Western Railroad Discussion > Oddity Repairing a cooked freight car axle on the main

Hello

My Oddity photo entry this week features an unusual occurance I just happened to be lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.
Last July my father and I were vacationing in Nebraska and were driving down hwy 30 near U.P.'s triple track main line. We decided to pull over and have lunch next to the tracks east of Brady, and watch the trains go by.
Just as we were settling into lunch, the eastbound track 3 detector at Brady sounded off, and instead of hearing the usual "No Defects", the lady in the silver box announced "Defect Detected!".
I have never before been trackside, to hear a detector report a hotbox.
A passing westbound train crew reported a thick column of smoke erupting mid way through an eastbound loaded coal train.
The coal train stopped and the conductor walked back and reported the smoking axle on a bad coal car had burned up it's bearings, and the axle had nearly burned through to the journel.
The dispatcher asked if the bad car was safe enough to set out in Gothenburg, but the conductor was way too skiddish to move the train any further than necessary.
After a few moments of silence the dispatcher instructed the crew to break their train and move the bad car (very slowly) to the nearest grade crossing. The dispatcher reported "Help was on its way".
The nearest grade crossing just happened to be where we had stopped for lunch. Thirty minutes later, a repair crew from North Platte arrived on site, and the reason for stopping the car near the crossing became clear, as the repair gang crossed over the tracks, set up and began to repair the car right there on the main line!.
It was quite interesting to watch the repair gang go through their process of repair.
In the attached photo, the conductor (at right) watched on, as the car was lifted up with massive jacks, the brake lines diconnected, the truck detached and the new axle lowered onto the rails.
The bad axle (nearest to the workers) was then removed from the truck and was replaced with the new axle.
I was amazed at the speed and effiency of the repair gang, as the job was completed in just over 1 hour.
For U.P. it was business as usual. Even though track 3 was fouled, other eastbound trains were quickly switched over to track 2 and allowed to continue east.
I hope you enjoy my photo oddity photo for this week.

RosevilleBill

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Great stories like these are why I enjoy trainorders.com. Thanks for the story and photo!

I agree with Alco636 - these first-person stories...and photos!...are why I subscribe to Trainorders, and why I don't miss TRAINS magazine,

Jim Poston
Thornton, CO

Thanks for the complements guys.

RosevilleBill