Eastern Railroad Discussion > What's a hospital train?

Greetings!

I'm listening to the live scanner feed out of Schenectady, NY. I just heard a dispatcher tell a crew that there was going to be a delay because there was a hospital train and an MoW train ahead of them.

What is a "hospital train"?

Thanks!

RobR

It's a trainload of doctors travelling to a golf outing.

But seriously folks: It's a train of damaged or disabled equipment en route to a repair shop or, in some cases, a scrapyard.

RobR wrote:
>
> What is a \\"hospital train\\"?
>
>

A bunch of cripples!

A "MASH UNIT"

toledopatch wrote:

> It\\'s a trainload of doctors travelling to a golf outing.
>
> But seriously folks: It\\'s a train of damaged or disabled
> equipment en route to a repair shop or, in some cases, a
> scrapyard.
>
> [%sig%]

If the equipment is headed for the scrap yard, Then it is called a funeral train.

In either case, the special is used when cars are not able to travel in a normal manifest train due to damage. Many times, the train will have idle cars added to provide brakes when the damaged equipment does not have a working brake line. Long hoses are used to bridge the miscreant car or locomotives in some cases. As you might imagine, the speed on these trains may be limited from 25 to 10 mph because of defects. If the distance it long to it's destination, the train may be switched out to have every other car an idler for better handling, again braking being the consideration. It all depends on the type of damage and distance.

Ken
Mason City, IA

n01jd1 wrote:

> toledopatch wrote:
>
> >
> > But seriously folks: It\\\\\\'s a train of damaged or
> disabled
> > equipment en route to a repair shop or, in some cases, a
> > scrapyard.
> >
> > [%sig%]
>
> If the equipment is headed for the scrap yard, Then it is
> called a funeral train.
>
> [%sig%]