knuckle breaks on ns

[switchmen37]

so why is norfolk southern popular for broken knuckles? so on you tube i see bunch of knuckles break off from norfolk southern, the ones i see ran 2 mile and 3 miles long trains with no dpu to help the front engine, what i was told that all other roads have used dpus for 2 to 3 miles train, and said that ns does not use dpus even though the consist is at least 3 miles long but in rare occaions they might. puts alont of stress on the couplers and thats why ns is in the tops for braking knuckles. true it may be metal fatigue but all of them on ns. they said slamming them and no dpus on long trains are the reason. they must be doing something wrong with the most brakes in knuckles .
yeah i jus need othe points of view on this

so i will make this clear, any rude replies, will be a rude reply back an eye for an eye kind of.

those who respond respectful will get a good reply

so think before you answer its a 2 way street

im only say this because that one member was mean rude and crude

 

[1611mac]

im only say this because that one member was mean rude and crude

Only one?

Many, many factors determine whether DPU is used or not. Length of train is only a factor as follows: It's the "load" on the coupler system that matters. The "load" is dependant on weight, grade, how the engineer handles the train, etc etc etc.

So, fewer broken knuckles could be the result of better training (better engineers), better maintained equipment, better trackage, etc, etc, etc,

 

[JCitron]

The other factor could be that NS like other railroads is bringing in many older pieces of rolling stock that were sitting in storage due to the increase in freight traffic. These pieces may look fine and pass inspection but may have fatigued draft gear and couplers that are now failing under stress.

Why bring up this up?

so i will make this clear, any rude replies, will be a rude reply back an eye for an eye kind of.

those who respond respectful will get a good reply

so think before you answer its a 2 way street

im only say this because that one member was mean rude and crude

This is generally not an issue in these forums.

 

[switchmen37]

thanks for the response, great explanation from both of you 1611mac and jcitron, but just thinking if i have a 3 mile long train of my top of my head of thinking i need a dpu reguardless of load, weight, and grade, to relieve the stress on the couplers. so my thing is if i was an engineer i would put a dpu on a 3 mile long or even 2 mile long train. in my view it s a win win situation.

just one question who determines how many engines a consist use and any dpus? is it the engineers job or the dispatcher?

 

[1611mac]

RE: "a 3 mile long train... (is a) win win situation.

just one question for thought... if you have to sit in a siding to let Amtrk or a hotshot pass by how many 3 mile sidings do you have? And how difficult is it to get a 3 mile long train up to speed again? And how to you stop a 3 mile long train in emergency?

 

[JCitron]

There are probably many factors including such things as the kind of freight, terrain, grades, curves, etc. When I was traveling out across the Great Plains, I saw a number of container trains that were about 2 to 3 miles long. None had a DPU on them. The area they were traveling in was straight out flat between La Junta Colorado and Strafford Texas. That was quite an awesome stretch because the busy tracks were parallel to the road for quite some distance. At night, the signals could be seen one after another green - yellow - yellow - red off into the distance with freight trains stopped at various sidings waiting for blocks to clear ahead.

 

[switchmen37]

a 3mile long train win win no no i did not mean that. i guess i did not make myself clear on that i meant the dpus less stress on the couplers. but i see how you got unclear about what i was trying to say. hope this clears up some. iv seen 2 mile long train with dpus. the ones come through my city hull up to 1.5 mile long train. where i live at we have 2 mile siding tracks on the outskirts of the city

as for a 3 mile long sideing not too many if there is any. but maybe at hump yards. to stop i think 10 miles i am guessing. when i watch you tube you will see 3 mile long trains from the great plains to the mountains i dont know on the east coast iv seen 1mile long trains some times with a dpu sometimes not.

jctron why no dpus?, if it makes less stress on the couplers then not, other wise they are going to have knuckle breaks; after reading again you just answer my question they were on flat ground. but if they going over the mountains they will need dpus would think

the ones come through my city are up to 1.5 miles long. its funny though the speed on side of tracks says 55 on the outskirts of city and in city its 50 seem fast to me but conrail put them there. i dont know if ns uses them or not they seem go through city speed 30. conrail is famous for speeds exceeding the city speed when the city is about 40,000 where i live but ns has it now and they go city speed just a tid bit of info

 

[JCitron]

They did indeed have DPUs when in the mountains. I saw plenty of them around Essex and East Glacier on that trip. The trains were serviced at Havre, Shelby, and Whitefish from what I saw on my trip up that way in July 2012.

I also wonder why NS runs such long trains over the former D&H Sunbury line. There are all kinds of hills on that route and even CP Rail ran into split trains as they capped the hills. It makes me wonder what the trainmaster was thinking on this. They do, however, run a DPU on their trains through the Hoosac Tunnel and on to East Deerfield, Gardner and Ayer.

Up where I am, we're lucky to get a 60-car freight as it heads to Rugby Yard or North Maine Junction. We're pretty much at the end of the line here I suppose when it comes to the services. Guilford and later Pan Am Railways decimated the Maine Central, Boston and Maine, and Delaware and Hudson and went through great lengths to discourage any freight service that was left outside of the through lines.

 

[switchmen37]

if you read my latest post i said that speed through the city is at 40,000, no, i made a mistake its should have been 40 mph not 40,000 mph even that is wrong its now 30 back in the day conrail use to go 50 mph through the city. ns does not run through the great plains right? conrail did not follow any rules at least not in my state when comes to switchyards they like to bang them together i mean bang not a lite touch. i saw having dpus in the mountains and around the hills of the east coast to the mississippi river. i think thats where ns ends the line some where near the mississippi maybe ohio or indiana just guessing.

in my state, they move coal from the south into pennsylvania. so the closest coal mine is in virginia so they would have cross over the chesapeake down by the mouth and head north into md,de then pa and bring the empties back the same route back to the coal mine and load up again thats like 10 years ago i guess they still do that as of today. i hav seen empties come back down from pa