up,and snap the hose and turn the air back inwhen coupled back up.On a single track bridge you could do what edblysard mentioned.But if someone could get to the other end of the bridge to close the angle ****,you could close the one on the car you could reach,and try to drag them across.I’ve heard of a few trains getting knuckles in single track tunnels before.That’s a tight fit.Not to mention the fit the condutor would throw[censored] !
Ed
Good thing you didn’t have the trainmaster come over to check the situation. I sure he would have wondered what the crew was laughing about.
A good job for the Utility man when they go to one-man crews. Have him drive his truck to the break. HaHa.
The Importance of Correct Punctuation
Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours?
Gloria
Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria
This is trickey, if the conductor can not get to where the air hose has came appart the only thing the conductor can do is close the angle **** as near the disconnect as they can get ride the car out with atleast some of the brakes released and pull the train ahead to get it to a spot where the rest of the train can be inspected.
Rodney
Mr. Blysard:
Thanks for your knowledgeable, first hand response. However, because I am just a fan, I can’t quite visualize what you experienced. Are you saying that you were able to super slowly drag everything one or two car lengths to where you were so you had access to a coupler, uncoupled the one or two cars, closed the angle ****, refilled the line, and move the one or two cars, set out the one or two, and repeat the process until the offending car was reached?
Yes…
It was a Taylor Lake empty coke train…120 aluminum coke cars, with a dynamiter in the last few cars.
Because we pick this train up out of the Bulk Material load out dock, it is pre certified as to an initial terminal air test; we just get on it and go.
We hand the train off to a UP crew at our North Yard.
I was able to walk back around 100 cars before getting to the trestle…close the angle **** and we took that cut and put it in a siding, went back, and pulled the remainder…25 empty coke cars are not so heavy that a Dash 9 and a pair of SD40-2s cant pull them with the brakes on.
I could have pulled the entire last 25 off the trestle at once, but that would have left a bunch of big flat spots on the wheels, so we pulled them in small cuts of two or three, I would bleed the air off as they went by, then pull the pin on those few, go set them over, come back and grab a few more.
We first tried to air up the entire 25 cars, but every time the engineer would knock off the brakes, it would go into emergency, so we didn’t bother to try to air them up after that.
Discovered the dynamiter in the last five cars, it wouldn’t bleed off…ended up setting that one over, and doing a new initial terminal air test, which tacked on another hours worth of work right there.
Pulling cars with their brakes set, even loads, isn’t that hard.
Once you break the adhesion between the steel wheel and the steel rail, they slide quite easily…which is one of the reasons Class 1s have hot box detectors, to find overheated bearings and wheels which have heated up from sliding.
By only pulling them two or three car lengths at a time, we were not heating the wheels up, nor creating flat spots big enough to condemn the wheel.
Had we pull all 25 at once, chances are we would have ruined a few wheel sets with big flat spots.
As for your original question…most of the time, the air hoses don’t just come apart…for the train line to bust r
Ed - thanks from another railfan for your graphic and lucid description, as always.
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard
Yes…
It was a Taylor Lake empty coke train…120 aluminum coke cars, with a dynamiter in the last few cars.
Because we pick this train up out of the Bulk Material load out dock, it is pre certified as to an initial terminal air test; we just get on it and go.
We hand the train off to a UP crew at our North Yard.
I was able to walk back around 100 cars before getting to the trestle…close the angle **** and we took that cut and put it in a siding, went back, and pulled the remainder…25 empty coke cars are not so heavy that a Dash 9 and a pair of SD40-2s cant pull them with the brakes on.
I could have pulled the entire last 25 off the trestle at once, but that would have left a bunch of big flat spots on the wheels, so we pulled them in small cuts of two or three, I would bleed the air off as they went by, then pull the pin on those few, go set them over, come back and grab a few more.
We first tried to air up the entire 25 cars, but every time the engineer would knock off the brakes, it would go into emergency, so we didn’t bother to try to air them up after that.
Discovered the dynamiter in the last five cars, it wouldn’t bleed off…ended up setting that one over, and doing a new initial terminal air test, which tacked on another hours worth of work right there.
Pulling cars with their brakes set, even loads, isn’t that hard.
Once you break the adhesion between the steel wheel and the steel rail, they slide quite easily…which is one of the reasons Class 1s have hot box detectors, to find overheated bearings and wheels which have heated up from sliding.
By only pulling them two or three car lengths at a time, we were not heating the wheels up, nor creating flat spots big enough to condemn the wheel.
Had we pull all 25 at once, chances are we would have ruined a few wheel sets with big flat spots.
As for your original question…most of the time, the
If I recall correctly, there are gators in the water under that trestle!
dd
Quoth didance.
One wold then surmise that railroaders might be considered in the food chain[dinner] in Texas, Having had BarBQ alligator tail in Texas, it might be considered “Turn about?”
Sam[swg]
Texas has aligators? For real?
Third Coast Custom Gators, in fact!
Yes, we have gators…the Houston Ship Channel is really a natural bayou, dredged out to a dept that allows ocean going vessels to reach within two miles of downtown Houston…lots of swamps and back waters…most of the natural bayous that drain the surrounding areas empty into Buffalo Bayou, (the ship channel), so we have brackish waters, swamps and deltas and saltwater beaches all in a few miles.
We have white tail deer, raccoons, possum, skunks, three indigenous venomous snakes, Mexican free tail bats, coyotes, a few cougars in west Texas…wild boar/hogs out near the Cargill elevator…lots and lots of subtropical wildlife…contrasting to the wildlife you find in our deserts, like the Armadillo…even have Chaparrals, (roadrunners) out in Conroe and points west!
Keep in mind that Texas geography goes from salt grass prairie and swamps to high desert and flatlands…big thicket pine groves to the east and tumble weeds and prairie dogs west.
Ed
Air hoses do come apart, mostly when they are low hanging and bang off road crossings, getting half cocked and then the slack runs in and finishes the job. Low hanging air hoses usually are on auto racks and high cube boxcars, where the hanging straps that keep them up give out. It happens more often than one might think out on the road.