Mance, PA February,2000
Sunny, but 22 Degrees!
Hot Times on the High Iron, 5 February 04 Today, old man winter rears his head. Yes gang just in case you haven't noticed, it is wintertime in North America. Now contrary to the belief of some railroad managers, this is not the very first time winter has ever occurred. But from personal experiences in my twenty-five plus years of railroading and stories recounted to me by friends at other railroads, you would think this wintertime thing was something all new, just invented. It seems that every winter there are some railroad officials that have completely forgotten the fact that we had a winter season last year. They seem to routinely ignore the force of the railroad gods and their first cousin, old man winter. We have had quite the cold snap here in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. in the past week or so. Bitter cold ambient temperatures in the single digits or below 0 Fahrenheit and even lower in some regions coupled with strong winds have provided us with a wind chill index in the 15 to 25 below 0 range or even colder. We have also been blasted with a fair amount of snow in between cold snaps along with some freezing rain. This brand of weather makes wreaks havoc on the operating plan making railroading quite the adventure, or perhaps, quite more the adventure than normal. Our friends north of the border in Canada have fared no better. In fact, they have received a real "heapin' helping" of winter. Temperatures in places like Winnipeg, MB and Edmonton, AB have dropped to -40 degrees F and colder. Baby, its cold outside! As I have frequently mentioned in previous columns dealing with cold weather, compressed air used to charge and operate the air brake system on trains and bitter cold weather do not mix. Never have and very likely, never will. Undaunted, some railroads will still attempt to operate long trains in such weather. This attempted combination generally results in tremendous delays to the operation. One night this past week when the ambient temperature was about 3 degrees, it was decided that we would stop at Markham and make a pick up of 25 cars. We already had an 88 car train with less than desirable air. I told the Yardmaster we had bad air (a term often used to describe a train with air problems) as it was, plus it was cold and slowly getting colder. Nonetheless, the powers that be decided we would get more cars and that everything would work out just fine. I don't care how much authority the powers that be might assume they wield, they are still no match for the railroad gods. And of course, we all know what happens when one assumes. Now since we were going to make the pick up regardless of our air situation, logic should have dictated that we shove the entire inbound train right in on top of our pick up. It was already worked and still attached to the yard air plant. It was fully charged with "good" air. A move like this would give us a fighting chance. But logic is not always the rule of the day. Instead, we cut off our train on number on main one north of the control point at Homewood, worked out way across the plant with our engines and back into the yard. We then made the pick up, pulled back out across the plant and then shoved back against our train. Now we would have to pump the air up on the 88 cars we had previously cut away from. With the pick up completed, the air cut in and JJ in the clear, I began pumping. To encourage the system to charge a little quicker, I revved up the engines to run three. In the bitter cold weather, the air compressors on both of locomotives were encountering a difficult time trying to maintain main reservoir pressure. With lower main reservoir pressure, it would be even more difficult to achieve sufficient brake pipe pressure on the train. By revving up the engines, the air compressors would speed up their rpms as well. This would have the system pumping a bit harder in the attempt to increase the volume of main reservoir air which, in turn, would increase the volume of air being delivered into the brake pipe. When it is extremely cold such as it was this night, all those little pinhole leaks in the piping and the somewhat worn gaskets between some of the glad hands on the ends of the air hoses suddenly become gigantic liabilities. The piping and fittings tend to contract a bit in the bitter cold exposing leaks that don't occur when the air temperature is somewhat milder. Air hoses also tend to become very stiff in such weather which may also result in leaks as the connections between them at the glad hands is often not as good. Plus, when the train is moving, stiff hoses tend to not flex as well when the slack is adjusting in or out or when the train is negotiating through curves and turnouts. Under these circumstances, hoses tend to either partially or completely separate. When they partially separate the air from the brake pipe will begin to drop rapidly causing thebrakes to apply and dragging the train to a stop. We recently experienced this problem. I was using the dynamic brakes to slow the train for a speed restriction. In using the dynamic, you are slowing the train using the locomotives as brakes. The slack of the entire train is bunched up against the locomotives. So now we have the blend of bitter cold temperatures, stiff air hoses and unknown to me, developing a significant air leak. Slowly the air on the train began to drop causing the brakes to apply. I noticed the brake pipe pressure on the tail end was beginning to drop according to the readout from FRED and could hear the sound of air beginning to pump harder through the automatic brake valve on my lead locomotive. The train came to a nice smooth stop, but then the brakes would not release. An inspection of the train revealed an air hose that had partially separated. The hose was kinked upwards enough to allow brake pipe pressure to escape from between the two glad hands. The very stiff hoses did not flex properly when the slack in the train bunched up causing the hoses to push upwards and actually begin to uncouple themselves. While they didn't completely separate, there was enough of a gap at the glad hands to allow the discharge of air in a leak too great for the pressure maintaining portion of the automatic brake valve to overcome. With a complete hose separation, the result will be an emergency application of the brakes. Once the emergency application begins it cannot be stopped. Oftentimes the occurrence of break-in-twos, also known as undesired train separations tend to increase in bitter cold weather. Stiff hoses that come apart causing an undesired emergency application (UDE) of the train can result in a broken knuckle. The Engineer did nothing wrong, but will have to defend his actions when filling out a break in two report and again getting his or her "debriefing" from the company official investigating the event. Again, some, but certainly not all officials don't want to accept cold weather as a problem or a contributing factor for such an occurrence. Meanwhile, back at the ranch: We continued to pump air in our train. A minimum of 75 psi is required on the tail end to begin an air test. The 75 number is calculated based upon the regulating valve setting on the locomotive. Like most other railroads, CN operates with a 90 psi brake pipe. Federal rules require the brake pipe pressure on the tail end of the train must be within 15 psi of the regulating valve setting of the locomotive before beginning an air test. Simple math tells you that 90 - 15 = 75. Now should we be using an 80 psi brake pipe instead, as was common with some railroads for many years that tail end pressure would have to be 65 psi. After some forty minutes of pumping, we had attained about 55 psi. CSX devised what they feel is a method to get around the difficulties of charging a brake pipe charged to the proper pressure in bitter cold weather. At the initial terminal of a train, the regulating valve on the lead locomotive is set to 80 psi before coupling to the train. Once that 65 psi number is achieved on the tail end of the train, the brake test could be commenced. When the brake test is completed, the regulating valve is then restored to 90 psi. Legal? Well yes, but not necessarily practical. Sure, they get the train out of the yard, but then it is up to the Engineer to try to make everything work properly and safely control the train. With barely sufficient air in the brake pipe, you'll still get the train slowed or stopped safely but it will just require the Engineer to have to use more air to accomplish the task. And when it is cold like this, it takes significantly longer to achieve a release of the brakes. This may require having to bring the train to a complete stop anytime you are required to use the air. If you try to continue rolling, the very slow and uneven release of the train brakes may result in a break in two of the train. And it goes without saying that it then takes quite awhile for the brake pipe pressure to be restored. Another problem that occurs with bitter cold weather is gelling of diesel fuel. There is paraffin in diesel fuel. When the temperatures drop to bitter cold numbers this paraffin may begin to gel. Even with the fuel preheater on locomotives, the fuel may still begin to gel. As the fuel gels it does not move very well through the piping of the fuel system. This will cause the locomotive to begin to "starve" for fuel. The prime mover is simply not getting enough fuel to each cylinder to allow for proper operation. To combat this problem, some railroads will pour in several quarts of alcohol to the fuel in the locomotive fuel tank. Automatic brake valves on the locomotive may also freeze up. I haven't heard of it happening in some time, but the freezing problem does occur. When the brake valve does freeze, unless you can get the locomotive department out there to correct the problem, you are essentially stuck with operating from the second unit. Sometimes alcohol will be added to the brake system, but this reminds me of that old adage, "The operation was a success, but the patient died. The alcohol will and does attack the rubber components within the automatic brake valve and eventually ruins them. Our pumping of the air has now gone on for about one and a half hours. The brake pipe pressure as indicated on FRED has not risen above 66 psi. Once 66 psi was reached, we seemed to plateau right there. I was now revving the engines in run 5 in the attempt to get the air compressors to work a bit harder and produce a little more volume. It wasn't helping though. JJ and I began to discuss our plight. We agreed that it was not likely of ever attaining the magic number of 75. I began trying to contact the Assistant Super on the telephone to discuss our dilemma. The call went to voice mail. Moments later he called us on the radio asking about the air situation. I advised him that it was highly unlikely that we would see sufficient air. I suggested that perhaps we should cut off the rear thirty cars from the train, move the marker up or get a new one and then commence with an air test. They had to take this idea "under advisement." The intense cold also unleashes other problems. Aside from the freezing automatic brake valves, sometimes other components of the brake system will freeze. This is often the result of moisture accumulating within the brake pipe and control valve. Valves within the control valve unit will freeze causing them to stick allowing air to escape directly into the atmosphere instead of pumping into the brake pipe. Such venting will prevent the system from charging or working properly. Such an escape of air will result in the brakes remaining applied even though the system is requesting a release. The brakes on the car in question will remain applied or "stuck" as it were. On a moving car the stuck brakes will cause sparks to come from the area around the wheels. The brake shoes may also start to glow from overheating if the problem remains unchecked. A sticking brake problem will most likely result in brake shoe build up occurring on the wheels. This past Friday evening when the temperatures dropped well below the 0 reading for the ambient temperature, we had just this problem. We met a northbound at Onarga and they reported seeing sparks coming from a car. While they didn't get a car number, they did tell us it was the 56th car from the tail end. Being that we had 113 cars this evening, a little quick math told me it was about 57 behind the engines. I slowed the train using the laws of gravity and physics instead of the air brake system. JJ droppedoff and I pulled the train past him to find the offending car. As the train rolled by him, JJ discovered several other cars with sticking brakes as well. Anytime I used the air on this train, I used a lot to ensure we would get a proper release. It didn't help though as we still had problems. Moisture can also be responsible for causing emergency vent valves to stick open after an emergency application of the brakes. The moisture freezes behind the valve causing it stick open. It takes a few smacks with a tie butt or something to break the ice sometimes, or if none of the quick fixes work, the brakes on that car have to be cut out. We routinely encounter problems with sticking emergency vent valves in the bitter cold weather. In my days at the Wisconsin Central we frequently dealt with intensely cold periods. I went to work one evening when the temperature was -25 degrees F. While doubling up our train at Shops Yard in North Fond du Lac one of the Car Inspectors decided to lend a hand to the Conductor. He disconnected the yard air plant from the last track we were going to double to. In doing so, the Car Inspector dumped the air on this track. After we coupled to the track and cut the air in, it would not come up. All the valves closed up just fine but there was just far too much train for the bitterly cold weather. We pumped for a couple of hours before the powers that be decided that it was not going to happen. The decision was made, although begrudgingly, to cut away from this track. You'd thought we were killing them or something to listen to the whining and crying though. This Car Inspector was chastised for his lending his "helping" hand though. In the years prior to the use of distributed power, some roads like Burlington Northern used air repeater cars to assist the pumping and maintaining the brake pipe pressure in longer trains during colder weather. I have no experience of any type with such equipment, so I am not familiar with how these air repeater cars operated. Such equipment allowed for longer trains to be operated even in bitter cold weather as there was more than one source of air being applied to the brake pipe. Today though there is distributed power (DP). DP involves the placement of one or more locomotives at one or more locations within a train separate from the locomotives on the head end. DP is operated remotely by the Engineer from the lead locomotive. DP locomotives pump air into the brake pipe also allowing for the operation of longer trains in bitter cold temperatures as again, air is being introduced to the brake pipe from more than just the head end of the train. And now for the conclusion of our adventure: The first suggestion for reducing the train came from the Markham General. His idea, or more than likely somebody else's idea forwarded along by him was for us to make a cut on the head twenty- two cars, work our way back across the Homewood plant into the yard and set the rear twenty cars we cut away from the train back out. We would hang onto the head two cars, both loads of autos and take them back out to the train with us. I suggested this idea would be suicide. Cutting away from the train again, going back and forth across the plant to make the set out and then getting back to the train, tying back on and then trying to pump the air up again from scratch would certainly lead to our death right there. By the time we would get the air up for the air test we would likely be out of time as the sands in the hours of service glass would run out. Instead of their plan, I suggested we pull the entire train across the plant at Homewood, have the Utility man come out and stop us clear of the Hines crossing south of the plant and then make a cut and move up the marker. After a period of contemplation over the idea, it was decided to go with my suggestion. Of course by the time we undertook this plan, our remaining time was getting scarce. We completed the move, finally managing to get enough air to begin an air test and completed same. While we conducting the air test, the Assistant Super and I discussed the idea of getting a new crew going to relieve us as we would have nowhere near enough time to make Champaign. We were then instructed to pull the train down to Stuenkel (University Park) where a new crew would take over for us. I did manage to get the air up to 79 psi on the tail end by the time we reached Stuenkel though, so I guess that was good anyway. We swapped out with the relief crew exchanged pleasantries and information about the train and they departed. We got into our cab and rubber tired it to Champaign. Old man winter created another hours of service casualty and I'm certain the railroad gods were quite pleased with the efforts of their cousin to undermine the good intentions of the rail industry. If I had a laugh track available, it could be applied here. And so it goes. Tuch Hot Times on the High Iron, ©2004 by JD Santucci
More photos
Back to Railroad Index Page