IRFCA Mailing List Archive


Messages 4341 - 4360

From: VIRAF P.. MULLA <>

Subject: Re: Huh ?

Date: 18 Nov 1998 18:29:04 -0500


On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Apurva Bahadur wrote:

> More huhs !
> refer: <A HREF="http://www.indianrailway.com/railway/tourist/hill.html#matheran">http://www.indianrailway.com/railway/tourist/hill.html#matheran</A>
>
> 'The Ooty is connected by a narrow gauge line from Mettupalayam, which
> serves as the railhead for mainline trains'.
>
> I always thought the line was MG !

Hi Appu,

To some people - even those working for railways anything smaller than
the
BG is NG.

Yesterday had been to Palghar to see the Leonid Meteorite Shower. Ran
out
of luck since the sky was overcast so spent the whole night watching the
IR beuties streaking past on the Bombay - Ahmedabad mainline. What a
sight.

Viraf

==========================
Viraf Mulla
C-20/14, Jeevan Bima Nagar,
Borivali (West)
Mumbai 400103
Tel: +91-22-8954510
E-mail: sncf@godrejnet.email
==========================

From: VIRAF P.. MULLA <>

Subject: Re: Through service

Date: 18 Nov 1998 19:32:57 -0500



Hi Appu,

I distinctly remember that during my school days there used to be a
train
called Daund - Manmad passenger. I would start from Bombay V.T. - Pune -
Daund - Manmad - Ighatpuri - and back to Bombay V.T.. My daddy used to
take this train and sleep all the way to Pune.

Viraf
==========================
Viraf Mulla
C-20/14, Jeevan Bima Nagar,
Borivali (West)
Mumbai 400103
Tel: +91-22-8954510
E-mail: sncf@godrejnet.email
==========================

From: PROTIP.DASGUPTA <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 18 Nov 1998 20:23:29 -0500


Hi Apurva and all!
MGS is defi the most impressive and grand yard and also the biggest on
IR,
but Barauni and BHusawal cant be put in second place behind MGS...the
SER
yards of Bhilai, Raourkela, etc are mamoth themselves, much bigger then
Bhusawal!! I would put TKD yard after MGS, followed immediately by the
steel plant serving yards on SER!!
Closer home, the biggest yard in Bombay is KYN on CR and on the WR its a
toss between BRC and SBI....in Gujarat!
Pune and Katni are two other yards that I can think of that are big on
CR...maybe we should go region wise on yards...a good topic...I can come
up with WR's list of yards if anyone is interested!
Regards,
Bharat Vohra

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 18 Nov 1998 22:44:10 -0500


> Closer home, the biggest yard in Bombay is KYN on CR and on the WR its
a
> toss between BRC and SBI....

what is SBI ? - Bharuch ?

> in Gujarat!
> Pune and Katni are two other yards that I can think of that are big on

Pune is not really all that big,. We have a small 'Up' yard in the
region
between the Sangam bridge and the platforms. The bigger GIT (goods inter
trans
shipment ) yard at Ghorpadi contains only 60 lines. So that is not very
big.
Katni is quite impressive. I remember seeing an entire train composing
only of
green coloured brake vans being hauled by a WDS 6.

> CR...maybe we should go region wise on yards...a good topic...I can
come up
> with WR's list of yards if anyone is interested!

That would be great !

Apurva

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 18 Nov 1998 22:57:01 -0500


Gang !

The term refer to the fact that the wagon is carrying fragile,
hazardous or live (cattle, chicken etc) goods. Shunting in a 'hump'
yard is a very violent activity. I spent one full day in Bhusawal
watching the proceedings while waiting for a connecting train.
Basically the rake to be 'reformed' is pushed on a hump. The last
wagon (or wagons) are uncoupled and the brake hoses are also
disconnected. Once the loose wagon is pushed over the hump the rest of
the rake is braked. The last wagon (or wagons) now speed away under
the
influence of gravity downslope of the hump. The shunting master now
throws a point to lead the speeding wagon to a siding. There the
wagon
collides with the other waiting wagons in a quite spectacular fashion.
Then a 'khalasi' (lowest order of railway men) tightens the wagon's
coupler and brake hoses to form a new rake. The success of the loose
shunting is that the free wagon must just reach the standing rake
without causing damage to the coupler or by stalling before reaching
the rake. If the wagon come in too fast, the waiting crew slows it
down
by applying the manual brakes (a large lever pointing down at 45
degrees in 4 wheeler wagon or a wheel with 'apply - release' marking
in a 8 wheeler wagon). This process is on through out the day and
through the night in a large hump yard like the GIT at Ghorpadi, Pune.
You can hear the violent clanging in the distance and the booming
sound
when the wagons couple.
In case of a 'not to be loose shunted' wagon the violence of the act
could very well spill the goods.
One of the parts I respect highly as an engineer is the buckeye
coupler - it takes unbelievable abuse in its lifetime. Once the wagons
are coupled, the pin that secures the coupler as well as the brake
hoses are joint by hand.
Although marked as 'Not to be loose shunted' I have seen BPTN ( LPG
gas
eight wheelers) rake being loose shunted at Daund. The loose wagons
were colliding at speed and jumping at few inches when suddenly
stopping on the standing rake. This sort of risk taking is just not
done, whatever the hurry the crew might be in. Apart from the damage
that the rake and rails might be suffering, if a BPTN rake is to
explode, it might level the entire tiny town of Daund. During the same
deadly shunting operation I saw the khalasi preceding the still
moving
wagon so as to open the jaws of the CBC wide. He was walking backward
wearing chappals (open footwear) and stepping over the sleepers and
ballast stones while the 60 Tonne BPTN bore on him at fast walking
pace.
Classmates living in Bhusawal used to tell me of accidents in hump
yards where a khalasi actually got trapped in the two buffer roundels
(pre buckeye coupler rakes) and was crushed to death.
While I was watching the daylong shunting at Bhusawal, I saw men
pushing a still rolling four wheeler wagon to its final standing
position. Apparently pushing a wagon by 8 - 10 men is not that
difficult, once it is set rolling.
Jayant could stand on the Blue Diamond bridge to see the hump just
below the bridge facing towards the diesel shed. The view is slightly
obscured now, as a large bore water pipe crossed the railway lines
just
after the road bridge.
There is an unusual signal in this hump shunting yard - It is about a
foot across and is composed of many small yellow lamps. There is a
horizontal line, a vertical line and a line at 45 degrees.
When the horizontal lamps are lit - Do not cross the point (signal is
'on'), when the 45 degrees lamps are lit - shunt with caution (this
mimics the normal shunt signals which have two lamps in the horizontal
plane and there is one more lamp located at 45 degrees to the left
horizontal lamp). When the vertical bar is lit - shunt fast !. I have
never seen this type of signal anywhere else.

*
* *
Here is an attempt at the binary art of the ordinary shunt
signal.

* *
* *
* *
* * * * * * * * *
* *
* *
* *

While this is the special shunt signal in the GIT yard

Apurva

From: VIRAL DESAI <>

Subject: DREAM TRAINS

Date: 18 Nov 1998 23:56:07 -0500


Hi Folks ,


Talking about the topic odf dream trains , Why not everybody contribute
at
write about the trains they would like to see introduce/increased
frequency/decrease running time.

I'll start with few :

1. MUMBAI (CST/DDR/KLA) - MADRAS SUPER FAST EXP. DAILY
2. MUMBAI " " - PATNA S.F. EXP.. DAILY
3. MUMBAI - TRIVANDRUM S.F. EXP. DAILY
4. BCT - KALKA S.F. EXP DAILY .
5. SUPER DELUXE TRAINS BETWEEN MUMBAI(CST , KLA , DDR) AND SBC ,
TRIVANDRUM
, MADRAS , LUCKNOW .
6. MUMBAI - GKP S.F. EXP VIA LUCKNOW DAILY.
7. ANOTHER S.F TRAIN OR MAKING ONE OF THE TRAINS A S.F BETWEEN MUMBIA -
SBC
, HYDERABAD/SEC.
8. MUMBAI - BARAUNI S.F EXP VIA VARANSAI , MUZZAFAPUR .DAILY

7. INCREASE IN FREQUENCY OF :
1. SWARAJ EXP. TO DAILY .
2. DDR- GUWHATI EXP TO DAILY .


Any more ideas or suggestions ?

regards ,
Viral Desai.

From: Anne Ogborn <>

Subject: NRM page in travel site

Date: 19 Nov 1998 00:10:41 -0500


It's not on my list of sites, it's got a nice section on the NRM. Please
forgive if everybody
knows about it.

<A HREF="http://www.redifindia.com/travel/sep/25enghom.htm">http://www.redifindia.com/travel/sep/25enghom.htm</A>

From: Balasubramanian, Vijay <>

Subject: Re: Through service

Date: 19 Nov 1998 07:25:56 -0500


> Pune-Mumbai night passenger is my favorite as it saves a day
> of daylight hours
> for me. Something very valuable while visiting India. Other
> favorite night
> trains/ through coaches are JP-JU , and between Ajmer and JU.
> I have also
> traveled on a night train from KanyaKumari to Chennai; but that was an
> express.
>

Before the days of the Ganga Kaveri Exp., there used to be a through
coach
that provided service between Varanasi and Madras Central. I have
traveled
on this a couple of times. We would leave Varanasi around 11.00 am by
the
Varanasi-Dadar Exp. (Kashi Exp.) and would get shunted out at Itarsi.
After
an 6+ hour wait at Itarsi, the Dakshin Exp. (known as link exp. in those
days since one portion would get detached at Kazipet and go to Madras)
would
pull in and haul us to Madras. One of the highlights at Itarsi used to
be
the arrival of the Madras bound GT exp. with its elegant
blue-red-with-white-stripes livery, just a couple of tracks away from
us.
Between Varanasi and Allahabad, we would have a steam loco. in charge.
Then
a welcome change to diesel traction till Kazipet. From Kazipet to
Madras,
it was back to steam. On one occasion, our 'link' express was hauled by
two
WPs between Kazipet and Madras, kinda neat. The complete journey would
take an astronomical 56 hours. This was cut down to 33 hours after the
introduction of the Ganga Kaveri Exp.

Vijay

From: VIRAL DESAI <>

Subject:

Date: 19 Nov 1998 08:50:45 -0500


Hi all,


What exactly does a marshaling yards means , and how does it got the
name
like marshaling yards ?

Regards ,

Viral .

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 19 Nov 1998 14:42:36 -0500


> Problem one: the strain of the coupling when the engine brakes
suddenly.
> Problem two: Its OK with the modern CBC (buck eye) couplers which are
> uncoupled with a simple yank on teh lever, and which couple
automatically on
> impact.

Question - what happens to the CBC if it is not open fully ? I have
noticed that even if the lever is pulled hard, the jaws do not open
and the man has to physically force them apart. If a closed CBC
touches another closed (or open) CBC do the jaws open automatically ?
Then there is a safety pin which is put in place (there is a pin,
isn't there ?) to prevent the CBS from opening, and the brake hoses
have to coupled manually. This points to lots of manual operation.

> But in those days of screw couplings, the shunting master had to wait
> at the last car, wait for the impact, then get under the car and start
> coupling real fast. Some brave souls simply stood on looking upon a
massive
> freight car bearing upon them, brave the bang,

The guy actually waited in between the standing rake and the loose car
at the time of impact ? Wow !

> I do not know about US railroads,but there is a practice on the IR
>(and also in > the
> UK: I've seen pictures of it) of coupling one or two empty freight
>wagons on either end of the tanker train. i.e. the tanker train will
> have two empty freight cars directly behind teh engine and >
immediately before the guard
> car.(caboose).

Check out the Indian barrier cars in the LPG train
page:<A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~ApuB/LPG.htm">http://members.tripod.com/~ApuB/LPG.htm</A>

Apurva

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: What about our non Indian friends ?

Date: 19 Nov 1998 14:57:55 -0500


Gang !

The IRFCA is running quite fast now - We are discussing obscure
issues with great relish and passion. Although this is giving me (and
many of you) immense satisfaction, I am wondering if our non Indian
friends are feeling a little left out. I can see a drop in the volume
of mail coming from them as most of the current threads pertain to
essentially Indian subjects which are relevant to only to gang who
have intimately studied (and observed first hand) the topics. I
wonder if we need to keep a few threads alive which involves everyone
around the globe. To start with I could request a summary of shunting
practice (specially the loose - hump variety) in the US, UK and
Australia.

News: The Mumbai Pune line has a new station - Kanha between Kamshet
and Vadgaon. It will be inaugurated this Sunday and the Pune -
Lonavala EMUs are the only trains scheduled to make a stop there.
There are some major industries in the Kanha area which was developed
to get some progress in the Maval region of Maharashtra.

Apurva

From: Anne Ogborn <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted" (retarders - gravity switching)

Date: 19 Nov 1998 14:58:02 -0500




Apurva Bahadur wrote:

> Jayant S wrote:
>
> > > If the wagon come in too fast, the waiting crew slows it
> > > down by applying the manual brakes.....
> > I know that Mughalsarai yard had wagon retarders for
> > this: are they common in large IR yards all over India ?
>
> Yes, I forgot the manual (and automatic in the US ?) retarders. But
then
> these are the features of highly automated yards. GIT is yet to
achieve
> this status. I want the US gang to explain how the marshaling
operations
> are done there - I guess the hose coupling and the security pin has to
> be put in place by hand there too.
>

I'd assumed "not to be loose shunted" meant - "don't shove this car with
an
engine and let it
roll into the place it's to stand."

OK - as part of the US gang, I'll give it a go -
Yes, retarders in the US on gravity (hump) yards are often automated
-
they measure the speed of the
car and try to slow it to a certain value. Air hoses have to be done by
hand.

From: Sachin P Keshavan <>

Subject: Re: Bhowani Junction

Date: 19 Nov 1998 15:50:35 -0500


Hi all,
The movie Bhowani Junction has come twice in the TNT channel on the
cable TV. It is indeed a good movie. It is said that John Masters based
the Railway Station "Bhowani" on the then Jhansi Junction. I don't know
about Gondwara, but can it be Itarsi or some thing like that.

Sachin.

>Folks:
>
>I am in the process of reading "Bhowani Junction" by John Masters.
>
>I haven't seen the movie, but this extremely well-written novel should
be
>required reading for railfans of all liveries. I highly recommend it.
>
>There is an entire chapter describing a footplate journey in a steam
>locomotive between Bhowani and Gondwara (both of which I presume are
>fictional). At the risk of violating copyright laws, I am tempted to
post
>the entire chapter on this list.
>
>Kartik.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday."
>
>Kartik Pashupati, Ph.D. (kpashupa@mailer.email
>
>Florida State University
>Department of Communication
>356 Diffenbaugh Building
>Tallahassee FL 32306-2064
>Phone: 850-644-1809; Fax: 850-644-8642
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>Website: <A HREF="http://mailer.fsu.edu/~kpashupa">http://mailer.fsu.edu/~kpashupa</A>
>
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at <A HREF="http://www.hotmail.com">http://www.hotmail.com</A>

From: Shanku Niyogi <>

Subject: Re: DREAM TRAINS

Date: 19 Nov 1998 16:11:41 -0500


I'd like to see a Howrah-Hyderabad Shatabdi, so I can move back to India
and
work for my company's new Hyderabad branch, and visit my family for two
days
every couple of weekends instead of two weeks every three years. ;)

Seriously, though, if it could ever happen, a superfast version of the
Darjeeling Mail through Bangladesh would be awesome.

-----Original Message-----
From: VIRAL DESAI [mailto:anvir@bom5.email
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 1998 11:56 PM
To: IRFCA
Subject: DREAM TRAINS


Hi Folks ,


Talking about the topic odf dream trains , Why not everybody contribute
at
write about the trains they would like to see introduce/increased
frequency/decrease running time.

I'll start with few :

1. MUMBAI (CST/DDR/KLA) - MADRAS SUPER FAST EXP. DAILY
2. MUMBAI " " - PATNA S.F. EXP.. DAILY
3. MUMBAI - TRIVANDRUM S.F. EXP. DAILY
4. BCT - KALKA S.F. EXP DAILY .
5. SUPER DELUXE TRAINS BETWEEN MUMBAI(CST , KLA , DDR) AND SBC ,
TRIVANDRUM
, MADRAS , LUCKNOW .
6. MUMBAI - GKP S.F. EXP VIA LUCKNOW DAILY.
7. ANOTHER S.F TRAIN OR MAKING ONE OF THE TRAINS A S.F BETWEEN MUMBIA -
SBC
, HYDERABAD/SEC.
8. MUMBAI - BARAUNI S.F EXP VIA VARANSAI , MUZZAFAPUR .DAILY

7. INCREASE IN FREQUENCY OF :
1. SWARAJ EXP. TO DAILY .
2. DDR- GUWHATI EXP TO DAILY .


Any more ideas or suggestions ?

regards ,
Viral Desai.

From: VIRAF P.. MULLA <>

Subject: Re: Tidbits from early IR issues - April 1968

Date: 19 Nov 1998 20:04:07 -0500


>
> -There is a section on Bombay division and its problems. A particular
> paragraph refers to operation of 'kutchra' (garbage) trains -
collection
> area for the 'kutchra' of Bombay is in the south-west corner of the
island
> while the dumping ground is in the north-east corner with the result
that
> these trains have to cut across all suburban and through lines of CR
and WR.
> [Was this for real?! What was the composition of these 'kutchra'
trains?]


This was indeed a real train. The train consisted of a permanent rake of
several low sided wagons of a vintage origin. The loco was a ramshakle
WDS2 (six coupled diesel loco with the cab at one end). The wagons were
not always covered and would always leave a trail of garbage and stink.

The train would start around midday from the Mahalakshmi dump yard which
is adjacent to the Western Rly mainline. It would run on track no 4 from
Lower Parel till Elphinstone Road then cross over to Central railway at
Parel crawling along the sidelines through Dadar and Matunga after which
it would come on the C.Rly mainline Track no 3. Crawl through Sion and
change over to the Harbourline between Sion and Kurla and would
terminate
at Mankhurd dump yard.

We at Godrej used to call this train STINK EXPRESS and used to curse it
for it always used to delay our train on our way back home on Half
working days and not to forget drenching us with that stink - UGH!

The Stink Express used to crawl very slowly specially near Matunga where
it would cross over from the sidings to the mainlines holding up the
suburban trains on tracks 1,2 and 3 for more than 15 minutes.

Regards
Viraf

==========================
Viraf Mulla
C-20/14, Jeevan Bima Nagar,
Borivali (West)
Mumbai 400103
Tel: +91-22-8954510
E-mail: sncf@godrejnet.email
==========================

From: PROTIP.DASGUPTA <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 19 Nov 1998 20:33:31 -0500


Hi Apurva,
To start with SBI is Sabarmati, which is a combined BG-MG yard west of
ADI! Sabarmati used to have 2 sheds, both MG at one time...a steam and a
diesel...now sadly only one remains! It also has a wagon depot on both
BG
as well as MG. It was also the largest transhipment yard on WR and has a
huge BG-MG marshalling yard...of course no longer in use!!
It is quite impressive..bigger then BRC on WR!
As for PUne, well when I said big, I said so cause it has two yards..pne
facing Bombay and the other facing Daund..of course the Daund side is
much
bigger then the Bombay one!
On CR, KYN would be biger then Pune...and Katni and Itarsi would be
bigger
then even KYN. Even Jhansi and Bhusawal yards are big!
Regards, Bharat Vohra

From: Anne Ogborn <>

Subject: hump yards/ non indian friends

Date: 19 Nov 1998 20:54:37 -0500




Apurva Bahadur wrote:

> Gang !
>
> The IRFCA is running quite fast now - We are discussing obscure
> issues with great relish and passion. Although this is giving me (and
> many of you) immense satisfaction, I am wondering if our non Indian
> friends are feeling a little left out. I can see a drop in the volume
> of mail coming from them as most of the current threads pertain to
> essentially Indian subjects which are relevant to only to gang who
> have intimately studied (and observed first hand) the topics. I
> wonder if we need to keep a few threads alive which involves everyone
> around the globe. To start with I could request a summary of shunting
> practice (specially the loose - hump variety) in the US, UK and
> Australia.

Well, it seems appropriate that it's the Indians who are doing most of
the posting.
You're the guys with the info!
I have to confess, I'm more interested in the technical aspects, so I
tend to skim the
timetable recitations, but that doesn't mean I'm uninterested in the
list
as a whole.
Just that I'm in no position to post a lot when this is the subject.


And, to respond -

Switching (Shunting aapko) in the US has was moving towards more and
more
of it being
done in hump yards for many years. In the last decade or so, however,
the
intermodal trains
and unit trains have just about taken over the rails here, so there just
isn't as much switching to do.
However, there's still a good deal of switching done here.

I should start by saying that Janney (is that "Buckeye"?) style
couplers,
which have been
standard in the US since turn of century, have a lever extending to the
corner of the car which,
when raised, disconnects the cars, so it's possible to uncouple on the
move.

In olden days there was something called the flying shunt. A train with
a
facing point drop

(like this - drop last car in siding:)

----------car car car car engine
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------


\___________________i

would start from a ways off and get a running start. As the train
approached the switch, a brakeman riding
the last car (s) would "pull the pin" (uncouple). The engineer would
give full throttle, and the train would
pull away from the cut (rake). The train would fly past the switch, the
switchman would throw the switch
for the siding, and the car would roll in.

This manuver has been outlawed for many years, as has it's cousins, the
rope shunt (same trick, but with a rope
pulling the car), and poling (pushing a car with a pole from a loco on
an
adjacent track).

Humping (gravity switching) is a bit different each place, but is
something like this:

Train pulls into an arrival yard, a narrow (2-5 track) yard long enough
for a whole train. Engine is disconnected and run to the service
facility. Caboose is taken off
(rare anymore - usually there's a "fred", rear end device).
A heavy duty switch engine (usually a SW1500 or something) and a "slug"
do the "humping".
A "slug" is a weighted frame with traction trucks like a locomotive, but
no generator or prime mover (diesel).
The switch engine has plenty of *horsepower* at low speed (power =
tractive effort * speed) , but not enough
tractive effort.
Anyway, the hump engine takes the train out of the arrival yard and
pushes it up the "hump", a hill about 3-5 meters high.
At the top a "pin puller" (worker) uncouples the cars, and they roll,
one
or a few at a time, down the front of the hump.
The railroads experimented with an automatic car identification scheme
in
the 70's, a "bar code" that read the
car's ID at this point, but it didn't work well and is no longer used.
The cars often then roll over a scale and an inspection pit in large
hump
yards.

Next the cars roll through the "master retarder" - a (these days
computer) controlled "brake" system that presses the
inside of the flanges to control the speed of the car, depending on
where
it's routed, how much it weighs, the wind, etc.
Beyond is a compound ladder (often of 3 way lap switches) Sometimes
there
are additional retarders in the midst of the
compound ladder.
(note - a yard "ladder" track is the main track all the yard tracks come
off of, the one track with many switches off it.
Simple ladder:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

\__________________________
\_________________________
\________________________
\_______________________


Compound ladder:

____________________________
_______/____________________________
_______/
\___________________________________
\____________________________


The cars roll down through the compound ladder into the "bowl" (the area
of yard tracks). In a hump yard, the bowl is
usually a little lower in the middle than at the ends, so the cars
"puddle" in the middle.

A "trimmer engine" and crew work in the bowl, hooking up hoses and
grabbing the occasional misclassified or poorly rolling car.
When the train is ready, the road engine will couple on, pull the train
out into a "departure yard", caboose or fred is attached, and the train
pulls out.

It's fast. One day Frannie and I sat and watched them hump a hundred car
train. From the time they started shoving cars over the hump to when
they

quit, it must have been not more than 30 minutes.

The Union Pacific RR website has a section on Bailey yard, the world's
largest hump yard.

<A HREF="http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/bailey/">http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/bailey/</A>

definitely worth a visit.

Annie

From: Anne Ogborn <>

Subject: Re: "Not to be Loose Shunted"

Date: 19 Nov 1998 21:18:34 -0500




Apurva Bahadur wrote:

> > Problem one: the strain of the coupling when the engine brakes
suddenly.
> > Problem two: Its OK with the modern CBC (buck eye) couplers which
are
> > uncoupled with a simple yank on teh lever, and which couple
automatically on
> > impact.
>
> Question - what happens to the CBC if it is not open fully ? I have
> noticed that even if the lever is pulled hard, the jaws do not open
> and the man has to physically force them apart. If a closed CBC
> touches another closed (or open) CBC do the jaws open automatically ?
> Then there is a safety pin which is put in place (there is a pin,
> isn't there ?) to prevent the CBS from opening, and the brake hoses
> have to coupled manually. This points to lots of manual operation.
>

No, there's no extra safety pin. It takes quite a yank on the uncoupling
lever to uncouple.
The uncoupling lever is attached to a chain, which pulls a pin in the
coupler body. This
releases the knuckle to swing.

Yes, the knuckles often have to be manually opened. If somebody goofs up
and it doesn't
happen, the outside of the knuckle faces slam togather.
Yes, it's not optimal. But we couldn't afford the cost of changing
everything. And, like the man
says, it's extremely reliable equipment taking a severe punishment.
In a hump yard, the pin puller opens the knuckle faces. The pin puller
has to have a lot of trust in
the hump engine engineer, as he or she's constantly walking in front of
cars to open knuckles.


>
> > But in those days of screw couplings, the shunting master had to
wait
> > at the last car, wait for the impact, then get under the car and
start
> > coupling real fast. Some brave souls simply stood on looking upon a
massive
> > freight car bearing upon them, brave the bang,
>
> The guy actually waited in between the standing rake and the loose car
> at the time of impact ? Wow !
>

In US in link & pin days, they'd have to hold the "link" up to go in the
slot in the other car. Lots of men did
it with their fingers rather than a stick. When the unions organized, it
was as much to get rid of the link
and pin coupler (and westinghouse brakes, and uniform "safety
appliances" (grabirons) placement) as
it was for higher wages.
In fact, the train club here has been trying to borrow a Buckeye
coupler, we have a couple link-and-pin ones,
we're going to make an exhibit about this - and we've asked the union to
help.

In US hump yards, going between cars to attach hoses is strictly
forbidden until the
rake is complete.

>
> > I do not know about US railroads,but there is a practice on the IR
>(and also in > the
> > UK: I've seen pictures of it) of coupling one or two empty freight
>wagons on either end of the tanker train. i.e. the tanker train will
> have two empty freight cars directly behind teh engine and >
immediately before the guard
> > car.(caboose).
>

In the US, there's a rule to place a (possibly loaded) non-tank car
behind the engine. But I see solid unit trains of
tank cars. hmm...

The only special barrier cars are at steel mills (to keep locos away
from molten steel), and idler flats for pushing cars onto car floats
and other places the engine's too heavy to go.

There's been a lot of work done on tank car safety here. I'll ask some
of the folks at the club about the current rules.

From: Karthik Raju <>

Subject: KR time table?

Date: 19 Nov 1998 21:20:48 -0500


folks,

is there some site out there where i can get the
konkan railway time table from?

thanks
-karthikraju.

______________________________________________________
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From: Shankar <>

Subject: Re: NRM page in travel site

Date: 19 Nov 1998 21:39:22 -0500


Thanks Annie.
I had originally bookmarked this site and used to go to it off and on,
but
deleted it when teh official NRM site came on.
Now the original NRM site sometimes fails to download and hangs (I
thought
it was due to a fault with my server or worse still, my computer, but
Don
has confirmed that this happens to him as well (phew!)), so I guess this
site is the one to go to when that site hangs and you still want to
visit
the NRM online.
Best regards.
Shankar

At 12:10 AM 11/19/98 -0800, you wrote:
>It's not on my list of sites, it's got a nice section on the NRM.
Please
>forgive if everybody
>knows about it.
>
><A HREF="http://www.redifindia.com/travel/sep/25enghom.htm">http://www.redifindia.com/travel/sep/25enghom.htm</A>
>
>