This car was Dragged , I Do Mean Dragged from Jacksonville, FL. To Atlanta GA
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I’m amazed it didn’t burn up or flat-spot and otherwise create havoc. Was it a ‘light’ application of the handbrake.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
Interesting example of heating a metal and banging on it… This creates an annealed metal and then hits it hard to make the otherwise soft material brittle. Lucky the wheel didn’t heat enough to melt
one nite working a yard job at satratoga springs ny, train 253 stopped for a quick crew change, outbound crew started to pull, i heard a car sqeeling, i was down in the yard pulling pins and making hitches and could not see the main tk. called the crew and stopped the train, the last car had a light handbrake on, all 8 wheels were glowing red/orange, brake shoes were glazed, but still had meat on them, train came from binghamton ny 157 miles and did not trip a single dector, true story
It could also be a sticking brake. It would have the same result, although usually they do come unstuck the next time the train brakes are used.
John
No there are actually 3 flat spots , the hand brake was tight !!!
Couldn’t be too tight, or there would have been one big flat spot!
aka - Built up tread
For a brief time at the County Line end of the departure tracks at Proviso was a wheelset mounted (as a monument of sorts) to show the probable results of not releasing handbrakes–there was an outer flange whose maximum depth was well over an inch.
Every so often I see a cloud of smoke coming from an axle on a train coming out of the yard. I have no way of communicating with the crew any more, but it’s about 14 miles between Proviso and the detector, and I know that thing will nail 'em.
and the track forces will be nervously looking at rail, especially around turnouts if the thing starts banging and nicking the rail.
And the DS gets to watch all the little track circuits stay red behind the train.
And The DS will demand to know within the nearest 2 seconds when the problem ruining his day will be fixed and how much it will cost to the nearest 5 cents.
Wow, you give them that much margin? [:P]
Think Zug and mudchicken in referring to DS are referring to two different people -
Zug’s DS is the Train Dispatcher and train leaving track circuits behind
mudchicken’s DS is the Division Superintendent - when is the opening time for the Main Line and how much is the damage co$t$.
In my territory, at the crews first mention of having ‘built up tread’ (metal transfered to the tread of the wheel’ - the crew will stay stopped where they are and wait for Car Dept assistance before turing another wheel. Make minimum delay in the order of 4+ hours and a recrew for the train involved (if not a bunch of other trains).
One nite callled UP RR police when I saw a car near the end of the train with what I thought might be a stuck brake. BIG trail of sparks from all 8 wheels and the wheels looked like they were glowing.
RR police said they would pass on to the dispatcher. A couple of miles down the road I saw the train up close copied down the engine number, car number position in train. As it was getting close to Ft Worth I looked up the number for the car shop there and phoned them.
The person who answered the phone said yes he had been listening on the radio as the train set off severe detectors and they(the car shop I’m guessing) were not happy. He thanked me for the info on the location of where to look. I commented on why no one had stopped to at least have a look. I got no response. At least I never heard about a derailment that nite. After that if I saw a prob and it was near a terminal I would try to find a number for the terminal and call them after calling the RR police.
Rgds IGN
Zugs and Muds DS is the same critter, the dispatcher.
(Balt: Your tribe has been just a little wierd lately when I’ve dealt with it. Carl & Mooks have been watching that sad episode unfold offline…)
Have seen seven inch flat spots. Not a pretty sight…
Never worried about cost. We didn’t pay the bill.
As far as delay, yeah, a bunch. Besides, it’s not the DS that gets worked up, it’s the chiefs and bosses that have to answer to yet another round of bosses and chiefs higher up. The lowly DS just gets to be the “middle man”. Fun stuff. I miss it.
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As a Dispatcher - I don’t have any cares about $$$$$$ - I only care about getting things moving again - it takes $$$$ to make $$$$$$$$ and a stopped railroad doesn’t make any $. Division Supt. may care about costs - but only after things are moving.