That sounds more like moral problems than operational problems. [}:)]
Applies in both cases! [angel]
A randomly created intermittent pathway to ground, which trips the GR and then disconnects; before a GR reset, the stage then is set for the next sporadic creation of the electrical route to ground…lot’s, a huge, amount of a possible cause…until “may involve a rules violation”
“the shop quickly found…” Thus, there was a fueling track electrician that didn’t find the cause, but in the shop the cause was “quickly found.” “rules violation?”…were they mechanical department rules? Operating rules don’t supply answers…easy ones, anyway… One, maybe a trio, of additional facts (hints), not only facts , will permit solution…
Sherlock, I imagine kinship…
They made the whole trip from Selkirk to Beacon Park by hitting the GR reset a few times. Shop and fuel pad at Beacon Park are (were) really the same thing…
Operating rule is one EVERYONE knows… even railfans. And was not so rigorously enforced until recent times.
Expect a train on any track at any time?
I like my first one better.
(g) sounds like a beer can in the electrical cabinet or a firearm.
By greyhounds on Saturday, June 21, 2014 OK. A train leaves Chicago for Denver, 1,067 miles away and travels at an average speed of 50 MPH. At the same time a train leaves Denver for Chicago and travels at an average speed of 35 mph. How far is each train from both Chicago and Denver when they meet? Presuming everyone has their mileage’s correct west of Grand Island, Ne on the Union Pacific. Not sure about on Burlington or the Rock Island. Thx IGN
I thought of one from an article in Trains many many years ago. Train departs yard A and arrives in yard b. When it arrived the consist was missing a car. The only recorded anomaly was a broken airline midway thru that put the train in emergency. Train crew inspected train found a disconnected gladhand reconnected it pumped up the air did the required checks and continued on to the destination. An angry phone call explained the whole situation. What was the phone call and who made it? Thx IGN
Call was why is a freight car off the track on the ROW ?
Do not know who made the call but one time on the SOU RR rat hole division a freight car in middle of train jumped out of the train and the rear somehow re coupled to the front of train. Conductor coupled up air hose and train continued on.
Yep!
By narig01 on Monday, June 23, 2014 I thought of one from an article in Trains many many years ago. Train departs yard A and arrives in yard b. When it arrived the consist was missing a car. The only recorded anomaly was a broken airline midway thru that put the train in emergency. Train crew inspected train found a disconnected gladhand reconnected it pumped up the air did the required checks and continued on to the destination. An angry phone call explained the whole situation. What was the phone call and who made it? Thx IGN By blue streak 1 on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 Call was why is a freight car off the track on the ROW ? Do not know who made the call but one time on the SOU RR rat hole division a freight car in middle of train jumped out of the train and the rear somehow re coupled to the front of train. Conductor coupled up air hose and train continued on. Blue Streak you got it. The phone call was from a motorist whose path was blocked. Thx IGN
I’ve heard the ground relay one in many places - but it involved a metal flashlight.
Also every line that has a grade has the story of the car that popped off the rail, while the rest of the consist couple back together.
I can believe the first one (I’ve seen many starting fuses rolling around in that cabinet), but the 2nd one? I remain skeptical.
Once had an old RRer tell me when you open up a hop-toad derail, to always re-attach the lock on it when in the open (non derailing) position. Once saved him from discipline. Any guesses why that would that be?*
*-probably a question for the non-RRers. Also is probably one of those legends that has traveled many miles on many railroads.
Cause the derails tend to re-apply them selves under the moving cars unless they are latched open… been there , seen the wreck
And, I have watched as a car ran over a rabbit–and stayed on the rails. It was being moved from the AT&N to the GM&O (in Reform, Alabama). There was a man on it, trying to stop it before it reached the derail, but the hand brake did not work. As it was, the GM&O section foreman lived right by the interchange, and he came over and unlocked the derail so the car could be moved back to where it did not foul anything it should not. I do not recall how the car was held in place until the GM&O was able to pick it up.
Another story from Trains regarding undetected derailments had a car (or at least one truck) derailing and riding along the ties for a considerable distance before righting itself.
It probably would have gone largely undetected (at least until MOW saw the marks on the ties) were it not for a dispatcher trying to throw a switch.
Seems the errant truck hit an electrical box, causing that particular circuit to malfunction.
I think just about every railroad claims to have had this happen to them at one time.
Jeff
I think it was this one:
“The Invisible Derailment - If a RoadRailer trailer derails in the middle of the night and nobody notices, does it still derail?”
by Larry Gross, from Trains, November 2007, p. 52
- Paul North.
I believe this is one story that involved a metal flashlight:
“Of generator flashovers, group relay problems and a 3-cent repair - Keeping New York Central diesels rolling”, by Crouch, Harold B., from Trains, January 1986, p. 42
Would the ground relay’s current have been strong/ large enough to burn/ melt away the point(s) of contact with the thin aluminum beer can, thus breaking the ‘ground’ until the can rolled around again to a different point ? That could make it real difficult to find and/ or diagnose (unless at night - it might cause a flash . . . see article referenced above).
- Paul North.
Depends on the locomotive model. The older ones took quite a bit more current than a new engine. I think the Sd40 tripped at .011 amps and 74 volts. I’ve seen taconite pellets in traction motors that cause the most frustrating ground relay issues you can imagine. Once the engine was in the shop the problems disappeared.
I got a funny story regarding that particular engine I’ll tell someday.
I think it was a western line (SF or SP).