In my part of the world there are many grain elevators along the tracks. The bigger operations have an old Geep or SW switcher used occasionaly to move cars. They probably sit idle about 29 days out of each month, then get used for a couple days.
How hard is it to start an old diesel locomotive that has been sitting for a month? Do these old locomotives have to meet any sort of railroad or federal minimum standards? Are they exempt if they never leave the elevator property?
It can be tough to start one that has sat that long. The batteries tend to get weak especially in the winter. The FRA requires locomotives to be inspected every 92 days by a qualified person. (not to be confused with daily inspections done by engineers)
Now if you are exempt you can probably get away with doing less. I’m not sure of the specifics of what makes one exempt, as I dont deal with any operations like that. Others could tell you more.
I don’t have enough knowledge to address the mechanics of actually starting such a locomotive.
As to the federal standards, I’d interpet the “part of the general railroad system of transportation” portion quoted below as including such grain elevator trackage, and requiring that such locomotives meet those standards and be inspected to ensure that they do. But I would also not be surprised if the industry and the FRA take the opposite view, and exempt them. Let’s see what those with knowledge of that have to say.
From: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_10/49cfr229_10.html
[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2010]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR229.3]
[Page 441-442]
TITLE 49–TRANSPORTATION
CHAPTER II–FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION
PART 229_RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVE SAFETY STANDARDS–Table of Contents
Subpart A_General
"Sec. 229.3 Applicability.
(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this
section, this part applies to all standard gage railroads.
(b) This part does not apply to:
(1) A railroad tha
Curiosity begs me to ask if there has ever been locomotives manufactured to be started by use of an auxiliary ‘donkey’ engine; in the manner that large construction equipment is equipped?
The smaller engine being much easier to start than the much larger prime mover.
Or even an air started as is used in the trucking industry by some?
Battweries are now pretty expensive and can be an item that is pilfered when left unwatched as in a parked locomotive.
Well you would have to blow out the cylinder cocks first, but assuming the batteries are all right it should start up fine.
For the record, the 92 Day Inspection is 92 days of operation, not a plain 92 days. We have an F unit that gets used maybe once or twice a year, and theoretically, if it runs once a year, the 92 Day Inspection is good for 92 years. Although its gets tricky because I believe the cutoff is 31 days. It has to have not run for 31 days to qualify as out of service credit. If the engine sits 29 days and on the 30th day she is moved, enough to constitute “operation”, the FRA considers the engine having been ran for 30 days, even though she may have only run once.
If the Locomotive is sitting in colder weather, A hotstart would be helpful. It circulates the oil and keeps it warm, and some even circulate the coolant. The ones that have thier own motor might even have a generator to charge the batteries.
Any industry that has a capital asset that they are only using 12 days a year has a seriously underperforming capital asset. I suspect that must industry owned switch engines are used on at least a Monday-Friday basis for several hours each day.
Consider the alternative, however - paying your connecting railroad to come in and switch for you.
That said - there’s a reason why such industries are running third (or fourth, or fifth) hand locomotives - they didn’t cost 'em much. All they have to do is keep them running enough to shift cars around when necessary.
A cogen plant near here has an SW1 (or similar early EMD) they use to move cars through the unloader, usually in sticks of 10-12. Sometimes they’ll get several unit trains in in short order, then go a couple of months without any at all. While they may start the loco from time to time, otherwise it sees no service. But when they need it, they need it, and all-in-all, it’s probably cheaper than leasing a locomotive from CSX every now and then.
I work in a scrap yard that has an Alco HH660, Alco S-4 and a EMD NW2 that are used in our facility only and the FRA has no jurisdiction over our locomotives at all. When I worked for the DM&E, many elevators had there own locomotives and again the FRA had no jurisdiction over these locomotives as long as they did not leave private track. If any of these locomotives go onto a railroads trackage, they were under FRA rules.
When I worked for the Minnesota Valley Railroad we received some old IHB NW2’s that looked like they hadn’t run in years. There was not a piece of glass left in any of them that was not broken. After some prep work like draining the cylinders, checking oil in the crank and governor and a few other similiar things, our mechanic connected a jump pack to the batteries and they all started. Had I been a betting man I would have bet that not a one of them would have ran.
These old locomotives and the people that work on them are amazing.
Matt
Wouldn’t tthe grain operatiors go to rubber tired or cable and pulley tuggers, unless the strings to be moved were long or extra siding wasn’t available? Would keep 'em away rrom the FRA.
RIX
Or even a front-end loader. Boston Sand and Gravel here in Massachusetts (bet you can’t guess the town! [:-^]) uses one to shove strings of maybe 15 empty hopper cars for loading. Quite a sight to see - I have a photo of it somewhere.
Wow, that brings back a childhood memory of a sugar beet loader on an SP siding in beautiful Seeley CA where the cruddy old beet gons that SP used were spotted under the chute of the loader with a good sized farm tractor and a rope and then tugged and maybe even coupled to the loads already full.
Every two or three days, a Geep would come through and pick up the fills and probably set out some more empties during pulling season, probably on the same trip that picked up box cars with SheetRock from Plaster City. May and June, as I recall.
That was before SP sold those pathetic gons to the beet mills.
An industry of size, yes, a lonely grain elevator on the upper plains, maybe not. I know of a couple elevators where the switcher doesn’t move for months at a time.
What is a cable and pulley tugger?
A local wholesale lumber yard moves cars with a front end loader. It has a knuckle on the end of the back-hoe arm(?).
A system wherein cables, routed via pulleys and powered by a capstan, are used to move cars. You’ll usually see them at smaller facilities where moves only involve a few cars, like at a feed mill unloader.
This is a nautical application, but the principle is the same:
I take it you would have to have one of these at each end of the cut of cars, in order to control the speed and stopping of the cars?
Many years ago, I worked a summer job at the US Steel Supply warehouse (formerly Pressed Steel Car Co.) in Hegewisch. The EJ&E “Peanut” job would deliver and spot loads at various points in the warehouse and remove empties. The warehouse used a Trackmobile to move recently emptied cars and replace them with another loaded car.
Not necessarily. With a continuous loop and an idler pulley at the far end, and a reversible motor, the cable/ rope could go either way as needed. I’ll see if I can find a diagram or photo of one.
However, I have heard concerns about it dragging on the ground, interference in heavy snowpack conditions, maintenance, and tripping and flying cable hazards in the event of a breakage, etc. That may be more of a regional/ cultural thing and also a function of how often it is used and how comfortable the people at the plant are with it. I know of a few coal mines that have used one from long ago - but even last year a potential user (refrigerator cars at a cold storage warehouse) nixed one in favor of either a Track-Mobile, or paying the serving railroad to respot the cars from time to time (which was my recommendation - not much extra room, and a steep grade down to the main, even though it was protected with a double-switch point derail).
P.S. - Here’s a good page of diagrams - glad I found it - see also the other pages there, too:
http://www.ac-h.com/c_puller_layouts.php
And another: http://www.aldonco.com/docs/TECH_winch.pdf
For more, search for “car puller” - there’s lots out there. - PDN.
Not normally. The handbrakes can be used to stop the cut of cars. We are talking about very slow speeds, usually moving the cut only one car length at a time. If necessary have the brake applied lightly so when the pulling stops, so does the car. It is also why there will be some form of derail at the end of the industry’s track. Sometimes the first car might be moved towards the end of the siding and the brakes applied fully, so the car acts as a backstop.
John