Train splits

[NW Mailing List]

Mike:

To further expand a bit on what Jeff said, a "break in two" was  
uncommon enough to warrant filing of a report which was titled (if I  
recall correctly) "Conductor's Report of Train Parting." I have a  
number of copies that my father kept on last years on the Radford  
Division, I'd guess it was a few times a month in the diesel era,  
probably a bit more often in the steam era.

Rough train handling by the engineer could also allow slack to run in  
and out, jarring the cars and rear end crew, possibly causing a break  
in two if a knuckle was already damaged or weak, on occasion, an  
entire drawhead could be pulled out a car. It depended on the speed of  
the train at the time of the air hoses parting as to how far apart the  
train might be separated, and how rough the emergency stop would be  
felt.

"Emergency" in case you did not know, is what happens when the brakes  
are applied in full either by an engineer, conductor on the caboose,  
or, as said above, when the air hoses parted. Generally speaking an  
emergency application was just that, an emergency, requiring the  
quickest possible stop. But remember, even an emergency application of  
say a loaded coal train traveling at 35 MPH may travel a good distance  
before coming to a stop. I remember back when I was in high school,  
one of my classmates was riding on the back of a motorcycle with her  
boyfriend. They were stopped by a westbound train at Salem. As soon as  
the westbound cleared, the boyfriend was impatient and ran around the  
gates before they went up, across the N&W eastbouind track, and they  
were hit and killed on the third track about 30 feet away by an  
eastbound coal train on the former Virginian. It took about a half  
mile to stop the train. Unfortunately, what is also tragic about this,  
that not many seem to think of, is the trauma that poor engineer and  
fireman suffered from seeing them run out in front of them, knowing  
that even the emergency application was useless at that point.

Ken Miller

On Oct 20, 2010, at 9:06 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> Mike,

>

> When a train "breaks in two", it could be one of a number of  

> reasons. Occasionally the air hoses may separate, possibly due to  

> its hanging to low and hitting a road crossing, or some other  

> obstacle between the rails. There are times when a knuckle of a  

> coupler may break, due to a weak spot in the metal, or previous  

> fracture, unnoticed by the car inspectors. Also, an entire drawhead  

> can break for the same reasons. Of course, a derailment most times  

> will cause the train line to separate, all of which causes an  

> emergency brake application. It does not happen too terribly often,  

> but more often than one might think.

>

> Due to improvements in car construction and modern safety checks,  

> such as dragging equipment detectors, it doesn't happen as often as  

> it did 50+ years ago.

>

> Jeff Sanders

>

> --- On Wed, 10/20/10, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>  

> wrote:

>

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: Train splits

> To: "NW Mailing List" <NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org>

> Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 6:38 PM

>

> I was curious about something I heard the other day on one of  

> Winston Link's recordings. He was riding in a caboose descending  

> into Roanoke (I think) and the train split in two and went into  

> "emergency". Could somebody comment on what exactly happened and how  

> often would that occur? Thanks!

>

> Mike Weeks

> Greenville NC

>

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