Dumb questions for the railroad guys

[bull]

There's a Union Pacific rail yard right next to the business where I work my 2nd job and it's constant with trains and yard engines going back and forth all day. BTW, yard engines by my definition are the smaller engines I see going back and forth with small numbers of cars presumably setting them for the trip. I don't know this for a fact but it seems to be the case. Anyway, there is an unidentifiable sound that comes from the large engines as they idle by the building. I always hear the popping, which I assume is the sound of air tanks reaching their max pressure, but then there's a sort of 'woot, woot' sound that I don't understand. Sorry, I know it's hard to describe a sound with words. Also, I frequently see small birds hanging onto the intake grilles of the large engines. Are they eating bugs off the grilles? They must be stone deaf with all that noise. Those diesel engines are not quiet. Also, how many diesel engines are in an engine and how big are they? Also, does each individual car have it's own brakes or does the engine do all the stopping? Also, do you guys use the remote control systems when you're traveling or is that just a yard thing? That's it for now.

[Todd Wilson]

The pop sound is most likely the air dryer popping.   The woot woot sound I am assuming may sound more like a drumming sound at certain times?! Probably the clutch on the air compressor  cycling on and off. It could be the locomotive speeding up the diesel or slowing it down. Might be the turbo you are hearing.They idle low to help conserve fuel and can speed themselves up to keep the air pressure up or engine temp. up.


I would imagine the birds are eating bugs. I see that off the fronts of engines as the dead bugs are all over the noses usually.

Theres only 1 diesel engine. Usually a 16 cylinder unit. 4 cycle engine if its  GE (General electric)  or 2 cycle if its an EMD (Chevy) unit. The 2 cycle EMD units rap up faster and usually are better for switching. The 4 cycle GE units load slower and I have heard tend to pull stronger after they are moving. A perfect combo for us where I work is 1 EMD unit and 1 GE unit together. We need quick speed to switch cars and then we need slow rolling brute force to pull loads of wheat out of our elevators.

Each car has its own air brakes. You have 2 levers in the engine. Automatic brake valve (sets air brakes on the train) and the independant brake valve. Independant sets only the engine brakes. Most yard engines switching use only the engine brakes. Usually no air in the cars to be switched. You charge the air brake system to 90psi. The brake system has a brake pipe which is a continuous pipe from one end to the other of the train. Its the pipe the air hoses between cars hook together. When the system is charged and full the brakes are released. When a reduction in brake pipe pressure is made the brakes set on the cars.  If there is a sudden release of air in that brake pipe the train goes into emergency braking. Stopping the train.  In the yard you can bleed off the air brakes so now there are no brakes on the car unless you turn the handbrake wheel on the side. Thats how the yard engine can switch cars and roll individual cars down certain tracks to put them in order.


The big railroads are going to the remote control on yard engines. The switchman wear a remote control box on their chest and they control the yard engine. Theres no hoghead on those jobs now. All freight trains running thru your town are not remote control. They have a hoghead and a conductor. The remote control situations have had mixed results. Some good and some bad. Mostly dangerous to the public but thats not a concern for the railroads. Saving money on the wages for an engineer is whats important.


Todd - grumpy old Switchman

[HalfastAMX]

Todds a newbie!

Where have ya been?
I keep getting filthy e-mail from someone

[Todd Wilson]

Todds a newbie!

Where have ya been?
I keep getting filthy e-mail from someone

I been around................just laying low for a while....................Sometimes the mafia has to do that!




Todd

[bull]

I've never heard a turbo make that woot woot sound. When I hear it I only hear it twice, one right after the other and it may accompany the drumming sound. I'll have to pay close attention.

The remote control things seems kind of silly because half the time I see it being used the guys using it are almost always standing on the front of the engine. Why not just go in the cab? The other half of the time they are within 50 feet of the engine. I don't really see the point but what do I know.

Is it ok if I put pennys on the track? Nevermind, I'm doing it anyway.

[Todd Wilson]

Those guys cant go into the cab and run the engine. You have to be a licensed locomotive engineer to sit down at the controls in the engine. But you can run them from outside the engine via remote control all day long as a trainman.


Your woot woot may just be the clutch kicking in and thats the compressor spinning up.




Todd

[Brock Samson]

actually that woot woot sound is Todd loggin in the chat Rm...

[Todd Wilson]

actually that woot woot sound is Todd loggin in the chat Rm...

Why yes!  Yes it is! Where the hell are you!?!?!?!



Todd

[HalfastAMX]

I don't really see the point but what do I know.

Is it ok if I put pennys IN MY Crack? Nevermind, I'm doing it anyway.

Dude, do what ya gotta do,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Todd Wilson]

You can put pennys on the track. Just dont get caught by the special agent (aka railroad cop)


I put a full can of spray paint on the rail yesterday! That was cool!



Todd

[HalfastAMX]

You can put pennys IN YOUR Crack. Just dont get caught by the special agent (aka railroad cop)





Todd

[Todd Wilson]

You can put pennys IN YOUR Crack. Just dont get caught by the special agent (aka railroad cop)





Todd

I thought it was dollar bills?!?!


Todd

[bull]

I don't really see the point but what do I know.

Is it ok if I put pennys IN MY Crack? Nevermind, I'm doing it anyway.

Dude, do what ya gotta do,,,,,,,,,,,,

Chickenhawk.

[ChargerRob]

 

[HalfastAMX]

I don't really see the point but what do I know.

Is it ok if I put pennys IN MY Crack? Nevermind, I'm doing it anyway.

Dude, do what ya gotta do,,,,,,,,,,,,

Chickenhawk.

[BB1]

Those guys cant go into the cab and run the engine. You have to be a licensed locomotive engineer to sit down at the controls in the engine. But you can run them from outside the engine via remote control all day long as a trainman.


Your woot woot may just be the clutch kicking in and thats the compressor spinning up.




Todd

Well since I run an RCO belt pack for the BNSF, "which one day will ruin my back by the way" I can sit in the cab all day long in the engineers seat if I like.

Only reason to have RCO is to cut the 3 man crew to 2 hence they save money in theory. But I have personally cost the company over $300,000. in hard cash in one year, because I crash so much. Last one I almost took out a bridge.
I never wrecked anything with an engineer, until this stuff came along. Oh yeah it's hella fun. If it ever got out on public streets, Look out! 

Only the UP has popping Annoying compressers too. 

Mr cranky switchman 

[derailed]

Bull the whooping sound you hear is the air compressor kicking in on the GE locomotives, there especially loud when the engine is revved up a few notches. Quiter on the GMs. The drumming noise is the compressor pumping for a minute or 2 then followed by kind of a whistling down noise as it shuts off. Remote controls  hopefully they will go out as fast as they appreared. bad news

[bull]

How fast can you get a train going if you could go as fast as you wanted? I paced a train that was next to the freeway once at about 75 mph. I was in my '70 Charger back in about 1987. It was a loooong train too.

Why are there like 5 locomotives at the front? Are they all doing work or just being transported somewhere? Sometimes I see a train with two or more locomotives and the 2nd one back has no engine. You can see right through it. What's up with that?

[derailed]

A single locomotive such as a 4 axle switcher can actually accelerarte pretty quick once it gets wound up, couldnt tell you the 0-60 times but i always wanted to try it. The fastest freight speed on our line is 40mph. Heavier coal trains or grain trains etc, will have 4 or 5 units in the front all connected through a larger jumper cable and air hoses for the trainline and engine brakes. The engineer is controlling all the units through the leader. The heavier the train the slower you have to start off or else youll tear it in two and the conductor gets to go back and replace the knuckle and paint your name on the broken one so everyone can see you did it. Knock on wood i havent had that experience but we all get one sooner or later. The ones you can see through with no diesel engine are just electric powered traction motors being powered by another units diesel engine. (slugs)

[Todd Wilson]

A single locomotive such as a 4 axle switcher can actually accelerarte pretty quick once it gets wound up, couldnt tell you the 0-60 times but i always wanted to try it. The fastest freight speed on our line is 40mph. Heavier coal trains or grain trains etc, will have 4 or 5 units in the front all connected through a larger jumper cable and air hoses for the trainline and engine brakes. The engineer is controlling all the units through the leader. The heavier the train the slower you have to start off or else youll tear it in two and the conductor gets to go back and replace the knuckle and paint your name on the broken one so everyone can see you did it. Knock on wood i havent had that experience but we all get one sooner or later. The ones you can see through with no diesel engine are just electric powered traction motors being powered by another units diesel engine. (slugs)

We have some hot shot trains that run thru here at 75mph. The bosshog passenger train goes 79mph.  Most freights run between 40-60mph.  The engines have an overspeed on them and will shut down if you trip the overspeed. Probably about 78-80mph is all the faster 99% of them will go without tripping the overspeed.



Ripping a drawbar out is much more fun! Thats when us switchman have to go out and pull the car back to town with a log chain! HAHA!


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

[

Well since I run an RCO belt pack for the BNSF, "which one day will ruin my back by the way" I can sit in the cab all day long in the engineers seat if I like.

Didnt think according to the rules you can sit in the engineers seat?! You cant run those controls on the control stand.  Maybe its UP rules but I thought that was the FRA stuff. The remote controls are a joke in most cases.


Todd

[derailed]

[



Ripping a drawbar out is much more fun! Thats when us switchman have to go out and pull the car back to town with a log chain! HAHA!


Todd

Yeah, hopefully when that happens you have just enough time to tie the train down and leave a note for the relief crew

[BB1]

No rules for that, when it's -1 outside I'm in the cab or 100+, I might stand outside.

RCO sucks  

[

Well since I run an RCO belt pack for the BNSF, "which one day will ruin my back by the way" I can sit in the cab all day long in the engineers seat if I like.

Didnt think according to the rules you can sit in the engineers seat?! You cant run those controls on the control stand. Maybe its UP rules but I thought that was the FRA stuff. The remote controls are a joke in most cases.


Todd

[SirNik73]

My engine shop teacher had a valve out of a locomotive. it was out of a General Electric diesel engine. 4 valve per cylender and i think it was a Inline 10 cylender. i know that it was an exhause valve and the valve stood about 18 inches tall with about 5 inches in diameter. so you can assume that the engine was HUGE

[last426]

The heavier the train the slower you have to start off or else youll tear it in two and the conductor gets to go back and replace the knuckle and paint your name on the broken one so everyone can see you did it. Knock on wood i havent had that experience but we all get one sooner or later. The ones you can see through with no diesel engine are just electric powered traction motors being powered by another units diesel engine. (slugs)

One of the longest nights I spent was, after a shift making electricity, I was told to work 4 hours overtime, till 4 in the morning, unloading a coal train in the snow in Winnemucca, Nevada.  They gave me some playtex gloves, a 5 pound hammer, and sent me off to the slippery trestle to start hammering on the train's hoppers.  The engineer did all he could to help -- getting some speed and slamming the brakes to try to unfreeze the coal.  Wham, wham, wham, oops, broke the first knuckle of the long night -- but at least that gave us a 15 minute break.  It was a 70 car train with anti-freezed coal.  Regardless, that stuff would not budge.  Seems there are a few ways to get frozen coal out of cars, a heating barn where the whole train goes in and thaws, another scheme that lifts the whole car upside down, and this anti-freeze method where anti-freeze is sprayed on the coal when it is being loaded, for places where it is not bitterly cold for long periods.  We went through a couple more knuckles and, frankly, I can't remember if we ever got the whole train unloaded.  I do remember it was a long, long night and playtex gloves aren't made for the cold.