I don’t think that susceptibility to belief in conspiracy theories has anything to do with political leanings. You can find such believers in all political groups and all walks of life. There are many people who believe:
UFOs are visiting us regularly.
We have never been to the moon, or even into orbit.
The government is hiding a space ship and alien bodies they recovered in Roswell, NM in 1947
That Elvis is still alive and in hiding.
That Nixon killed JFK
That Johnson killed JFK
That a group of 7 families actually run the world.
A single emergency stop with a automobile with automotive braking power does not compare to the braking power needed to stop railroad sized tonnage in territories of decending grades. In your car example we will figure the car having a weight of 3000 pounds, or 750 pounds per operative brake (4 whees = 4 brakes)…add in the load either 100 pounds for ‘the little guy’ or 1500 pounds for the heavyweight package you have 1125 pounds per operative brake or load factor of 1.5 times the base. A single emergency stop is not of long enough duration, especially when the brakes are applied hard enough to lock the wheels, to develop enough heat to cause breakdown of the expected coefficient of friction.
A empty present day rail car has a ‘ballpark’ empty weight of 60K pounds or 30 tons or 3.75 tons per operative braking surface (1 brake shoe against each of the 8 wheels). With a loaded car at the universally accepted 263K loading each braking surface must control over 16 tons, most unit train cars are being loaded to the 286K standard creating 17.5 tons per braking surface, with heavy haul loadings that are being designed for a 315K standard each braking surface is now responsibl
That’s a good report. Here are a couple excerpts -
According to commonly accepted air brake industry standards, a train with cars that have 36-inch diameter wheels, such as the accident train, should not exceed an average bhp of 30. The accident train had such a bhp, but only when it was traveling about 15 mph. At 20 mph, its bhp was 49.54; and at 30 mph, its bhp was 64.40. The large disparity in bhp between the recommended 30 and the actual number the accident train had at its maximum authorized speed translates into significant increases in the heat generated at the interface between the brake shoe and wheel tread. The increases in heat, in turn, degrade the brake shoes and cause heat fade and the loss of molecular adhesion, resulting in a catastrophic loss of retardation and braking powera runaway train. [emphasis added - PDN]
Postaccident examination of the coal car wheels and brake shoes, particularly those at the end of the train, showed that the brakes had been applied heavily and for a relatively long time. Many wheels showed discoloration caused by high heat, including bluing on the tread and rim and red coloration on the wheel plate. The brake shoes were burnt, glazed, and cracked and in various stages of degradation caused by the high heat. The physical evidence on the wheels and brake shoes also showed that the applications had propagated through the entire train without any train line blockage.
However, I don’t believe that the report speaks of any TPOB criteria, other than notoing in the recital of the facts that it was 132 for this accident train.
Note that in the real-world freight car weights used by BaltACD
I suspect it has more to do with the coefficient of friction of the steel on steel than the weight.
Any physical brake will overheat and fade if applied for long periods of time. That is, after all, what a brake does. It turns kinetic energy into heat energy which it then dissipates into the air.
Steel on steel has a very low coefficient of friction and so, little rolling resistance. How many horsepower per ton would it take to move that train if it had rubber tires on concrete? On the other hand, it would be easier to stop it.
The mass of the train means it has much greater kinetic energy but the increased weight also increases the coefficient of friction at the rail head. That’s why a heavy engine pulls better. Trains don’t want the wheels to lock because 1) it takes longer to stop if the wheel is sliding. 2) the train would tend to become an accordion and rip up the rails if the wheels stop turning. 3) There are those nasty flat spots. So the brakes have to dissipate a LOT of heat.
I never thought of conspiracy theories in conjunction with railroads. Out of curiousity, I googled the Gunderson one. For this to have been pulled off, the following people would have needed to keep their mouths shut for years;
The metalworkers who built the boxcars
The shop foremen who oversaw the construction
The executives who gave orders for the production
The government officials who contracted the construction
The railroad crews who put the boxcars in ‘remote wilderness sidings’
The dispatchers who know not to touch those sidings
The train crews who go past every day
The railway police who need to silence questions about them.
That’s a fairly sizable group of people. It’s part of human nature to either brag or clear the conscience, and yet not one of this wide-ranging group said anything about it to anyone over a few years? Impossible.
While I personally do not believe the “shackle car” myth, I think that your argument to discount the myth has a few holes in it.
Just as when the US military undertakes “secret” endeavors, the first priority is to compartmentalize the subject, with ops working in one compartment kept intentionally ignorant of all those working in the others.
Just for instance: You have the shackles made in Japan, the chains made in India, and send them to Mexico for assembly. Mexican truckers take the chains over the border into El Paso at midnight, hiding them under bales of marijuana, for security
The boxcars are made in Oregon and sent to Houston as “bad ordered” You then have welders welding the attachment anchors to the boxcars in some dank warehouse in Houston, telling them they are special tie downs for wind turbine components.
Reminds me of the story - I think it was in Don Ball’s book of color photos of railroads during World War II - about the special military train with a secret itinerary and destination, which was not disclosed to anyone outside of the Pentagon. [;)] That was all fine - until the serving railroads asked, were rebuffed - and then tactfully pointed out that they had a legitimate ‘need to know’ that information, without which they wouldn’t be able to get the train heading in the right direction and delivered to the right location . . . [:-^]
I almost forgot, on the day you have the cars placed on the siding, you arrange to have a distraction story about an alleged love triangle between Tiger Woods, President Obama, and Oprah Winfrey hit the media, with Oprah feeling to be the odd person out, just as insurance. [}:)]
Will the old ICC rules on feeding and watering livestock in transit apply to passengers on these gulag expresses? Is FEMA exempt due to their unlimited power during a state of emergency?
FWIW the laws/regulations restricting how long hogs and cows could be kept in a car went into place before laws limiting how many hours a railroader could be made to work without rest. In the old days, if things got busy, an engineer might work 24-36 hours straight through. Guess damage to livestock cost the railroads money, but if a fireman died of exhaustion you could always find somebody else to shovel the coal. [:)]
As corporate raider/ investor Robert R. Young’s 1950’s / 1960’s advertising campaign against the railroad industry’s seemingly anti-passenger train policies and actions said -
‘‘A hog can cross Chicago without changing trains - but you can’t !’’
How long until there is Youtube posting relating to federal aid for expediting rail interchange in Chicago? The government is doing it to get those auto racks filled with dissidents to their “terminal” destination faster.
All that talk about green locomotives the government is researching is not true. It is cover to test locomotive exhaust for a more sinister purpose. Those auto racks will be even further convertible. Sealed tight, locomotive exhaust will pumped through them.
If the camps are full, this will save time upon arrival.