I was wondering because one day I was watching close calls on tv it was where people. tried to beat trains to the crossings and only 1 and 5 made it.[#offtopic] But any way on they also showed that really steap hill in Californa where at the top the. Crew tested the brakes and they worked fine but as they came down the train lost it’s brakes and ended up derailing and in the investigtion. They said the air hoses had gotten kinked. [4:-)]
I have wondered that too. Good question.
My guess is the hose is twisted before hooking them together.
Adrianspeeder
Hmmm, never heard of air hoses being “kinked” before.
Looking forward to hearing what it’s all about…
That’s not how I recall the NTSB investigation found that accident to have happened… I’ll look it up and get back here.
If your talking about the wreck on Cajon pass the air hose was not kinked. Somebody closed the angle-**** on a car near the front of the train. The EOT was not a two way and therefore they could not set the brakes on the rear half of the train. They did not realise this till it was too late. There too much tonnage for the amount of operative brakes. Thay claimed that someone at summit had tampered with the train (angle-****). After that they fenced off the area at the top and hired a security staff. They used to hassle everybody up there even spots they had no controll over. They were total ****heads. But lately they have mellowed out quite a bit. The fence sucks because it took away some really great angles with Mt. Baldy in the background. It also makes it a pain in the neck to get to Highland siding on the ex SP.
When a hose gets kinked, it’s usually on car that has a cushioned drawbar or just a long drawbar (72’ BNSF reefers). Sometimes the airhose is too short/long when the slack runs in/out, the hose gets kinked. We have dummy hoses (short hoses with glad hands on both ends) to help prevent this.
For a through understanding of the braking power of traditional railroad braking and dynamic braking and their combined importance in handling a train in mountain territory the folloing NTSB accident investigation is very illuminating.