Why would some coal cars have Do Not Hump stamped on the end?
I may have asked this before and don’t remember the answer - it is only on certain ones I see. They look just like all the rest, but …
Mookie
For openers:
(1) If the cars are loaded, the retarders may not slow them down enough before they “hard couple” down in the bowl. Laws of physics (inertia) in play here. (know of incidents at Pueblo where the retarders failed, heavy cars rolled out the other end (south end) of the yard, only to be dumped on the ground by a switch point derail [gravity works!])
(2) some have a secondary air line for automatic dumping that is not to be messed with up high where a switchman might not see it.
(3) rotary coupler assemblies could be damaged or misaligned, depending on the type…
(1)If you shift the mass in some of the newer aluminum coal-gons (coal car), a massive enough impact will “break the back” or warp the body of the coal car. If you get two or three cars together going over the hump, then WHAM! The cars continue to get heavier and some dowty retarders won’t slow down the moving mass. Some car owners see humping as contributing to a shorter service life for the car due to impact loading and metal fatigue. Anyone working in a hump yard has seen the results of overspeed impacts in the bowl - sooner or later something either crumples / breaks or the lighter cars get pushed up & off the track.
(3) coupler type and the bearings in the rotary assembly are different in many of the solid bottom/ rotary coupled cars (where’s the carknocker on this forum when you need him/her around anyway?)
Wish we could give you a more complete answer. This is just what I’ve been exposed to over the years.
mudchicken
Ah - well that is pretty clear! I think I have it sort of figured out now. Thanx for info! Will go file that one away!
Probably shouldn’t say file around talons, should I?
Mookie
The cat is safe. Getting things sharpened-up for the Long Black Train dimwits and the transportation people that can’t think beyond more paving…(If you could only see how the local spin artists are explaining the front range freight rail bypass around Denver!)
mudchicken
Okay…maybe I wasn’t paying full attention the past few days…maybe it’s all the smoke and ash flying around…maybe I should stick to putting together “ready to run” instead of HO kits becuase of the glue fumes…I don’t know…but the subject line is “Quickie with Mookie” and the topic’s about “Do not hump”…make up your mind![;)]
lol lol lol lol lol
Well Dan you certainly have not lost your humor, have you? [:p] [:D] [:o)] [:I] [8)] [:0] [^]
You missed one.
Loaded coal car are often loaded above the top, remember seeing that little mound of coal sticking up above the rim of the car top?
In a hump yard, when the car hits the standing cut of car(bumper) all that coal shifts. You can get a pretty good pile of it for free.
In the aluminum cars, when that much weight shifts, it can distort the car body.
We flat yard switch, which in some instances can be harder on cars than a hump yard, and trust me, with the coke and coal cars, if you need a little coal for the barbque pit, it ait all that hard to “spill” some out of the cars!
And you dont want to beat up the older bottom dump cars too badly, they will dump their contents really quick if the door lock breaks.
And a hopper load of coal in the middle of the tracks slows things down real fast!
Stay Frosty,
Off to work
Ed
ok - i see that - we have a hump yard - and my thinking is that most coal trains mt or full come into the yard already made up. I have seen a remote pushing a couple of coal cars around - and wondering if maybe they aren’t just putting them on a train w/o having to hump the cars.
Ah, this is all beginning to make sense to duh Mook.
Thanx guys. Another lesson in the old filing cabinet!
Mook
DAN!!! Mookie is appalled!!! [:0] And you probably don’t know how hard it is to be appalled and laugh at the same time! [:D]
Moo
And all this time we were led to believe that mookie was a cat. Now we find out mookie is a palled. Would that make you a palled bearer??[:D][:o)]
Groan
[V]
I can’t help it…all this fire nonsense has got me all s(punned) up[:I]
I was going to say, the title of this thread is VERY misleading…
Kind of like at the movie Theater when all three of these movies came out at the same time
ERIN BROKOVITCH …SCREWED … MY DOG SKIP
little did I know, these were 3 different movies!
[:D]
there you are! check your email Kev!
stay safe
Joe
I thought your file cabinet had burst a long time ago with all the info. we have pumped into you. [;)] You keep flunking your tests. [}:)] Luv ya sweety LOL [:D]
Got a second file cabinet!
Until one or many of you buy me a real live engine and let me park it in the back yard - I can’t have a “hands-on” experience! (That’s just for you Marty!)
I have to take all this information and make up the pictures in my acorn brain! I have no access to the real thing, so Engineer Mookie is riding an imaginary train - and boy you should see how funny it looks sometimes! Plus you should see my conductor - I’d whistle, but cats don’t have lips!
Mookie
Who is in for a Quickie.