Many of the trains I see in my area have the same locomotives working together in the same order. Is that just coincidence or do certain locomotives tend to hang out together long term?
I don’t see the locals here as often as I used to, but I’d see the same loco for a while, then a new one would replace it. Undoubtedly that was because they got rotated out for service, inspections, etc. I looked up one that had worked here for a while and found a picture of it in Detroit - 500 miles from here and not even remotely on the same line.
I suspect that you’re seeing the same thing, plus there’s no reason to separate the pair until there is, so they tend to run together for a while. When there’s a reason to send one or both elsewhere, they will, and you’ll have a new pair to watch for a while.
Yard and local power tend to hang out for a while. As Tree said, being changed when inspections or mechanical problems cause them to leave.
Our regular coal pool power tends to stay on the same train sets for a few cycles. You’ll see, or hear over the radio, the same engine numbers for a few weeks. It’s not unusual to get on a coal train or empty one day, then the same set again a week later and have the same locomotives and cars.
Other engines, like the heritage or other specially painted units, seem to make an appearance and then disappear. I saw the WP unit the other day. First of the original batch of heritage units I’ve seen in a while.
Jeff
The roundhouse tribe and hostelers often do not want to MU units just for the fun of it. The pin connections often need troubleshooting, especially with some of the older stuff. (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it syndrome)
Our terminal has assigned power. So I’ve run the same engines countless times.
Every once in a while we will get an interloper (usually if a couple of our engines are in the shops), but they don’t normally stick around long.
Power for the intermodals to North Baltimore seem to make a quick turn back to Chicago on Csx.The mother slug sets I’ve seen tend to stay together when they are hauling work trains.
stay safe
Joe
I noticed the same thing many years ago when I had a summer job at the US Steel warehouse (former Pressed Steel Car Co.) in Hegewisch. The plant was switched by an EJ&E local and EJ&E 416 or 305 was the regular power.
…boy does that ring a bell …a “run away” (with very bad consequences …any of them ever not bad news? …don’t answer that) …some time back, over in the hill country, East Coast …pin 26 of MU (I think it was) caused a failure of dynamic braking that the engineer thought he had…sick feeling I’m sure endmrw0623181609
You never count (depend) on dynamics being there. They will fail at the worst time.
That’s why you have air.
Maximium speed in decending grades relying on air alone is approximately 12 MPH or less. Going faster overheats the air brake/wheel interface and with air alone control of the train is then lost.
Nevermind.
… well, let’s see what you DO no…discount the cause of the SP “run away” in the mountains out in California years ago. (they even found stuff years later, when a gas main leaked…repairing the gas main they found a wheel set…way deep in the gound) NTSB detailed the cause …what happened there after??? I have been told that the lawsuits, expense due to the accident, was this a large factor in the demise of SP? Obviously, it was not the single/sole cause of it’s demise, but what about, THE accident and THE demise of Southern Pacific (wish i could think of a slang term…like Uncle Pete or Better Newer Santa Fe) … tell me now, just what do ya no??? endmrw0623181811
I know nothing.
I’ll tell you one thing. This TRAINS forum (gotta keep this post trains related) I am mystified how i can read a post,… comment on it, …then the original post is not to be found and my comment is found in between two associated posts of the conversation. I will not inquire how this can be, but it sure is interesting endmrw0623181831
At times I receive a post via email–and I do not find on the forum where it was posted.
On the CSX Mountain Sub, after a runaway about 20 years ago, when the engineer ‘thought’ he had working dynamics on his 3 unit consist but in reality only had dynamics on one - The NTSB, in their investigation found, that on the 2% graded territory that the runaway happened (I believe it happened on 17 Mile Grade) that with extended use at speeds higher than 12 MPH the braking force of the air brakes would fade away account excessive heat.
As I recall the NTSB report, the speed limits on this territory (25 MPH) were set with the expectations that dynamics would be in effect on all units in the engine consist. Because of brake operation on other grades before the one that the runaway happened on, the brakes had already been heated to the point of failure by the time the train started down 17 Mile Grade - by the time everything came to a stop - 78 of 80 cars had derailed, somehow the engines did not. A person in a house adjacent to where the cars began piling up was killed when the house was destroyed.
NTSB recommended and the FRA enforced CSX changing the maximum allowed speed on the grades as well as changing Timetable Special Instructions about train handling on the Mountain Subdivision grades.
As you know I am not an Engineer - I am just processing the information I have been able to gleen from NTSB accident reports and TTSI in various CSX timetables covering mountainous territory.
Setting speed limits that can only be maintained by use of Dynamics leaves the Engineer hung out to dry IF the Dynamics aren’t working properly and the train speed is above 12 MPH.
[quote user=“BaltACD”]
zugmann
I know nothing.
On the CSX Mountain Sub, after a runaway about 20 years ago, when the engineer ‘thought’ he had working dynamics on his 3 unit consist but in reality only had dynamics on one - The NTSB, in their investigation found, that on the 2% graded territory that the runaway happened (I believe it happened on 17 Mile Grade) that with extended use at speeds higher than 12 MPH the braking force of the air brakes would fade away account excessive heat.
As I recall the NTSB report, the speed limits on this territory (25 MPH) were set with the expectations that dynamics would be in effect on all units in the engine consist. Because of brake operation on other grades before the one that the runaway happened on, the brakes had already been heated to the point of failure by the time the train started down 17 Mile Grade - by the time everything came to a stop - 78 of 80 cars had derailed, somehow the engines did not. A person in a house adjacent to where the cars began piling up was killed when the house was destroyed.
NTSB recommended and the FRA enforced CSX changing the maximum allowed speed on the grades as well as changing Timetable Special Instructions about train handling on the Mountain Subdivision grades.
As you know I am not an Engineer - I am just processing the information I have been able to gleen from NTSB accident reports and TTSI in various CSX timetables covering mountainous territory.
Setting speed limits that can only be maintained by use of Dynamics leaves the Engineer hung out to dry IF the Dynamics aren’t working
Wrong weight may have factored into the SP incident. It did not factor into the CSX runaway.
Wrong weight and inop DBs. The SP incident has been well documented.
Here is the Wiki on the derailment in question. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_train_disaster