Trains

[Dric902]

Nearly all engines are auto start.

but they do use antifreeze, it’s purple.

the auto start works year round as the biggest problem isn’t the coolant, but the batteries. 

 

The original engines were were designed to run for years before being shut down for maintenance. The cost of fuel started the ‘auto shutdown’ craze that blew out a lot of freeze plugs. Auto start is the culmination of the fuel conservation plan.

the mechanical forces say it causes more problems than saving fuel is worth, but you can’t tell corporate people that.

 

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Edited January 12, 2020 by Dric902

[Dric902]

here is one of the many EMD sections in their maintenance manuals 

 

 

inhibitor is the most common type inhibitor used in EMD engine cooling systems. Chromate based corrosion inhibitors are not commonly used. Two other types of inhibitors, soluble oil and an organic product, have seen very limited use in EMD cooling systems in field service. This section describes various inhibitors that can be used to treat cooling water, as follows:

•

Chromate Type Inhibitors 

•

Borate-Nitrite Type Inhibitors 

•

Soluble Oil (Emulsifiable Oils) Inhibitors 

•

Organic Type Inhibitors The section also contains a summary that comments on these inhibitors

 

[Dric902]

some of the early 7000 series (for us at least) had air powered starting systems. They had their own air reservoir that trickle charged from the air system so as not to increase airflow to the train. 

If that reservoir dropped below a certain level, the auto start would start the engine up until it was back to normal.

 

you did NOT want to be walking down the side of that engine when it started, even with earplugs

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[OwlsNest465]

On 1/2/2020 at 3:50 PM, Dric902 said:

two years probation for “interfering with railroad operation” Felony

She was drunk, got stuck on the tracks and ran. 
 

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Can you elaborate a bit more on what happened?  

Car on the tracks?  

Usually trains don't care about things on the tracks, just curious what happened that caused it to derail. 

[Dric902]

27 minutes ago, OwlsNest465 said:

Can you elaborate a bit more on what happened?  

Car on the tracks?  

Usually trains don't care about things on the tracks, just curious what happened that caused it to derail. 

Ooooooh, you’ve hit a bone of contention amongst the engineers.

a woman was drunk, got her truck stuck on the tracks and ran. Everything that happened after that is on her, no question.

 

the train should not have derailed. The snow plow took care of the truck very quickly, what happened after that was the reaction of the engineer.

if you see something at a crossing, your going to hit it. That is hard for some to accept, unless you are on a local with a few cars doing 30 with one engine.....your already inside your stopping distance by the time you see it.

you have to “control the stop”

there a many things to do in a short amount of time, and it depends on a lot of things as to what those things are that you need to do. The natural thing to do is not always the right thing to do.

totally her fault, nothing will be done to the engineer as far as discipline. But he learned some things.

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Edited January 13, 2020 by Dric902

[OwlsNest465]

Gotcha.  

What can the engineer do wrong that could cause a derailment?   I didn't even know that was possible, but obviously I have no experience.

I'm amazing at derailing HO scale trains though. 

[Dric902]

6 minutes ago, OwlsNest465 said:

Gotcha.  

What can the engineer do wrong that could cause a derailment?   I didn't even know that was possible, but obviously I have no experience.

I'm amazing at derailing HO scale trains though. 

Oh, my friend

theres lots of ways to derail a train 

?

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Edited January 13, 2020 by Dric902

[pipedreams]

Something that might interest a few, just happened to run across this.

Noticed there are several other train videos also.

 

[janice6]

3 hours ago, pipedreams said:

Something that might interest a few, just happened to run across this.

Noticed there are several other train videos also.

 

Let's assume 4 Square Inches of contact patch for each wheel to the rail.  That's a total of 32 Square Inches for 8 wheels.  (I have no knowledge that this estimate is true)

He said in the video that was a 100 Ton car.

So 100 (Tons)X  2000(lbs per Ton), divided by 32 Square Inches, gives us roughly 6.25 thousand pounds per Square Inch on the rail, just for this car alone.

This is totally wild ass guess work, but interesting in the order of magnitude.

Edited January 13, 2020 by janice6

[Maser]

What?! No mention of the most badass train ever!?

[OwlsNest465]

1 hour ago, janice6 said:

Let's assume 4 Square Inches of contact patch for each wheel to the rail.  That's a total of 32 Square Inches for 8 wheels.  (I have no knowledge that this estimate is true)

He said in the video that was a 100 Ton car.

So 100 (Tons)X  2000(lbs per Ton), divided by 32 Square Inches, gives us roughly 6.25 thousand pounds per Square Inch on the rail, just for this car alone.

This is totally wild ass guess work, but interesting in the order of magnitude.

Per the side of the car, empty weight is 53,000 pounds. 

Load limit is 233,000 pounds.  So a bit over 100 ton. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the contact area is less than 4 square inches.  The tops of the rails are rounded, and the part of the wheel that contacts the rail has a slight taper.   

Don't know if you've seen coins that get set on rails, but they end up pretty squished. 

Side note - that video was taken not too far from me.  WSOR rolls through my little town several times a day.  One of these days I'll get a camera setup.

Edited January 13, 2020 by OwlsNest465

[Dric902]

The contact patch per wheel is about the size of a dime.

 

in the old, old days (as in old head old stories) the engineers would refer to how much power they had as

‘eighty cent’ and ‘buck sixty’ (two four axles)

I guess today we would be running on ‘two buck forty’ 

 

a little more recently we used we used to call intermodal (container) trains ‘Pig trains’

cause they were 60 mph and engineers were called ‘hoggers’ or ‘hog heads’

.

 

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Edited January 13, 2020 by Dric902

[railfancwb]

Caught just in time I suppose. Possibly a passenger carrying car as it has disk brakes. 

[railfancwb]

I think this is a closeup of a Lionel New York Central Hudson in O Scale. 

[railfancwb]

23 hours ago, Dric902 said:

Nearly all engines are auto start.

but they do use antifreeze, it’s purple.

the auto start works year round as the biggest problem isn’t the coolant, but the batteries. 

 

The original engines were were designed to run for years before being shut down for maintenance. The cost of fuel started the ‘auto shutdown’ craze that blew out a lot of freeze plugs. Auto start is the culmination of the fuel conservation plan.

the mechanical forces say it causes more problems than saving fuel is worth, but you can’t tell corporate people that.

 

.

 

I was told they used only water by someone at the Streamliner Event who apparently knew less than he thought he did.  

[Dric902]

20 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

I was told they used only water by someone at the Streamliner Event who apparently knew less than he thought he did.  

There are lots of....fans....that come up with all kinds of things.

I once hear that if you put a penny on the rail, up against a wheel the train is stopped, that it can’t move.

 

I wish it was that easy to secure a train

.

[railfancwb]

On 1/12/2020 at 9:27 PM, OwlsNest465 said:

Gotcha.  

What can the engineer do wrong that could cause a derailment?   I didn't even know that was possible, but obviously I have no experience.

I'm amazing at derailing HO scale trains though. 

Based on my limited experience pulling a trailer with a truck, slamming on the locomotive brakes rather than the train brakes might do it.   

[Dric902]

10 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

Based on my limited experience pulling a trailer with a truck, slamming on the locomotive brakes rather than the train brakes might do it.   

In a way, it’s a lot more involved.

most likely the engineer let the slack get ‘loose’ then put the train into emergency braking without bailing off the engines. Lots of forces involved, tonnage, speed, weight distribution, track geometry

inertia is a bitch

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[Bish1309]

5 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Based on my limited experience pulling a trailer with a truck, slamming on the locomotive brakes rather than the train brakes might do it.   

We should ask Jethro Tull. 

[pipedreams]

That is the tail end of the Schienenzeppelin  in Berlin in June of 1931, Spandau Bahnhof.

The pusher propeller car located at the rear of the train accelerated the railcar to 230.2 km/h (143 mph) setting the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle.

 

[railfancwb]

On 1/13/2020 at 12:04 PM, pipedreams said:

Something that might interest a few, just happened to run across this.

Noticed there are several other train videos also.

 

Great video! Bet without the show and tell and video accommodation it could have been done in half the time. 

[railfancwb]

[Dric902]

45 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

Great video! Bet without the show and tell and video accommodation it could have been done in half the time. 

If you notice at the 16:00 mark, they are putting the center pin in place. That’s the only thing other than gravity that is holding the bogie under the car.

when the car goes around curves or through crossovers, the bogie pivots on the pin.

.

[janice6]

3 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Like a bug on a windshield!

[railfancwb]

On 1/13/2020 at 5:33 PM, Dric902 said:

There are lots of....fans....that come up with all kinds of things.

I once hear that if you put a penny on the rail, up against a wheel the train is stopped, that it can’t move.

 

I wish it was that easy to secure a train

.

Long time ago Southern Railway ran “Autumn Leaf Specials” Chattanooga to Harriman with various steam locomotives. The steam locomotive stayed at Harriman to be serviced and turned while the passenger cars went up the former Tennessee Central to Crossville behind diesels.
 

One time I noticed a length of heavy chain crossing the rail touching the front of a steam locomotive driver then back around touching the back of that driver while the locomotive was waiting for the passenger cars to return. Was told the chain kept the locomotive from easing along due to steam leaking from the throttle into the cylinders.