Prototype center height


Old 97

Old 97

Hogger
I was watching a slow moving train the other day and as it meandered by, I noticed the couplers were not matched for center height on two cars. :eek: One was a box car and the other a small covered hopper. It looked like they would uncouple at any moment. Reminded me of how I still have couplers to fix on my rolling stock........:rolleyes: :p :p
 
Its more common than you think. Sometimes the shim falls out of the draft gear, sometimes the wheels get turned and the car sits lower. Could be an engine too as I had in my train a few years ago. Both engines are on the rails but with the up/down slop you can see how much play there is when one coupler goes up and the other down.

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I would imagine that on occasion, trains come uncoupled due to coupler mismatch or track problems. It's just that they don't have the option of the big hand from the sky pulling the rest of the train to recouple back up.
 
I saw what a coupler mismatch can do one day. I was railfanning at one of my favorite places and as a CSX train was beginning to pull up a slight grade, I saw a real bad mismatch on the engine and first car. There was then a loud bang, and a knuckle flew off of the train and landed about 15' from the rails. So much pressure was put on the top part of the knuckle that it couldn't take it any longer and snapped off.

A maintenance crew was called and it took them only about an hour to replace the knuckle and send the train on its way. One thing they did do was to replace the shims on the car, and raise the entire coupler up to the proper level. After this bottleneck was cleared, within 30 minutes of the train finally leaving 6 trains went by. Almost as soon as one went by, here came another. Normally that amount of trains are spaced about an hour apart, (50 to 55 mins. or so). It took the maintenance crew about 3 hours to get to the location and then another hour or so to fix the coupler. Then several minutes as the engines were backed to couple up to the train. Then connecting the hoses and pumping up the train line took another 15 minutes or so.

Shot a lot of pix that day.
 
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Cjcrescent said:
I saw what a coupler mismatch can do one day. I was railfanning at one of my favorite places and as a CSX train was beginning to pull up a slight grade, I saw a real bad mismatch on the engine and first car. There was then a loud bang, and a knuckle flew off of the train and landed about 15' from the rails. So much pressure was put on the top part of the knuckle that it couldn't take it any longer and snapped off.

A maintenance crew was called and it took them only about an hour to replace the knuckle and send the train on its way. One thing they did do was to replace the shims on the car, and raise the entire coupler up to the proper level. After this bottleneck was cleared, within 30 minutes of the train finally leaving 6 trains went by. Almost as soon as one went by, here came another. Normally that amount of trains are spaced about an hour apart, (50 to 55 mins. or so). It took the maintenance crew about 3 hours to get to the location and then another hour or so to fix the coupler. Then several minutes as the engines were backed to couple up to the train. Then connecting the hoses and pumping up the train line took another 15 minutes or so.

Shot a lot of pix that day.
Click to expand...

Thats actually comical as usually the crew just replaces the knuckles as most locos have a spare type E and F knuckle on them either on the rear or on the trucks and if it was a knuckle that broke right next to an engine then its a 5 minute fix. Now if the locos had no knuckles on them then its understandable for it to take so long.

You can see an E and an F knuckle on the rear pilot of the genset loco and then you can make out the spare knuckles on the rear pilots of the 2 road units second step from the bottom.

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Mark,
I don't believe that these boys had anything like that with them, as when they climbed down from the cab, one of the crew was cussing up a storm about something.:D It probably was they didn't have any knuckles to replace the broken one with. If there had been a caboose, I bet they would have had plenty.;):rolleyes:

I had seen a knuckle break before, in my hometown years ago, and you're right, its a short quick repair.

They really just kinda stood there with their thumbs up their A****:eek: until the truck arrived from the yard, about 30 miles away!
 
Every time I see a coupler from this angle I think of Manny loosing his fingers in the movie "Runaway Train". :eek:



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Cjcrescent said:
Mark,
I don't believe that these boys had anything like that with them, as when they climbed down from the cab, one of the crew was cussing up a storm about something.:D It probably was they didn't have any knuckles to replace the broken one with. If there had been a caboose, I bet they would have had plenty.;):rolleyes:

I had seen a knuckle break before, in my hometown years ago, and you're right, its a short quick repair.

They really just kinda stood there with their thumbs up their A****:eek: until the truck arrived from the yard, about 30 miles away!
Click to expand...

He was probably mad because he actually had to do work and walk the train

lazy conductors!!!!
 
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