Western Railroad Discussion > Strange Claim by UP

This statement is on the UP website:

"The EOT also allows the engineer to set the air brakes from the rear of the train in the event the train breaks in two, thus, in an emergency, setting brakes on both halves of the train."

Silly me, I thought both halves of the train would dynamite all by themselves...

If, for reasons like a pinched brake pipe the air in the rear of the train cannot escape through the break the engineer can dump the trainline pipe through the rear end.

This feature is there account railroads found stuff like this happened and lead to runaway events account there was no caboose with a crew to place the rear of the train in emergency.

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Actually the railroads initially thought the 2-way feature was a costly, unnecessary expense.  We spent considerable months and years on trains with EOT telemetry only.  No brake valve function.

sphogger

That was the 'unofficial' cause of the second Cajon runaway. The train crested the summit, started downhill, the train bunched up and kinked the brake pipe. They put the train in emergency from the headend but only A portion of the train went in to emergency. ( up to the kink) it wasn't enough to hold it and it built up speed burning off the brake shoes till it derailed at drawbar flats. Not all the EOT's of the time had the feature to put it in emergency from the rear or that one was defective I can't remember. This is all second hand info from crews that I have worked with the last 15 years on Cajon. The company still claims 'sabotage'. Any corrections or updates welcome.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/15 21:45 by dynamicbrakeman.

Doing a 'plug test' is standard procedure when 'arming' the EOT. 


"Carman to UP8225 over"
"UP8225 over"
"Carman would like to establish red zone on track one for the UP8225, over"

"UP8225 establishes red zone on track one, set and centered over"

"UP8225 is set and centered. Ready for the EOT number over?"

"ready over"
"8-1-6-3-5, over"
"81635 dialed in, showing 74 lbs, over"
"Alright UP8225, here comes the button, over"
"UP8225 shows armed, over"
(Carman) "alright UP8225, let's pump em up, over"
"releasing on UP8225, over"
- (After a minute or two)
"Ok UP8225, we're showing 87 psi on the rear, over"
"UP8225 shows 87 psi on the rear, flow is down, over"

- Carman now walk up atleast one car, gets ready to close the angle cock

- Now as the carman turns the angle cock, they say on the radio "UP8225 ready for plug test over"

"here comes the plug on UP8225, over"

- Now the engineer clicks the switch on the head end that dumps the emergency air valve on the EOT. All cars from the turned angle cock back to the should go into emergency, dynamite, dump, etc. 

"That's a good plug on the UP8225, over"
"Good plug on the UP8225 over"

- Now the carman opens up the angle cock and heads back to the EOT.

"Alright UP8225 ready for set, over"
"here comes the set on the UP8235, over"
"Carman to UP8225, we've got 70 psi on the rear, walking over"
"UP8225 confirms 70 psi on the rear over"

- Now the carman/brakeman/conductor checks the brake indicators for the brakes being set. The amount of cars they check is dependent on the class of air brake test they are conducting

(Carman): "Alright UP8225 we've got a good set, release em, over"
"Good set on the UP 8225, releasing over"

- The carman checks the required amount of indicators to see if the brakes released.

"Good release UP8225, we're clear of the zone, I'll be up with the air slip shortly over"

"UP8225 confirms carman are clear of the zone, thanks for the work over"


 

As stated above, the carriers fought tooth and nail from putting them on.  Just like the PTC, it costs too much.

Well, the roads in Canada did it years before we were ordered by the FRA to do it. There was an incident up there where a train started to move by itself towards an open draw.There wasn't anything the crew could do until someone said, "Push the Button". This was brand new technology and crews had not really used  it much.  Someone pushed it and bang, the train went into emergency. Somebody had turned an angle cock not far from the head end. All it takes is a 1 1/2 pound change in the brake pipe and it will start the release. There was another incident up there and the button saved the day.

Well we had a few run-aways on Cajon without a caboose or a two way ETD. The FRA told the carriers, they had to install them. I don't know if they keep records of when the buttons were used but it would make good reading.

Before all of this, if the brakes released or would not apply, you had the big O back there that would pull the cork. The cars that were famous for it belonged to the WCTR.  I was dropping down the hill from Grass Lake and made a set. Everything was fine for a few minutes and bang, here comes the rear end and the speedo started up. I took another bite out of them but no change. It didn't take long before I went from 40 and started up towards 50 MPH. The conductor called and asked if I was having a "problem". I told him yes, (by then my toes were already through the ends of my socks). I told him I was going to release them and gather all the slack on the head end. After I did, I called him and told him to dump the air. It went in and we came to a stop in one piece.  Sure enough a pinched hose on a WCTR car. If I had not had someone back there, who knows. They had a few more on the Siskiyous until they changed the rules. 

You know, I often wondered why they didn't fix those cars to start with.. I was told later the cars were owned by D J Russel's wife.  Don't know if it was sandhouse but it made some sense.


Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/15 11:09 by spnudge.

That UP statement is a bit mis-leading as an engineer can't "set" the brakes with the EOT/ETD, but, as has already been discussed here, can put the train in emergency with it.

A "set" implies setting a portion of the air to control the speed of the train or to bring it to a controlled stop.   Obviously an emergency application sets ALL of the air and is used to stop the train NOW.

-Tom 

There was a wreck near of Sprague, WA, caused by a transient turning an angle cock a few cars back rendering the brakes ineffective.  There were some cars of frozen chicken, beer and propane that ended in a pile.  I heard it smelled like fried chicken all the way back to Spokane.

Thank you Coalca for the very clear example of a plug test.

Ken Britton
Bedford, TX