Good afternoon,
I noticed a few years ago that several switching yards in my area put up wind socks. There are 4 of them in a nearby yard here in Wisconsin, which is approx 1 1/2 miles in length.
My best guess is that if you should have a hazardous chemical spill from a derailment, etc that you could quickly determine the direction of downwind drift of the chemical… but that’s just my guess.
Any firm answers on what purpose they serve? Have you seen them elsewhere?
Thx
You are exactly right about the wind socks and their purpose at rail yards. You will also find them at chemical plants, refineries, and other industries that ship or receive hazardous materials.
A second purpose of a Wind Sock, since in switching, cars are roling on their own momentum, either from having been ‘kicked’ by a yard crew or by being cut off rolling over the hump at a hump yard…The wind can make a serious difference in how fast and how far a car will roll.
Wind behind the car can cause it to roll farther and faster than intended. Wind in the face of the car may cause it to stop short of its inteneded destination and may even stop it short enough that it fouls the switching lead, thus creating problems for either the switching or hump crew as they will have to make an additional move to get the car clear of the lead to continue their switching.
…they also help the engineers decide what position to place the sails on the wind powered locomotives.
The socks tell us which way to run when something falls over harder that you would like.
Ed
a wind sock used to tell how hard to kick a car? i think not…most of the time the windsocks are out of the range of sight when flat switching…so they have no relivence to a yard crew doing work… the wind dosnt affect the cars that much when kicking them… unless its a tornado…and then the crew wouldnt be kicking cars…they would be running for shelter… its like someone said in a previose posting… its if thier is a HAZMAT spill or leak…to know what way the wind is blowing…
csx engineer
The wind sock at the hump in Proviso is definitely used by us car retarder operators. When you’re dealing with precise coupling speeds, wind direction and intensity definitely play a role. And, as we’ve said before, a strong wind blowing from the wrong direction will blow some cars back at you (usually empty “two-masted” cars like bulkhead flats or Center-beam cars).
cshaverr…
i have yet to see that happen… epecialy at a hump yard… so what your saying is if the wind is say…above 50mph…it will blow back up the hump hill?
csxengineer:
You apparently are living a charmed life wherever you be back east. CShave & Ed are NOT kidding…Anything already bled-off and free-wheeling that gets up a head of steam can roll up a slight incline with very little effort…you have the advantage of having the independent air on the loco…that’s one more brake system than the freight car has.
I used to have to fix a couple of run thru rigid switches each year that the wind pushed an empty set of cars thru until we were allowed to protect the approaches to these rigid switch crossovers with flopover derails on windy days. (the cars would start moving when no switch crew was on duty…kinda spooky)
Not up the hill ('specially on our hump!), but they have blown back from well in the track to out on the lead…and 20-30 mph is probably enough.
Carl
wind does play an important role in humping and switching! You can’t tell me that if you are kicking an empty hopper into the wind, you don’t have to kick it harder to send it into the track. Our hump has a sensor that displays wind speed and direction on the hump. Wether Pro-Yard takes this value into account, I don’t know…but it can stop an empty shure as hell…
Still and all, I suspect that the main purpose is the Hazmat one; if something evil happens to a car, it sure is nice to know which way to run… but they do help in the switching, too, no doubt.
its not some much a “charmed life” as someone so colorfully put it… but more like i have never had or heard of any porblems with cars being blown back in flat switching… you all must have some killer winds that blow where your at… when i use to work the ground…and kick cars… wind was never an issue for us on the ground… it was always 10mph kick…unless the track we where kicking into had cars close to the end of the track…and you didnt want them to hit to hard… it seems that more times then not… if we didnt kick the cars hard enought they would get hung up becoues of the binding of the wheels going through the switches… not wind… and like i said befor… at the yards i work at…the windsocks are way out sight of a yard crews line of sight when they are switching… so how importaint is a windsock to the crew when they are switching…none
csx engineer
What does kicking cars mean exactly?
kicking cars is when you bleed off all the air…so they roll free… cuple an engin up… and pu***hem… when you think you got enought speed to make it into the track you want…you pull the cut leaver…and stop the engin…the car will keep going…on its own
most of the time… when a conductor is makeing a cut… the cars are going by at a walking speed… and he lifts up on the cut leaver…and then tells the engineer to give him a kick…
the only time its safe to make a cut at 10mph is if the conductor is rideing the steps of the engin…and makes a cut useing the engin cut leaver
its something to see… if you got a good crew that works well together…they can switch out 150 cars in a few hours…
csx engineer
I must plead complete ignorance to what goes on in the yards but, I wanted to add my two pennies to the discussion.
From my perspective, I would think that the windsocks would be used for HAZMAT conditions. My reasoning is thus… The folks in the yard can probably “feel” the wind and judge it’s effects without use of a sock. The people inside the offices would need the socks because they can’t “feel” the wind and will need to notify emergency personnel which direction the hazard may be blowing.
Paul
Csxengineer98, Thanks for the info, learn somthing new every day. It’s kind of funny but a client of mine is an engineer for conrail here in columbus ohio he says the railfans know more than he does. He’s been with conrail for 23 yrs.
It is true about the wind playing a factor when it comes to railroad cars. When I was younger, dad got his leg caught between two cars. Wind came up when he was between and pinched him between them.
My sympathies to your father Strohs.
Joe
I have thought the one sock at Acca/ Hermitage CSX/ex-RF&P yard, near the shops and where the business car used to stay, was probably for the CSX helicopter. Anyone know?
Bob