Railroaders' Nostalgia > ...Which Reminded Me of Another

I was on 1st trick the hill (BN Ballard - Lamona WA) with a west man coming into Winton. He called me on the radio and after I answered, told me there might be a problem with the lead unit, he'll need to stop at Merritt and switch it to the rear of the consist. I asked what's up and the answer was There was a kind of grinding noise followed with some clunking and a loud squeal. Then there was a loud boom and now there's smoke everywhere. There's no sound any more, so it's probably not running.

I gave him the helper off an east man at Merritt.

TAW

Might have been the piston sticking out the side of the motor...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/18 21:27 by roustabout.

TAW wrote ---
SNIP --------
> "There was a kind of grinding noise followed with some clunking
> and a loud squeal. Then there was a loud boom and now there's smoke
> everywhere. There's no sound any more, so it's probably not running."

"Probably"??? How could there have been any doubt in his mind? That poor thing was toast -- dead as a doornail. Time to give the poor thing last rites and send her back to the shops.


roustabout Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Might have been the piston sticking out the side
> of the motor...

Oh, roustabout -- you re soooooo funny!


I think some of you here in Trainorders-land might have missed a second career -- as comedians! Really! LOL!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/18 23:32 by Margaret_SP_fan.

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TAW wrote ---
> SNIP --------
> > "There was a kind of grinding noise followed
> with some clunking
> > and a loud squeal. Then there was a loud boom
> and now there's smoke
> > everywhere. There's no sound any more, so it's
> probably not running."
>
> "Probably"??? How could there have been any doubt
> in his mind? That poor thing was toast -- dead
> as a doornail. Time to give the poor thing last
> rites and send her back to the shops.
>
>
> roustabout Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Might have been the piston sticking out the
> side
> > of the motor...
>
> Oh, roustabout -- you re soooooo funny!
>
>
> I think some of you here in Trainorders-land might
> have missed a second career -- as comedians!
> Really! LOL!

It was the 80s. It was BN. If we didn't approach the daily grind (punny, eh?) with at least some degree of humor, it would have driven us stark raving sane.

Occasionally, some smart-mouth head man or engineer would get on the radio demanding to know why they had a red signal when I knew that they could see the train they were waiting for. I started responding "to prevent a train wreck." Engineer Blackie Mosier (not one of those guys - he was the opposite end of the spectrum) thought it was a cool retort and started using it to tell me he was at a red one...here preventing a train wreck and ready at your pleasure. Little things like that could make daily BN life tolerable.

One engineer working out of Bellingham drew a cartoon consisting of two images of a traction motor, one pristine (captioned This is your traction motor) and one charred with smoke coming out all over (captioned This is your traction motor on the Bellingham Subdivision. Any Questions?)...a parody of http://plasticandplush.com/images/2012/08/16/Mikie-Graham-Egg-Ad-1.jpg

TAW

I laid waste to a GEVO climbing into town one day and found the big end of a rod on the walkway. After calling Mr Goodwrench and describing the incident, he asked if I could restart it...... Seriously.

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TAW wrote ---
> SNIP --------
> > "There was a kind of grinding noise followed
> with some clunking
> > and a loud squeal. Then there was a loud boom
> and now there's smoke
> > everywhere. There's no sound any more, so it's
> probably not running."
>
> "Probably"??? How could there have been any doubt
> in his mind? That poor thing was toast -- dead
> as a doornail. Time to give the poor thing last
> rites and send her back to the shops.
>
>
> roustabout Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Might have been the piston sticking out the
> side
> > of the motor...
>
> Oh, roustabout -- you re soooooo funny!
>
>
> I think some of you here in Trainorders-land might
> have missed a second career -- as comedians!
> Really! LOL!

Once upon a time, on a shortline I know well, the crew of a train that ran overnight from point 'M' to point 'A' and back called the roundhouse cell to complain that their lead unit was making a lot of bad noises. Whoever they talked to said, to the effect, keep on going.' I don't remember how far they got but they did end up with a hole in the side of the motor.

Actually not that rediculous of a question from a shopman standpoint. I’ve replaced more than one engine with rods sticking out that I drove into my stall. Yea, wouldn’t make it around the block, and made the worst noise possible, but still ran. If the broken piece clears the crankshaft, it could still run... sort of...

Just sayin...

Walter


SD45X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I laid waste to a GEVO climbing into town one day
> and found the big end of a rod on the walkway.
> After calling Mr Goodwrench and describing the
> incident, he asked if I could restart it......
> Seriously.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/18 07:47 by drumwrencher.

Had a GP-9 that the air compressor was making a racket, and reported it to the locomotive foreman. He said to wire the carbody doors open so that if the air compressor flys apart it wont wreck the carbody doors. LOL

I was on a helper going west on the Siskiyous. There were 4 stoves on the point and I had 5, cut in. Almost to the top, I started getting alarm bells so I sent the fireman back. He said the one SD-9 we had was running hot. We were at Siskiyou and I had started to shut down to go into DB and still the bells. After we came out of Tunnel 13, he went back and the bell stopped. When he came back, he said the SD-9 had blown up and there was oil everywhere. (If you kept one of those old SD-9s in run 8, they would eat themselves alive until you dropped a notch and then they would die. Happened a lot in SLO when they had the 9s there in the helper pool)

It was a Sunday and all the power went to Dunsmuir for going over. I wrote up the bad motor, tied up and went home.

On Monday I was called for the Weed Local with the B/O SD-9. I couldn't believe it. I went back in the office and told them the engine blew up on the SLW on Sunday. There was an officer there and he said it had been OK-ed to go. I started to say something and he said, "Just go out, get on the power and go to work." Didn't say a word and did as instructed.

I put my grip down in the cab, set all the breakers and started it. You have never heard such a commotion as the RPMs started to increase to idle. There was banging and crashing, every sound you could imagine of a piece of machinery that was tearing itself apart. I looked down the gangway on the fireman's side and there was oil spraying out of the side and a piece of a piston rod and attachments, that held the piston, laying on the running board. I looked back towards the office and the "Officer" was standing there, jumping up and down and yelling. I couldn't hear him for all the noise. The operator got on the radio and said to shut the motor down and come into the office. By then it had started to wind down on its own and I think because it lacked a lot of parts to keep running.


The Officer started in and I told him I was just following his orders. I added, ..."maybe next time you might listen to people that know what they are talking about. Go back over to your office and let us do our job."

I went over to the gangway and kicked part of the inside of the engine on the gangway, to the ground. I took it over and put it in the back of my pickup and still have it to this day. When you see a piston rod twisted, you know how much force is going on inside one of these.


Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/18 15:39 by spnudge.

reminds me of one night going savannah to florence on 410. it was always a big heavy train, had 4 recentlyrebuilr u-36b's. was running along at a good 60 and the bells start. the lead engine had shut down, i went back to reset whatever, and oil was ll over the running board, i opened a bulging door and the hole piston assembly fell out and over the side,

I was on a westbound one night on SP's State Street line coming into Los Angeles. Passing the Cal State campus around Eastern Avenue I slipped the lead unit, a big 6-axle GE, into dynamic braking. Everything was fine until I noticed the prime mover in the unit was vibrating quite violently. Suddenly, things smoothed out and then got very quiet until the alarm bell started to ring. I isolated the unit and we continued on down the grade toward Taylor Yard.

After stopping at Main Line Tower while awaiting a receiving yard track I dismounted the power and walked back on the fireman's side to a point about midway on the sleeping beauty. Pointing my flashlight through the newly formed hole in the car body door, crankcase and upper cylinder assembly I could even see the stars of the night sky shining through the roof!
Aft of the new body work the entire consist glistened in what surely looked like a freshly painted consist of Penn Central black locomotives.
Oh well, they just don't make 'em like they used to.

Charlie

We were waiting in Dunsmuir for a Westbound to drop down to the depot for a crew change. The train stopped a couple of miles out of town because they had bells ringing and thought they had lost all of the trailing dynamic. After they got going they called the dispatcher and told him that the SP 9812, a nearly new SD70, now a UP 3974-3999, had quit with engine trouble.

The failure code the dispatcher entered was "oil on the walkways." He left out the "parts on the walkways also!"
G

fredstoltz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Had a GP-9 that the air compressor... so that if
> the air compressor flys apart it wont wreck the
> carbody doors. LOL

Damage control!
...Lorenzo

My only experience with units making very strange noises was at Industry, SP's home of Alco C415s. Prime over under long hood - then cab - then short hood containing the air compressor. Diesel and compressor connected via a drive shaft under the cab.

One night a unit on the Engine Spur was "making very strange noises" - much clunking and banging. I shut down the unit, looked into the short hood - the drive shaft have come uncoupled from the compressor, and was doing its best to demolish the short hood.


All the C415s tended to drink governor oil. It was suggested that a quick replacement for the oil would be the coffee from the Crest!