“Norfolk Southern employees were able to slow the car and board it at a slow speed, when they used a hand brake to stop it, she said.”
How were they able to slow it?
Most grades don’t continue down forever - when the grade begins to rise then gravity becomes your friend.
Yes, but she said “…employees were able to slow the car…”
Knowing the physical characteristics of a territory is a employee tool in knowing where gravity will work for you. After gravity does most of its function, the car is moving slow enough for empoyees to mount the car and apply hand brakes to bring it to a stop. Employees are not Superman - they are not
I’ve only seen it from the locomotive–I would not want to be a gropo doing it. If the pole breaks, it becomes shrapnel.
Another way it can go wrong is when the car fails to go far enough in to the desired track; instead it just sits on the frogs, laughing at the flustered crew.
While it’s never been tested (to my knowledge, anyhow), it is supposed that if a car were to get loose on our Purgatory Hill (named after Purgatory Creek - origin unknown) it might well roll almost all the way to Utica, if it stayed on the tracks. That’s about 35 miles.
There’s a couple of upgrades that might slow a car substantially (or stop it, depending on a number of factors) but otherwise, it’s all down hill…
Of course, if the divariable fribersitcher gets out of synch with the framis, the Johnson rod might suffer some damage…
As I recall (without checking carefully), there are 6 grade crossings along the car’s trip: 31st St. near the Allentown - Emmaus line, 12th & Vultee Sts. in Allentown, Auburn St. at CP Burn also in Allentown, a couple of private crossings approaching Bethlehem, and then Riverside Drive which is the one just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge in Bethlehem in the video. I believe they’re all protected by at least flashing signals - the 4 named streets all have gates, too.
More interesting is the profile: According to the reports, this car started at Emmaus Jct. (milepost about RV-31.5) where the East Penn RR’s Perkiomen Line joins the NS Reading - Allentown - Bethlehem main. Notably, the East Penn track is about 8 ft. higher than the NS main, so that drop would give the car a pretty good rolling start.
(Some of us will be wondering why the derail didn’t stop it. I’ll bet some serious money that the junction is now protected by a single or double switch point derail . . . . - or else it got away from an interchange switching crew? [:-^] )
Anyway, once it got onto the main it had a grade of -0.31% to -0.27% to a short piece of -0.84% to CP Burn - see page 038 (45/548) here:
Those grades are just about right to keep a car rolling at about a constant speed, maybe speeding up a little bit.
At CP Burn* - Allentown (pg. 039) it likely took the turnout at RV-35.11 to EN-93.00 at East Penn Jct. (pg. 041) towards Bethlehem (pg. 040) - the grade is almost entirely flat at 0.00%. From EN-88.59 = LE-88.59 Lehigh Line (pg.040 and then go to pg. 162) = CP JU it went past CP Bethlehem to wherever they got it st
As I recall (without checking carefully), there are 6 grade crossings along the car’s trip: 31st St. near the Allentown - Emmaus line, 12th & Vultee Sts. in Allentown, Auburn St. at CP Burn also in Allentown, a couple of private crossings approaching Bethlehem, and then Riverside Drive which is the one just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge in Bethlehem in the video. I believe they’re all protected by at least flashing signals - the 4 named streets all have gates, too.
More interesting is the profile: According to the reports, this car started at Emmaus Jct. (milepost about RV-31.5) where the East Penn RR’s Perkiomen Line joins the NS Reading - Allentown - Bethlehem main. Notably, the East Penn track is about 8 ft. higher than the NS main, so that drop would give the car a pretty good rolling start.
(Some of us will be wondering why the derail didn’t stop it. I’ll bet some serious money that the junction is now protected by a single or double switch point derail . . . . - or else it got away from an interchange switching crew? )
Anyway, once it got onto the main it had a grade of -0.31% to -0.27% to a short piece of -0.84% to CP Burn - see page 038 (45/548) here:
Those grades are just about right to keep a car rolling at about a constant speed, maybe speeding up a little bit.
At CP Burn* - Allentown (pg. 039) it likely took the turnout at RV-35.11 to EN-93.00 at East Penn Jct. (pg. 041) towards Bethlehem (pg. 040) - the grade is almost entirely flat at 0.00%. From EN-88.59 = LE-88.59 Lehigh Line (