Squealer's Wheels

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

For the first time in about a month, I got to actually go and watch a moving train.

We moved in November. Our new house is less than a mile from the BNSF Sioux Falls to Mitchell, S,D, main line. This line is also used by the Dakota & Iowa railroad, to haul a daily unit train of pink Sioux Quartzite from Dells Rapids, S.D. to Sioux City, S.D.

Last night, I was stopped by a D&I train grinding by slowly just after dark. That’s odd, because they usually run in daytime. I just figured they were extra busy, or trying to beat the 100 degree heat we’ve been having. Tonight, I caught the same train before dark. Something wasn’t right about the train, leading to a lot of questions on my part.

Sitting in the cool shade of a park, I watched the D&I train approach slowly…real slowly. As it passed, I noticed that it was being pulled by 2 UP SD70M’s. #4374, & #5091. A railroad that has 20+ locomotives for it’s daily 90 mile trip shouldn’t need foreighn power. UP engines are very rare in our part of the world. I thought maybe UP was buying ballast on a cash and carry basis, but the cars were all LG Everist (Parent company of D&I), or reporting marks like SI 919865.

As the train went by, it was making anawful noise. Imagine someone using a circular saw to cut a rail- only louder. This sound was coming from the rear trucks of the leading unit. Right after the train passed me, it stalled out (?). The grade out of downtown is ever so slight, but sometimes, I can hear trains huffing and puffing to move along the slight grade.

The train ground to a halt, blocking a busy residential intersection, and another minor one. As it sat there, I noticed someone in a D&I pickup was waiting at the c

2

1: Not sure, but it sounds like the UP had a deal with them to hand off the train, locomotives and cars as a unit to a UP crew once they got in to the interchange yard.

2: Brakes not fully released on the cars.

3: Because the air problem was with the leading unit and they were setting it up to run off the rear or trailing unit?.

4: See answer 2…

5: Sounds like you have the answer, unless the D&I guys normally just drive around looking for something to do.

6: In a way, he was trying to get the brakes to release, sometimes “busting the air” or putting the train into emergency brake application will reset the PCS switch, which helps controls the air brakes on the cars.

7: You said in the evening, maybe they just wanted to have a place for the mechanic to look it over good, maybe that’s just how it worked out, if they were having air problems, they may have been running in notch 8 just to get it moving, and they simply over shot.

You said it stalled out, so that might have simply been where it stopped moving.

8: If all they had was the one engine doing the work, then yes, or at least until they could get more power run out to them, if that was even considered…

9: Now that’s not nice…it was born that way.

Question, just before the lead unit shut down, did you hear alarm bells or a loud alarm buzzer sounding?

SD 70Ms have auto star /auto stop program, which will shut down a unit if the throttle is in idle and the train line brakes and independent are set, it is a fuel saving thing.

Without being there and seeing all this in person, my guess is they had air problems, couldn’t get the brakes on the cars to release all the way, and called a mechanic to see if he could solve the issue, and it seems he couldn’t so they made a run for the barn in hopes of getting there and fixing the issue at home…sounds like they were “Stuck in the middle with you” so to speak, liked the title pun/play on words…

3

Without wading through all the possible permutations of trouble - sounds like the 2nd unit had issues and the mechanic was called to meet the train and see if he could resolve the issues. I doubt that there were air issues, sound more like loading issues with the 2nd unit and potentially a locked traction motor on the 2nd unit from your description of the sound of the 2nd unit as it passed. Whatever fixes that may have been applied were to get the train to the crew’s destination, if the train was going onto a UP destination I suspect another power plan would have to be formulated, as you would never let a train go from a terminal knowing that 4 MPH was it’s max speed.

4

If a traction motor locked up, wouldn’t that also lock up the axle and wheels it was connected to?

5

Thus the extreme squeeling

6

So, a person standing alongside would see the wheels locked and sliding on that axle as the train went by?

7

If they are looking - or the wheel may be turning and the internals of the locked traction motor may be screaming that they are turning against their will.

8

I suppose a traction motor bearing can fail and make a lot of noise without necessarily locking the motor.

9

Ed- No alarm sounded that I could hear.

If the squeal from all the wheels was from the brakes not releasing, why would it happen backking up, but not when pulling forward?

10

If i’m reading right, they backed up going down hill. He may have shoved the train with some air set, to control the move. Especially if someone was riding the rear car protecting the move.

This morning I met the WSXNEB (work train-ballast) with the UP 4374 (leading) and UP 5091. While it reads like a locked traction motor, I doubt it would be used if that were the case. Even if it would break loose, they usually sideline an engine. If it happened once it’ll probably happen again.

Unless they didn’t tell the UP one of their engines had a problem.

I like the way the SD70m engines look. The later ones with the squared off door aren’t as nice,IMO.

Jeff

11

Shoving against a light brake set to bunch in the slack, so that when you pull forward, you are starting one car at a time instead of trying to pull the whole load at once.

D/C traction motors are kinda simple inside, sorta like a great big blender motor!

There are brushes, and armature end bearings, but not much mechanical inside that can break and jam the motor…short out, yup, but jamming is rare.

The armature shaft has a pinion gear on one end, which mates and turns a bull ring gear on the wheel set, the only bearings that can fail are the axel bearings on the axel ends, or the carrier bearing which the traction motor rides on, either one failing is obvious to the crew.

Armature bearings can fail, but that is so rare that, in the 15 years we have been using the MK1500D for switching, not one armature bearing has failed for us, and switching is the worse abuse a traction motor can be subject to.

Carrier bearings are half shell sintered bronze bearings in an oil bath, they rarely fail or lock the axel, and if they did, the traction motor would slam around violently.

The axel end bearings do fail, but nowhere near as often as one thinks…anything that “locked” the axel on a locomotive would mean the crew would not move the locomotive, period, unless under direct order, doing so would destroy the wheel set by sliding flat the wheel, and un like railcar wheel sets, traction wheel sets are a big big expense and time consuming to replace.

See Jeff’s reply…and to clarify, a question to Jeff…

Would you voluntarily move a locomotive with a locked wheel, or would you request a order to move it?

I can answer for myself and my engineer, we would require the trainmaster to order us to do so, to protect ourselves from charges.

12

Someone with authority will have to tell me to do something questionable. I’ve been in situations like this and CYA is ALWAYS in effect.

I almost called the engineer by radio to ask if there were any problems ordefect tags applied, but didn’t.

Jeff

13

I haven’t said anything, because I was waiting for guys like Ed and (especially) Jeff to weigh in.

But I didn’t think about a locked traction motor. My response to number 2 would have been a slipping axle, inhibiting its ability to pull the loaded train up the hill, and then shoving back against the train whose brakes hadn’t released yet. Could the breaking of the train-line accomplish the same thing as an adjustment in feed-valve setting?

14

I can’t imagine leaving town with any kind of traction motor bearing problem, locked rotor, or an axle bearing problem if they were aware of it.

There was a video I saw a while back showing a light engine move with what looked like a bearing failure on the trailing unit. The video gives the impression that the crew does not realize the problem.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQAGWo3PbZk

15

I love the morons commenting on that video about “leaving the handbrake on”.

A handbrake that applies to the fireman’s side wheel on the first axle somehow makes an axle in the rear truck spark. Must be one of those magical handbrakes you apply with pixie dust. Like I said: morons.

16

Outstanding,

I would love to be listening when the shop foreman got a good look at that wheel set!

17

I wish I knew the whole story about that video. Is that wheel locked and dragging? If so, could it wear down enough to cause a derail? If the sparks are coming from a bearing, I would think that in only a mile or two it would burn off and drop the truck. Does a locked brake of some sort cause that much heat?

18

Well, it sounds like the problem got fixed, unless the train was put-putting along on one locomotive.[:o)]

Is a work train-ballast, a train that is hauling ballast to a central location, for use around the system? Or would that indicate that it was a specific load for a specific project somewhere?

This sounds more and more, like UP picked up the train at the quarry in Dell Rapids, with their own locomotives. Since that would be 80 or so miles from the UP interchange at Sioux City, would that normally be run with a UP crew? Would a D&I crew move the UP locomotives ? Would someone grab a batch of empties at Sioux City, and haul them back to Dell Rapids- since they were headed that way anyway, and it’s on the way?

19

I think this particular train was ultimately headed for Nelson, IL. Probably for a project in that area, although sometimes some cars may be dumped enroute for other projects. That would be planned in advance, usually not a spur of the moment thing.

The UP would just turn over the entire train to the D&I and a D&I crew would be running the train on their railroad. I’ve seen ballast trains come out of Sioux City before, but I don’t know if the UP power usually goes thru to the D&I. Sure it’s possible that the D&I picked up some of their own

20

I think they may have skipped the locomotive brake test. Saves 20 minutes that way.