For all of You Train Lovers
- Thread starter khryslerkid
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The same thing happened to me once, but it happened to a caboose I was switching, not an engine. Wasn't my fault either.
"No pants subway day"
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Anyone been to the operating museum in Ely, Nevada? Will be there on the way to MATS. Will be midweek so no excursions. Can stay overnight and tour facility. Anyone been there on a non operating day. Worth building the time?
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Controlling the train: The business end. As you can see, unlike the classy images seen in movies of old steam engines, driving a modern train is like sitting at an office desk, with a view.
A common layout such as the two above shows the bulk of the controls to the left of the engineer. Often he (or she)will swivel the seat to face either the front or to the side, depending on comfort or part of the journey. Typical items shown above include the dynamic braking, engine speed control from 0-8 and the reverse/neutral/forward selector. These are all the blue items. The large red lever on the left controls train braking, with settings marked for release, minimum application, full application and emergency. The black lever below in the independent brake that controls the locomotives only.
A different layout, and not as popular with more drivers, shows controls in front of the seat, like a car or truck. Some early layouts like this were converted back to the sideways version. You can see radios in this view, usually connected to the black telephone handset that you see hung up.
The radio device at the top of the panel that has the red safety cover on the right side is the telemetry for the tail end car. When you see a train go by with a box with a flashing red light at the back, it's relaying info to this radio. It tells the engineer what the tail end brake pressure is, and importantly, lets him know when the rear car starts moving. With all the slack between cars, the engine can travel for over 100 feet before the last car starts to move. Also, the switch under the safety cover allows for an emergency brake application from the tail end. This could be useful if a brake hose gets kinked somewhere down the line which could prevent proper brake application on all cars after the pinch point. These emergency brakes are tested prior to every trip.
The notice for 'FRA 223 Glazing' refers to the windows. Basically, they're practically bullet proof. If some hoodlums decide to hang a cinder block from an overpass just for fun, these windows will protect the engineer and conductor pretty well.
A common layout such as the two above shows the bulk of the controls to the left of the engineer. Often he (or she)will swivel the seat to face either the front or to the side, depending on comfort or part of the journey. Typical items shown above include the dynamic braking, engine speed control from 0-8 and the reverse/neutral/forward selector. These are all the blue items. The large red lever on the left controls train braking, with settings marked for release, minimum application, full application and emergency. The black lever below in the independent brake that controls the locomotives only.
A different layout, and not as popular with more drivers, shows controls in front of the seat, like a car or truck. Some early layouts like this were converted back to the sideways version. You can see radios in this view, usually connected to the black telephone handset that you see hung up.
The radio device at the top of the panel that has the red safety cover on the right side is the telemetry for the tail end car. When you see a train go by with a box with a flashing red light at the back, it's relaying info to this radio. It tells the engineer what the tail end brake pressure is, and importantly, lets him know when the rear car starts moving. With all the slack between cars, the engine can travel for over 100 feet before the last car starts to move. Also, the switch under the safety cover allows for an emergency brake application from the tail end. This could be useful if a brake hose gets kinked somewhere down the line which could prevent proper brake application on all cars after the pinch point. These emergency brakes are tested prior to every trip.
The notice for 'FRA 223 Glazing' refers to the windows. Basically, they're practically bullet proof. If some hoodlums decide to hang a cinder block from an overpass just for fun, these windows will protect the engineer and conductor pretty well.
Hikin Mike
Well-Known Member
As that what you do or you just a "rail fan"?
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I wasn't a train driver, but for 35 years I was a 'carman', or in today's terms a 'certified rail car mechanic'. I inspected and maintained and repaired rail cars, everything that came after the locomotive. As an apprentice, we were trained in welding and steel fabrication, wood milling, air brake systems, car body repair, paint and refinishing and on passenger cars, all the above plus cabinet making, upholstery, glazing (windows), and stuff I probably forgot.
A lot is different now, just like everything else gets modernized, so does rail equipment. When I started, more than half the equipment still used friction bearing wheels instead of roller bearings. A hassle to change wheels, took much longer, and the oil boxes had to be filled before each trip.
A lot of cars didn't use to have automatic slack adjusters (to keep the brake piston at the correct length during application) so that was all adjusted by hand. A lot of creaky old rusty steel hopper cars for coal are now all aluminum. Individual air tests on each car while shopped are now done with a machine that absolutely pinpoints any tiny leak or defective valve, and when you have 100 - 120 cars on a train you want to be sure of even braking, and track detectors flag any car with brakes running hot or too cold.
Winter time coming used to be a special bit of activity on the west coast, the arrival of Japanese Mandarin oranges at the Vancouver ports for Christmas had to be shipped across the country in special cars. Now, they're all mechanically temperature controlled, either warm or chilled. But back then to keep things from freezing we had special heated box cars that had alcohol burners that warmed an antifreeze solution, circulated by convection through piping in the floors. We had to rebuild the burners every 12 months and set the regulators for proper heat.
Those earlier locomotive cab pictures were familiar to me, many times I was in there doing the emergency brake testing before any of the main-line crew showed up.
Anyway, that's what I did, and yes I am a rail fan as well.
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