Latest Breaking News

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)

20. There are two air pressure systems.

Thu Jul 11, 2013, 02:44 PM

Jul 2013

Assuming the train had Westinghouse Air Brakes, which has been almost universally used on freight cars for over 100 years.
Each car has an air tank, the pressure in those tanks applies the brakes. The locomotive supplies air pressure to the entire train, pressure from this centralized system overrides the pressure in each car and releases the brakes.
If the pressure in the central system drops, the brakes on all cars are applied.
If an individual car's air pressure drops below that of the central system (by leaking or manual release) then the brakes on that individual car are released.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

41 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Quebec train set too few brakes, engineer �under police control� [View all] jpak Jul 2013 OP

Such a tragedy... deurbano Jul 2013 #1

"rail operators are given considerable leeway"---the regs remind me of oil & gas industry regs wordpix Jul 2013 #2

what an awful tragedy. LittleGirl Jul 2013 #3

In addition to the loss of life, BlueToTheBone Jul 2013 #4

Oh yeah, it's a goddamn mess. AtheistCrusader Jul 2013 #5

Holy Crap! BlueToTheBone Jul 2013 #7

72 tanker cars. AtheistCrusader Jul 2013 #8

Oh how horrible! BlueToTheBone Jul 2013 #11

I'm guessing some will never be found NickB79 Jul 2013 #41

Scapegoat: Acquired AtheistCrusader Jul 2013 #6

They tried first to pin it on volunteer firemen Thor_MN Jul 2013 #9

indeed. fuck Ed Burkhardt. I stand with Tom Harding cali Jul 2013 #29

Harding may have made a mistake, but AtheistCrusader Jul 2013 #30

yes. and that's if he made a mistake. I stand with Tom Harding. cali Jul 2013 #31

Correct me if I'm wrong... TheBlackAdder Jul 2013 #10

Amen to that! 7962 Jul 2013 #14

1) Apparantly HooptieWagon Jul 2013 #15

The average railcar is 75 feet long, plus hookups. 80 feet x 75 cars = 6,000 feet. Over 1 mile. nt TheBlackAdder Jul 2013 #17

75' too long. 50 or 60 might be about right. And your right, my mental math went south. HooptieWagon Jul 2013 #19

Varies, but most seem to be 60-63 feet long, thus about 2 football fields short of a mile happyslug Jul 2013 #35

For many years... HooptieWagon Jul 2013 #36

As an addition... TheBlackAdder Jul 2013 #16

There are two air pressure systems. HooptieWagon Jul 2013 #20

Were they unionized? Seems to me this would be an issue a union would have plenty to say about. silvershadow Jul 2013 #12

Yes - United Steelworkers. However... GliderGuider Jul 2013 #25

Well, then looks like the union knew best. nt silvershadow Jul 2013 #33

And anyone walking the tracks can release the hand brakes. bahrbearian Jul 2013 #13

That could be. HooptieWagon Jul 2013 #18

Until the engineer admits fault or facts show he is responsible, what the comapny says is pure crap. snagglepuss Jul 2013 #21

EVEN IF he made a mistake the working conditions made it not only possible, but likely. AtheistCrusader Jul 2013 #32

Ok - 1 guy is going to set handbrakes on over 70 cars? ConcernedCanuk Jul 2013 #22

No, only a number of them need to be set. The real issue is... GliderGuider Jul 2013 #24

Shouldn't be a concern of the engineer ConcernedCanuk Jul 2013 #26

I'm pretty sure we'll see some significant regulatory changes as a result of this. nt GliderGuider Jul 2013 #27

(I posted this on another thread) The Proceeding would not have happend in the U.S.A. mrdmk Jul 2013 #38

The train was left on the incline because it was crippled, it was parked there so the snagglepuss Jul 2013 #40

More on the track incline, union representation and the single-operator issue. GliderGuider Jul 2013 #23

Bullshit. This makes me furious. That's the accusation of the vile pig Burkhardt cali Jul 2013 #28

scape goat mtasselin Jul 2013 #34

Oh, FUCK THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT! Brickbat Jul 2013 #37

+100 nt GliderGuider Jul 2013 #39