Train splits

[NW Mailing List]

Oh those dreaded kickers! I have one play Hell with me one day. Took a 
train north out of Staunton on SVRR with 15 cars, needed to switch Dixie 
then just make a bunch of pickups. The switch at Dixie went well, but 
after that every time I made a hitch and went to turn the air in the 
train would dump. I thought it was my engineer playing games, but he 
swears he was not, I knew I wasn't opening the Ankle Cocks to fast. So 
we scratched our heads, took the train to NS at Pleasant Valley and went 
home.

Three days later we went to pick up the emptys from NS, so we got them 
and started heading south, while coming up on a 10MPH restriction my 
engineer went to put some air under them and POW air dumps! That is when 
it dawn on us that the problem three days before was a Kicker.

Nathan

Nathan Simmons
trainman51 at gmail.com
http://www.t-51.org
KI4MSK


On 10/21/2010 12:12, NW Mailing List wrote:

> Mike & Dave,

> Ocassionaly, if there is a bad (defective or dirty) triple valve on a 

> car in the train, when the engineer makes a brake application, the 

> valve gets stuck, or otherwise reads the application as an emergency, 

> which causes the the emergency brake application. I believe this is 

> what Dave refered to as an "unintended emergency application".These 

> can be difficult to find, often times resulting in the trainmen having 

> to walk the train to find the problem.

> Sometimes, although not often enough, if the engineer restores the 

> air, the valve may reseat itself. If not, that's when you have to 

> start walking. We refered to these as "kickers".

> 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: Re: Train splits

>     To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>     Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 10:54 PM

>

>     Mike:

>     Jeff's answer is of course accurate in its description of the

>     various reasons why a train may "split/break in two" but I think

>     there's more to be said about why this results in an emergency

>     brake application.

>     Air brake systems apply the brakes when the brake pipe pressure is

>     reduced from its fully-charged level.  If the brake pipe is

>     suddenly fully exhausted, which would happen if a train "breaks in

>     two,"  the triple valve senses this rapid loss of pressure and

>     applies emergency brakes, which results in a higher brake cylinder

>     pressure than a normal service brake application.

>     Although emergency applications should only happen in the event of

>     a train separation or a deliberate emergency brake application,

>     unfortunately a transient pressure pulse in the brake pipe can

>     also look like a sudden deep reduction, inducing an "unintended

>     emergency brake application."  Modern systems have reduced this

>     tendency, but it still happens occasionally.

>     Dave Phelps

>     In a message dated 10/20/2010 9:10:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

>     nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

>

>         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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