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smackfu posted:We have some smaller roads around here where the train tracks just have a stop sign protecting them, and very infrequent trains, in a fairly populated area. People pretty much just roll through the stops. I got some good answers on this when I originally asked, but I did manage to finally see a train, so I have a firsthand report.  They go incredibly slow (like 5 mph) and lay on the horn. The end. Also, this train had three locomotives and three cars, which seemed extremely excessive. I guess they were just using the extra two locomotives around.
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Aug 20, 2014 16:13
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:http://bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2013/r13d0054/r13d0054.asp What is the purpose of the single box-car 'buffer' between the locomotive consist and the tank cars?
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Aug 20, 2014 16:16
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I know NASA uses buffer cars to reduce the amount of weight on bridges. This way there isn't a ton of strain on any one point and the weight is more distributed.
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Aug 20, 2014 16:30
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The Locator posted:What is the purpose of the single box-car 'buffer' between the locomotive consist and the tank cars? Its basically a way to keep any hazmat from running up against a working engine.... Explosions and poo poo. The rule states that there must be at least 5 buffer cars between the locomotive and first hazardous car. If there are no extras, all available buffer cars must be placed between the locomotives and hazmat. (Running mechanical refers can't be next to combustible/flammable and any shiftable loads must not be placed next to hazmat as well) I have a whole book of poo poo if you want to know, but that's the condensed version.
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Aug 20, 2014 17:10
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Its basically a way to keep any hazmat from running up against a working engine.... Explosions and poo poo. How do they get around the trailing tonnage on the buffer(assuming its an empty)?
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Aug 20, 2014 18:00
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ijustam posted:I know NASA uses buffer cars to reduce the amount of weight on bridges. This way there isn't a ton of strain on any one point and the weight is more distributed. If anyone else is curious what NASA is pulling around: quote:For nearly three decades, the NASA Railroad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida has kept the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters on track. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/railroad.html
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Aug 20, 2014 18:53
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:How do they get around the trailing tonnage on the buffer(assuming its an empty)? Train managements/dispatchers initials takes care of that.
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Aug 20, 2014 18:58
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smackfu posted:If anyone else is curious what NASA is pulling around: Every time I went to Playa Linda there I wondered what they used all those tracks for, and now I know!
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Aug 20, 2014 21:25
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Too bad now it's ceased operating since the shuttle program is over.  I'd love for KSC to make it an attraction or something, there aren't enough heritage railroads in Florida.
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Aug 20, 2014 23:20
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Zeether posted:Too bad now it's ceased operating since the shuttle program is over. It will be back in operation for the SLS by 2017.
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Aug 20, 2014 23:22
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Zeether posted:Too bad now it's ceased operating since the shuttle program is over. Hell yes. There's a reason my desktop background is a Soyuz rollout - space and trains go together like peanut butter and honey.
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Aug 21, 2014 06:26
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Zeether posted:Too bad now it's ceased operating since the shuttle program is over. These cars are still used to haul the exact same booster sections pieces made by Thiokol for other projects that NASA and the military has.
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Aug 21, 2014 16:10
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Came across a video of the Victorian steamrail Snowtrain departing FLinders Street STation (main city station) via the viaduct and running through the city on the way up to the snowfields last month. The start has a couple of the flamethrowers outside the casino, although you only see the smaller warm-up flames. http://youtu.be/i4TjTYP0fvA quote:http://www.steamrail.com.au/ The wall of skyscrapers on either side of the river make for a pretty awesome echo of the whistle. A photo of the two locos on some other trip around the state:  Snow Train by phunnyfotos, on Flickr
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Aug 21, 2014 16:35
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Slung Blade posted:Whoa wait a minute, they used jb weld to fix a cam bearing on one of the locomotives??? This isn't getting enough love. I love how the statement is that it "wasn't strong enough for the application." NO poo poo.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:12
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Since the thread is about locomotive insanity, how about a promo video of how a steam locomotive was built? It's really amazing, though the jobs were probably hellish (witness what looks like welding w/o goggles around 9:40) and I doubt that people had any hearing protection or other PPE in those days. http://bangshift.com/general-news/videos/watch-a-4000hp-locomotive-get-built-by-hand-in-1928-absolutely-amazing-video/ ed: The locomotive survived a full life and still exists at a museum. http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/?page=cp More info: http://trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_steam/3100.htm Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 02:26
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oh canada http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/M%E9gantic+tragedy+just+happen+because+engineer+lawyer/10131743/story.html
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Aug 23, 2014 14:12
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B4Ctom1 posted:oh canada They arrested the engineer with a SWAT team in front of his family? That is hosed.
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Aug 23, 2014 14:30
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:They arrested the engineer with a SWAT team in front of his family? That is hosed. Gotta make sure a message is sent.
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Aug 23, 2014 14:33
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SybilVimes posted:Gotta make sure a message is sent. Somebody's gotta pay, and it's obviously not going to be the chairman. After all, he's rich!
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Aug 23, 2014 15:27
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:Somebody's gotta pay, and it's obviously not going to be the chairman. After all, he's rich! Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vudnMLzZjTg
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Aug 23, 2014 15:53
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This is sad because I've been led to believe that there's less inequity in Canada about this type of stuff.
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Aug 26, 2014 17:11
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Apparently PTC is a giant clusterfuck according to NS. I didn't even know there was a mandate but this whole thing sounds rather ridiculous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gdjuKx6aYM
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Aug 27, 2014 23:58
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OK, is it just me or is there no audio on the right channel on that video?
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Aug 28, 2014 01:13
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I thought my headphone cable was broken.
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Aug 28, 2014 01:16
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Random question: I've always been under the impression that a longer train takes a longer distance to stop -- mostly because when you think of "big" or "heavy" or "full" trains, you think of big long trains with multiple engines, etc. But if each car has its own braking system, doesn't that mean stopping distance is not related to train length? With dynamic braking you're putting more load on the engines to stop, but there would necessarily be more engines in proportion to the load anyway. With all that in mind, wouldn't the maximum stopping distance be as far as a single (fully loaded of course) car? Now I do remember the goon's earlier description of managing slack, and I figure any increase in stopping distance of a longer train would be because of that management and the inherent delays in pressure, etc. Or is there something else I'm missing?
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Aug 28, 2014 02:18
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Not a rail guy but at least from a physics perspective if both the braking force and mass are proportionally increased so the overall brakes:mass ratio remains the same there should be no change in stopping distance if all the brakes were applied at the same time. There, I believe, lies the problem as the standard rail air brake system relies on pressure differences traveling along the brake pipe. It can be quite a few seconds between activating the brakes and the rear car actually starting to help. One study I found with a quick search quoted Queensland Rail coal trains as having around 30 seconds of delay on average. During that time you only have some of your braking force but you have all of the mass still, so until all the brakes get on the same page you'll slow down less. tl;dr: With electrically activated brakes you'd be right on the money, but entrenched standards are what they are and the industry sure isn't looking to spend anything they don't have to. edit: I think some FREDs can dump air as well, though whether it's reasonably controllable or just there for e-stops I have no idea. In any case that would obviously halve the brake pipe delay when used. wolrah fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Aug 28, 2014 |
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Aug 28, 2014 05:27
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wolrah posted:edit: I think some FREDs can dump air as well, though whether it's reasonably controllable or just there for e-stops I have no idea. In any case that would obviously halve the brake pipe delay when used. Only for Emergency stops. There are electronically activated brakes, and there were being used, but at least the UP wants nothing to do with it any more. But for what its worth, Distributed Power trains set air from the front and rear so it does stop pretty quick on regular manifest, bulk and coal trains, but intermodal trains don't stop worth a poo poo. They are light enough and the brakes are truck mounted which just don't seem as effective as the single piston mounted on the body of the car. Also there are a million other factors, triple valves that gently caress up and dont set air, worn shoes, tread build up on the wheels, etc.
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Aug 28, 2014 05:43
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wolrah posted:tl;dr: With electrically activated brakes you'd be right on the money, but entrenched standards are what they are and the industry sure isn't looking to spend anything they don't have to. Entrenched standards in the form of several hundred thousand cars that would need to be upgraded(for a marginal improvement in stopping distance?). The railcar building industry already has a significant backlog of railcar orders to fill.
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Aug 28, 2014 06:07
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ijustam posted:Apparently PTC is a giant clusterfuck according to NS. I didn't even know there was a mandate but this whole thing sounds rather ridiculous. We are going to cross over to PTC here in the next year or so. I am going to print PTC on a piece of paper and frame it and put it in the manager's office. On the back of that paper it will hand write, "I knew you guys would accuse us of purposefully or maliciously trying not to make PTC work". When the day comes when we are yelling at each other and they are throwing accusations around, I will make one of them take it down and open it and read it aloud. Then walk out of the room with the biggest loving smugface you ever saw in your life.
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Aug 29, 2014 03:53
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I don't know how CAD is going to work with PTC. It can barely function with what it does now. I know that CAD X is work in progress... But you know that's been in the works for about 10 years. Along with OTP, which they only use in the west (and was turned off again) the UP is due for a major computer update.
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Aug 29, 2014 04:10
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I didn't think about this until I saw people talking about 5S over in the mechanical disaster thread. How many of you have exposed to the 5-S process on your railroad? It is actually pretty smart. I saw a little UPRR video on it and it seems super smart. So a group of visiting managers asks a group of us right in front of our local managers if, "anyone here has ever heard of 5S?" I raised my hand. They asked me what it stands for and I was flabbergasted. Drawing blank. I couldn't remember a single one.. so I proudly blurted out, "poo poo, Shinola, Spread, Smash, and Steal" Everyone laughed, a few of the managers snickered and introduced me to them by name. I thought they were going to write my name down for a second. It seems people from Omaha have no sense of humor except for the excuses timekeepers use for cutting my claims. B4Ctom1 fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Aug 29, 2014 |
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Aug 29, 2014 04:28
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When I worked there I became a humorless dick along with every one else around me. Corridor managers have no sense of humor except for the guys getting ready go retire. Now I'm just a dick 
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Aug 29, 2014 04:40
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Protest! http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Protesters-against-coal-and-oil-trains-block-tracks-in-Everett--273575721.html
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Sep 3, 2014 01:08
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BNSF police spokesman Gus Melonas posted:"There's a demand for this product, and as a common carrier, we're obligated by law to move it," You could run 10 oil trains an hour through my town all day every day and I would not give a poo poo, as long as the tracks and equipment are impeccably inspected and maintained (impossible under constant traffic, but I digress..) and the train crews and dispatchers are well-rested and on top of their game. Railroads have an obligation to carry the product, and they have an obligation to their shareholders to operate at a profit. They also have an obligation to not torch my neighborhood or kill my rear end by way of gross negligence. When you start getting greedy and cutting corners, or finding creative ways to both save the company money & maximize employee productivity, you start getting dangerously close to the limits of what human perfection can achieve. ~Story time~ I worked in a hump yard with 60 inert (non-powered, "always on") retarders at the back end of the bowl, and each of these retarders was to be inspected and adjusted every quarter. The job took two men and a track truck with an air compressor, an empty track in the yard, and appropriate protection from the tower. On a good day the guys could inspect 3-4 of them, or properly adjust two. On a bad day, the tower wouldn't give you any clear tracks to work on, or you'd come to a retarder loaded with so much poo poo from the garbage trains that rolled through that you'd spend half the time shoveling it clear of the springs. I figured that if we brought on a pair of track guys dedicated to inspecting and adjusting the retarders day-in, day-out, we'd be able to have these things knocked out each and every quarter easy-peasy with time to spare. "Not in the budget" was the answer to that from on high, even though our track office at the time was pared down to less men than we had trucks for. A few days later, almost as if on cue, the hump sent a loaded grain car down an empty ally and it skated on past the retarder, then tried to share a track with four empty corn syrup tankers. gently caress You because the hump should have known better than to send a loaded car down an empty track. gently caress ME because that retarder hadn't been touched since way before I'd gotten there, and the squeeze strength ended up being a few hundred PSI below minimum spec. Four totaled (empty) tankers, 20 yards of torn up track including 2 switches, and daily wages for 8 track workers plus 5 hours overtime apiece.. I wonder if the total for this is more or less than the cost of employing two extra track workers for a year? After going on the weight-loss plan of getting my rear end chewed out, the division had a renewed interest in getting all the retarders in the hump yard inspected and adjusted. We even ended up getting two of the worst ones replaced! The division also had the idea of adding additional retarders to the opposite rails to double the retarding force of each section.. which would then double the amount of retarders for us to check and adjust each quarter. A pair of retarders would wear out just as fast as a single, so no benefit there. Not sure if that ended up happening. So, while we stole a few guys from other projects on the section and were working on the retarders more than we ever had, the hump sent a string of fully-loaded flat cars down the hill and into the side of a remote-controlled switcher. Fatality assured if there had been someone standing on the running boards. Railroad maintenance - why spend a dollar now when you can spend ten down the line? NoWake fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 04:34
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NoWake posted:Railroads have an obligation to carry the product, and they have an obligation to their shareholders to operate at a profit. They also have an obligation to not torch my neighborhood or kill my rear end by way of gross negligence. When you start getting greedy and cutting corners, or finding creative ways to both save the company money & maximize employee productivity, you start getting dangerously close to the limits of what human perfection can achieve. Hey that reminds me of our recent local train crash. I am just amazed that it was mostly just airplane fuselages, because a lot of oil and coal goes through there every day. I wonder how much that ends up costing the railroad and why it happened.
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Sep 3, 2014 08:04
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jamal posted:Hey that reminds me of our recent local train crash. I am just amazed that it was mostly just airplane fuselages, because a lot of oil and coal goes through there every day. I wonder how much that ends up costing the railroad and why it happened. I can't speak for Boeing, but many airlines, when shipping components around, don't pay for shipping insurance. The parts are too expensive to insure and also tend to be covered by the airline's overall insurance anyway. So any shipping damage ends up not being the carrier's fault - or at worst their maximum standard value, which for FedEx (for example) is $100. When you're shipping components worth upwards of $100,000, you don't even bother with the shipper's claim paperwork. My point being that there's a reasonable chance the aircraft components won't cost the railroad that much. Just the rolling stock and track repairs.
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Sep 5, 2014 14:04
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Railroads, at least the class 1s, are self insuring. So BNSF will be footing the bill for some new 737s. In my yard alone they were more concerned about getting traffic moved than fixing track which has now caused 6 derailments (all low speed) in 3 days. Its penny wise, pound foolish.
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Sep 5, 2014 17:00
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Gotta get that oil money before it dries up. NoWake posted:So, while we stole a few guys from other projects on the section and were working on the retarders more than we ever had, the hump sent a string of fully-loaded flat cars down the hill and into the side of a remote-controlled switcher. Fatality assured if there had been someone standing on the running boards. Railroad maintenance - why spend a dollar now when you can spend ten down the line? Nobody is proactive, everyone is reactive. I can never get ahead of any problems because we're still trying to catch up from yesterday's failures.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:19
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aww how cute http://imgur.com/gallery/uX3GRgu
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Sep 21, 2014 03:17
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All I can imagine are the wheels rolling off and causing complete destruction to everything behind the truck.
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Sep 21, 2014 19:04
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