Eastern Railroad Discussion > How do "Do Not Hump" cars get handled in class yards?

There have been several center beam bulkhead flats carrying sheetrock on the CSX Boston line lately. Affixed to each car is a "do not hump" sign. Question: does anyone pay attention to this sign, or some equivalent indication in a computer database, when these cars are classified? When I've observed the classification process at Selkirk, a train gets dropped in the receiving yard, the road engines cut-off, a hump pusher moves in, and starts to push the original consist over the hump. What happens when the "do not hump" cars get to the top of the hump?

They usually hold onto the car and set it into the class track, uncouple it, and then pull the cut of cars back up the hill.

Take a ride by the shop tracks in Selkirk yard and see "the ones that got away'. Steel girders or telephone poles sticking out like quills on a porcupine, lumber flats with the bulkheads bent backwards, pipes in gons loaded above the top sills. And even a trailer on a flat with the back doors blown out now and then..................

It depends on the terminal. There are a few out there where DO NOT HUMP seems to be taken as a suggestion, not a requirement as stated by the rules. I've seen tranformers, Schnabel cars, passenger cars, major league hazmats, panel track, special MofW equipment, etc. all humped in spite of such notices on them. I cringe each time, but as long as they get away with it, nobody seems to make an issue.

ConrailTV-6 Wrote:
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> It depends on the terminal. There are a few out
> there where DO NOT HUMP seems to be taken as a
> suggestion, not a requirement as stated by the
> rules. I've seen tranformers, Schnabel cars,
> passenger cars, major league hazmats, panel track,
> special MofW equipment, etc. all humped in spite
> of such notices on them. I cringe each time, but
> as long as they get away with it, nobody seems to
> make an issue.


When I drove PTI crewvans at CSXT's Radnor Yard in Nashville TN back during the summer of 1995, I often watched the hump operation in progress. There was a setoff track just to the right of the hump, and when such "DO NOT HUMP" cars were the next ones to go over, they were simply set off into that track -- and flat-switched later in the day. I never saw them actually hump any cars that weren't supposed to be humped, but then, I was only there for the summer/fall. At least, when I was there, those in charge apparently took care to do the right thing by those notices. (All manner of cars, including LPGas, hi-wides, special loads, military loads, etc....)

Most of the "do not hump" signs are put there by the shippers. If we paid attention to all of them, we wouldn't get anything done. We do provide extra handling for highly shiftable loads--flat cars without bulkheads or gons with loads higher than the ends. The high-value loads (as determined by the railroad) are held in a retarder and shoved to the coupling. The DOT113 tank cars (usually for ethylene) are never moved unless tied onto power--regardless of whether they're loaded or empty.

Cut 'em off.

I have seen "Do not hump" stenciled on loads of scrap iron. Needless to say, the pin was pulled and down the hump they went.

A lot of special loads can be safely humped into a clear track, so they will come to rest in the retarders and not couple into another car.

If they are handled on the head-end of the incoming train, they can be cut off with the power and set over to a holding track to be flat-switched into an outbound train later.

A couple of years ago didn't NS hump a tankcar at Buckeye Yard in Columbus that sprang a leak of something rather toxic?

Mark

ConrailTV-6 Wrote:
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> It depends on the terminal. There are a few out
> there where DO NOT HUMP seems to be taken as a
> suggestion, not a requirement as stated by the
> rules. I've seen tranformers, Schnabel cars,
> passenger cars, major league hazmats, panel track,
> special MofW equipment, etc. all humped in spite
> of such notices on them. I cringe each time, but
> as long as they get away with it, nobody seems to
> make an issue.

If you don't want the cars humped, don't send them to a hump yard!! The only thing that I "do not hump" when it actually says not to is Loaded Double Stacks, Dangerous Tanks and Passengers cars. The only thing that I can say about the rest of them...don't send them to a hump yard. We have to process some 1,800 to 2,000 cars a day to stay on top of the game at CSX Radnor yard. Some one had already mentioned, If we took the time to "set out" all the cars that said not to hump em, we would be in the weeds all the time.

The "Do Not Hump" sometimes only refers to when the car is loaded, as well. So you may see a car being humped with that designation when the shipping papers specifies that it can only not be humped when loaded.

While visiting the hump tower at Englewood, TX a few years ago, the operator in the tower stated the only thing they do not hump are candy stripers, slang for tank cars with realy dangerous chemicals in them (and a red stripe running the length of the car). I am talking the kind of chemicals where if you catch the scent of them, you have 15 or 30 seconds to get your affairs in order before death.

halfmoonharold Wrote:
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> If they are handled on the head-end of the
> incoming train, they can be cut off with the power
> and set over to a holding track to be
> flat-switched into an outbound train later.


That's what yard switchers are for. Roads crews are doing too much yard-related word as it is.

dschlegel Wrote:
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> While visiting the hump tower at Englewood, TX a
> few years ago, the operator in the tower stated
> the only thing they do not hump are candy
> stripers, slang for tank cars with realy dangerous
> chemicals in them (and a red stripe running the
> length of the car). I am talking the kind of
> chemicals where if you catch the scent of them,
> you have 15 or 30 seconds to get your affairs in
> order before death.

The only cars I've ever seen fitting that description are the white hydrogen cyanide/hydrocyanic acid tanks. If you smell almonds around one of those things, say a quick prayer before saying G'night.

they get humped anyway.

"They usually hold onto the car and set it into the class track, uncouple it, and then pull the cut of cars back up the hill."

YEAH RIGHT. The cars get humped.... If its something real bad the drag will be pushed over the hump a ways and it will be "dropped lower". So instead of being uncoupled at the top of the hump where it will gain more momentum, it will be dropped lower where the hitch will be slower. Of course, this is only done at Getto hump yards without retarders. Otherwise, everything is fair game.

"If they are handled on the head-end of the incoming train, they can be cut off with the power and set over to a holding track to be flat-switched into an outbound train later."

I think you are thinking of High and Wides. They must be on the head end of the train in a location that can be observed at all times by the trains crews. This comes in handy when their train needs to be switched out, as it can be set over. Otherwise, the do not hump cars I can think of contain wine, glass, and stuff like that. Others that we "take care" humping are pole cars, tie cars, basically any external loads.

Here is a centerbeam that didn't fare well going over the hump.

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NBEC Wrote:
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> Here is a centerbeam that didn't fare well going
> over the hump.

If that indeed was its problem, how did it end up on the uphill side of the hump?