If a knuckle breaks on my train? That thing must weight 80 pounds! and to do that in 2 feet of snow? By myself?
Well hope you have a strong back and weak mind as for me, I would have left it there.LOL
That’s one of the things you sign up for.
However, there are easier ways to do it…
- Have the Trainmaster, Road Foreman, Carman, etc bring the kunckle to you.
- Have a passing train drop you a knuckle.
- Have the engineer drop the knuckle on the ground, then pull you up to it.
Nick
No, you don’t have to carry that heavy son of a gun anywhere, you leave the busted one there, have the engineer toss off the correct replacement, you grab on, he drags you up to where he tossed it, you put it on the cross walk platform, and have him shove you back to within a car length of the rest of the train.
Now, if you want to carry a busted knuckle 50 cars up to the motor, and then carry the good one back 50 cars, I know a few engineers who would let you do that just because…and I got a great deal for you on a house in New Orleans, only flooded once!
But carring that thing is part of the conducter test? Is it not?
Yes but on a single trakk railroad in the middle of knowhere where you are 6 miles between grade crossings?? what then? and no acesss road?
Well, you start walking back to find out where the problem is. Then, walk up to the head end and pray you can find a spare knuckle. If you can find one, walk back to the break, nearly kill yourself getting the remains of the broken knuckle out, insert the replacement knuckle, then call the head end on the radio. Re-couple train. With three step protection, re-join brake lines, get air test. Find out that marker needs to be re-armed ( two miles further along). Walk back to marker and re-set. Find railfan friend wondering what happened. Beg ride to near head end. Stop at fast food restaurant, for coffee and a “break” (engineer thinks that you are walking back) return to head end. Give engineer snake eyes. Do not talk to him for rest of trip. Any resemblance between this incident and an actual event is purely coincidental![swg]
I have to agree put it on the platform and shove back, but everybody forget one thing. Cuss out the engineer for breaking it in the first place!! I once tried to power brake a 18,000 ton coal train with 3 70MACs. Thank god it was the knuckle on the second car that broke and not 50 or 60 back. The conductor (a old head) just laughed and handed me the tools and I fixed it myself. Needless to say I NEVER did that again.
Yes, but you only have to carry it 10 feet or so.
Nick
hey is this house two bdrm how far from beer store [:D]
We usually do it like the way Ed says. If there isn’t another train to help (or won’t stop to help), have the engineer drop off a new one and pull yourself up to it. Just hope that you said the right type or that the engineer looked at the actual knuckle, not just the letter on the holder. There seems to be quite a few good knuckles lying around out there. If the broken one is on the end still connected to the engines, you can change it out where the new one lays or if it isn’t, put the new one on the crosswalk and ride it back to do the work. The hardest part is to get the cotter pin out of the knuckle pin to take out the old and put in the new. I carried a heavy duty line-man’s pliers. Some use the hammer and chisel off the engine to break off the cotter pin.
One other thing about walking back to find the problem. Take along the airhose wrench and a spare air hose. You may not be in two pieces, it might only be a hose became damaged or came apart.
A break in two now requires the engineer filling out the BIT form and having your engine downloaded to see why the break happened. The form asks if the break is new or partially old. They always said have the conductor “relieve” himself on it so the shiny metal starts to rust ov
I am guessing that after going through all that, most conductors wouldnt have to be asked twice to annoint the busted knuckle…[}:)]
I have been on two trains as a brkmn and have had knuckles tear apart. Fixing it with two crewmen is not a problem is. One person, not designed for that. If a knuckle breaks and i am condr with no brkmn, I will have a mech dept rapid responder be called to assist.
So…You could pull up the engine after dropping the knuckle without air brakes using only the dynamic breaks for stopping? and then back up to put it together…Thank you for your answer…
So what happens when a drawbar is pulled out…what is that procedure?
And you will outlaw where you are stopped!
Uh,huh…[:-^]
You still have air brakes, Rusty Nip. Keep in mind that when the knuckle breaks, the trainline hose will separate and your train won’t go anywhere. You walk back to the separation (or bum a ride, if that’s possible), close the angle-cock, tie a sufficient number of hand brakes on the separated portion, then do all of the things pertinent to changing the knuckle.
You can’t do anything except set the car out. If the drawbar is on the trailing end, you pull it to a siding or spur where the car department can reach it. If it’s on the leading end of the separated portion, you get a chain (hopefully the same way you’d get a knuckle from the engine), tie the car to the lead portion with the chain, then take it to the setout point. This, of course, after properly tying down and obtaining protection for the rest of your train.
It might be possible, after placing the car in a spur or siding, to back the entire train onto it and take it in to the next repair point. Not being a road person and having never encountered such a problem, I haven’t had to refresh my memory on the pertinent operating rules.
YES now that I think about it Amtrak trains have picked up conrail crews that have had these problems to take them to the rear of the train
So when some antalope-hole prankster closes a angle cock in a hundred car train while stopped at a signal…or when in motion does that mean that the train could lose control? thanx in advance as well as for the well thought out answers…
&nbs
Now that I’ve had happen. When the angle-cock (I hate that this thing bleeps out the word!) is closed on a standing train, chances are that there’s enough leakage in the train-line that brakes will set up on the hind end. In certain parts of Chicago, they’ll do that and proceed to steal stuff out of the cars (usually containers nowadays). Your best recourse there is to call the dispatcher and/or get protection from special agents while going back to remedy the problem.
How often does a knuckle actually break 50 cars back? Unless you’ve got an engineer making some horrible slack action - I bet most of 'em are right up at the front.