So you think you know about Trains? - Pt 2

Sounds like what we here in the US call a 'derail' . It tends to be a piece of, I assume metal, that is in the shape of a wedge that slopes toward the middle of the tracks, preventing a moving car from ending up on the mainline. It literally derails the car by derailing it to end up with one wheel in between the rails and the other outside the rails. It'll cost a lot of money to 'rerail' the car, which tends to require lifting the car by a crane or something else, but it gets the job done.

It depends on how badly the car is derailed, but over the years I've watched railroad crews rerailing a variety of cars and equipment, including loaded 100-ton coal cars and steam locomotive tenders using a "rerailer", with no assistance from a crane required. Pic below:

4018-01-R.jpg


Rerailers were commonly carried in the toolboxes of most caboose cars and underneath the tenders on many steam locomotives.

You can see the rerailer mounted above the rear truck in the pic of the Rio Grande tender on this page.
 
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There are actually diferent types of Scotch Block, some will derail runaway rollingstock and some just lock a set of points as I stated above.

Cheers,
Bill
 
last week's question said:
What is the purpose of a ‘scotch block’ in a railway yard?
The ‘scotch block’ in a railway yard is also known as a ‘derail’, and is used to derail a train or wagon within the yard, before it reaches the mainline tracks. This prevents a train that has not been permitted to leave the yard (e.g. a runaway wagon) from colliding with a train on the mainline, or derailing on the mainline and blocking the track.
































This weeks question:
What is the purpose of a ‘scotch block’ in a railway yard?
 
Other answers depending where you look & depending on location as stated above

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Scotch block: a wedge or block placed against a wheel to prevent movement.

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SpragsOn severe inclines, it is not sufficient to depend on the parking brakes of coaches or wagons to keep them stabled or parked. Sprags are metal (steel) bars that are inserted between the spokes of a wagon's wheels to prevent it from rolling away; scotch blocks or stop blocks are wooden or metal wedges that are placed on the rail under a wheel for the same purpose. Also called scotch blocks / stop blocks[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]

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The purpose of the booster was to increase starting tractive effort for a steam locomotive. Steam locomotives generated their highest horsepower and tractive at speed. They need the booster to start the train and once the train was moving the booster was normally cut off
 
There's an excellent 1922 article (loaded with illustrations and info) from the Sante Fe Magazine about the locomotive booster that can be read online at Google Books.
 
last week's question said:
What is the purpose of a ‘booster’ on a steam locomotive?
The booster on a steam locomotive is used to increase, or boost, the tractive effort at slow speeds, or when starting. The booster is a small steam engine attached to the trailing bogie of the locomotive, or in some cases, to the tender bogies, and operates in a similar manner to the traction motors on a diesel, just being steam powered instead of electric.































This weeks question:
What was the role of the ‘Chief Mechanical Engineer’ in a railway company?
 
The role of a 'Chief Mechanical Engineer' or CME is to be in charge of the design and construction of, in this case, locomotives and rollingstock. He (or she) is by no means is the sole creator as many people are employed in the drawing office and R&D, but they oversee the entire process from paper to prototype.

Cheers
Tim
 
The job title of "Chief Mechanical Engineer" was used primarily by the railway companies in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. The nomenclature of the railroad companies in the U.S. was somewhat different, as reflected in the chart below, from page 139 of the book, Railroad Administration, published in 1920.

books
 
last week's question said:
What was the role of the ‘Chief Mechanical Engineer’ in a railway company?
The ‘Chief Mechanical Engineer’ was the person who was responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock in a railway company.

































This weeks question:
What is the function of ‘thermic syphons’ on a steam locomotive?
 
last week's question said:
What was the role of the ‘Chief Mechanical Engineer’ in a railway company?
Thermic Syphons are used to improve the circulation of water through the boiler, as well as to increase the heating surface area in a locomotive’s boiler.

































This weeks question:
What is the purpose of a ‘calling on’ signal?
 
last week's question said:
What is the purpose of a ‘calling on’ signal?
A calling on signal is used to permit a train into an occupied siding, such as to allow a locomotive to couple to it's train. They are used in place of the signalman having to display a green flat to the driver, which is not always practical.

































This weeks question:
When operating on a single track rail line, what is ‘pilotman working’?
 
When operating on a single track rail line, what is ‘pilotman working’?

According to my rulebook:

Should a token be lost or so damaged that it cannot be replaced in the instrument or in the case of failure of the token apparatus between two signal boxes, in the event of non availability of an S&T Technician, Working by Pilotman will be introduced as shown in Appendix (b) to this Section G.
 
Indeed - it is also used for single line working on double track in the case of an obstruction, including engineering work, under all forms of block working, be it track circuit block or absolute block.

Essentially, unless all signals admitting trains to a single line section are locked with each other so that nothing can get into the section from either end while another train is in the section, a token or staff has to be carried (or if permitted, the staff can be shown to the driver and a specific ticket for that journey handed to him if another train is following.)

If no token or staff is available, a pilotman has to do the job. He gets authority from the signalman for the train to proceed, gives that authority to the driver, and if the next train through the section is coming from the other end, he travels with the driver as the token/staff.

Some sections are permanently worked by pilotman - Mullingar-Athlone (Formerly ETS Mullingar-Moate and TCB Moate-Athlone, Mullingar has been converted to TCB and Moate is closed) and Lisburn-Antrim (formerly TCB, signals disconnected and loops at Ballinderry and Crumlin clipped (query lifted?) - the panel is still present in Antrim signalcabin, which has been reduced to a gate box, and the panel is unusable anyway)

Another example used to be Antrim-Bleach Green. I think the line was singled in about 1989, and from then on it was worked by Electric Token Block from Antrim to Belfast York Road, and later Belfast Central. Until its closure for refurbishment about ten years later, it was used as a diversion route - I remember in 1995 the Belfast-Lisburn section was closed between Botanic and Adelaide for works related to the new Great Victoria Street station, and trains from Antrim had to run via Bleach Green to reach Belfast, rather than the then main route via Lisburn (as above). To save trains running the whole way to Belfast to exchange tokens, they instituted pilotman working for the weekend so that trains could pass each other on the double track section between Bleach Green and Monkstown.
 
last week's question said:
When operating on a single track rail line, what is ‘pilotman working’?
Pilotman working is when a person (known as the ‘pilotman’) acts as the token for a section of track. This is a form of ‘staff and ticket’ working, however the pilotman replaces the staff. Verbal authority to enter a section then replaces the ‘ticket’. So long as there is only one ‘pilotman’ for a section, this is safe.

This system is also used where there is a signal failure in automatic train control systems, as well as when a double track rail line has one track closed but services continue to operate on the remaining track (e.g. where a derailed train is blocking on line, but not the other).


































This weeks question:
What is a "doghouse" on a steam locomotive?
 
The 'doghouse' on a steam engine was intended as a place for the brakeman to ride near the head end of the train. The D&RG was known to feature these on the K-27 and other 2-8-2s on the famous 3 foot gauge network, of which two parts are still in operation today with almost all the original equipment. The brakeman may have had a rough ride whenever he/she was in the 'doghouse', presumably named bc of the limited space inside of one.
 
The 'doghouse' on a steam engine was intended as a place for the brakeman to ride near the head end of the train. The D&RG was known to feature these on the K-27 and other 2-8-2s on the famous 3 foot gauge network, of which two parts are still in operation today with almost all the original equipment. The brakeman may have had a rough ride whenever he/she was in the 'doghouse', presumably named bc of the limited space inside of one.

Brakemen riding in the head-end brakeman's cabin (or cupola) just needed to learn how to get comfortable... The N&W brakeman in this photo appears to have had the technique down pretty well (one foot resting in the window.) Soon after the N&W first installed the cabins on some tenders the railroad installed steam lines from the locomotive to the "doghouse" to provide heat during cold weather. Some crews on the N&W called the brakeman's cabin "the monkey box". But for that matter, on some roads, the caboose was called the "dog house".

Head_Brakemans_Cabin_or_Dog_House.jpg

Above: Letter from a member of the Order of Railroad Conductors advocating the use of "dog houses" published in a union magazine in 1922.
 
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A doghouse just has to be the coal tender - think of the coal bunker sometimes found in back gardens/yards.

Peter.

 
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