Hey I was wondering every so often when a grass fire gets started by Railroads the fire departments usally end up saying that the train that just passed is the cause. And so I was wondering what usally causes sparks to shoot from the trains as they pass dry grassey lands end up starting fires along the tracks. If anyone has any answers can you pass it on to me[B)][D)]
I was up at about 11 PM one day sometime last year and a CN/IC crew was doing some switching and I overheard them talking about the engine brakes sparking and the brake pads were down to the steal.They had to report it so they could replace the brakes next time it was in the shop.
Well, there has been a few incidents in which diesel units have been known to shoot fire out of the exhaust, which has to be a frightening sight for anyone around. And like any fire, little flames can bud off, and shoot away from the original flame.
Worn brake pads would easily do it. Metal on metal like that would shoot A LOT of sparks.
Diesels only perform their best when run at higher speeds. This is partly due to the fact they are turbocharged for the most part and at idle and building up rpms they tend to run rich causing carbon generation. This carbon can coat the exhaust manifold and outlet. as temperature increase in the exhaust manifold the carbon can glow red hot and be discharged into the atmosphere. Where it falls depends on whether it starts a fire or not. Many diesels in hazardous areas like chemical plants, refineries and many railroads that are subject to fires add spark arrestors to the exhaust to prevent the expulsion of the carbon. While not humungous in size it is the equivalent of throwing a lit piece of coal into a flammable area causing a fire.
metal on metal will definetley cause sparks. I have seen some fire come out of the exhaust stacks of diesels. I was sitting in a parking lot one day, and 3 NS dash 9s ran by me. As soon as it passed my mom’s car, i saw flames shoot from the stack, and i was amazed that a diesel could shoot a flame that size.
I would expect that most of the train caused fires are related to brake sparks. If you fan near a significant grade you’ll probably notice a fair amount of smoke coming from the wheels of downward trains. Old saying…“where there’s smoke…”
Didn’t the Utterly Pathetic have a rule about motors being tied down and then run for so long in run 8 to blow out the carbon if they had been sitting??
I think the old blower scavenged motors were worse in this regard, the EMD 2 strokes had gear driven turbos that dropped out at speed. Until they didn’t come back when the hogger closed the throttle and they choked…
yep mark…that about sums up all the major reasons…
csx engineer
morning, a grass fire can also be started by a careless worker throwing out a cigarette of the cab to the ground below!! or even a hobo on trains,cigarette.
One or two more reasons to add to Mark’s otherwise comprehensive list–off-center cars or improper loading. Last night we had a gondola load of coil steel that was emitting sparks from the vicinity of one of the trucks from time to time, apparently where wheels were making contact with some part of the carbody. I usually associate this–sparks usually flying straight down–with a truck that has somehow come off its center pin, but things looked pretty well lined up to me, so it could have been that the load wasn’t properly balanced in the car.
Most of the fires on the WSOR were attributed to carbon out the stacks, we used to have quite the spark show on long (over 1/2 hour) pulls. I have also seen sparks due to overloaded or mis-loaded cars.
Randy
Another very common spark causing agent is when the slip control fails on Locomotives, especially remote control ones. Watching slipping wheels grind down on rail definitely causes a LOT of sparks. [}:)]