When making up a train, ( in steam days) I can belive that for a pasenger train all of the B ends will face the locomotive if there is an observation car on the end.
Drawings I have seen of brakemen on old time freight cars (vertical brake shafts) show all B ends aligned similarly.
I can't believe that freight cars are always aligned B to A end, due to the way they would be switched in classification yards.
Does any one know if there is a preferred alignment when making up either a freight or passenger train. For example, if a Pullman from Kentucky were added to a train from Cincinnati, would its B end couple to a B or an A end on the receiving train.
i.e. are both freight and passenger cars lined up at random or is (or was) there a system to tell brake operators where to go?
Paul
Remember electric cars are powered by coal.
As much work as it would be to constantly be turning the cars around (not to metion a lot of towns didn't have a wye or turntable) and due to do the fact they function just as well in either direction I would be suprised if they did that. I know if I ran the railroad and I saw my workers wasting time that way they would be fired on the spot !
In regards to "Remember electric cars are powered by coal." not all power plants are coal fired. None fossil fuels include nuke, hydro. wind and of course solar. My step-mom lives in a retirement village down south and has a neighbor who has his own solar panels on the roof of his carport and keeps his electric car always ready to go. Earlier in the year when gas hit $4.50 a gal. he was taking his neighbors to the grocery store and to their doctor appointments and what have you. With most of them on fixed incomes he was a veryyyyyy popular guy!
SABLENIP Wrote:When making up a train, ( in steam days) I can belive that for a pasenger train all of the B ends will face the locomotive if there is an observation car on the end.
Drawings I have seen of brakemen on old time freight cars (vertical brake shafts) show all B ends aligned similarly.
I can't believe that freight cars are always aligned B to A end, due to the way they would be switched in classification yards.
Does any one know if there is a preferred alignment when making up either a freight or passenger train. For example, if a Pullman from Kentucky were added to a train from Cincinnati, would its B end couple to a B or an A end on the receiving train.
i.e. are both freight and passenger cars lined up at random or is (or was) there a system to tell brake operators where to go?
Paul
Remember electric cars are powered by coal.
Paul,It doesn't matter how the brake wheels are aligned..
As Mike pointed out it would take to much time turning cars-freight or passenger.
Now back in the day of hand braking a train to a stop a passenger car had brake wheels on both ends and the freight brakeman could see the brake wheel on the freight cars because the brake wheels was mounted on a shaft that stuck up.
The best I can offer is that on The Canadian most of the cars were oriented so that the doors (one set only per car) were at the rear end. (execpt the Dome-Obs Park car which had to have the doors at the front).
Being the top train, this one was turned as a unit on a reversing loop (at Toronto, anyways).
The times that freight car orientation matters are:
Unload from this side cars. They might not be oriented until the train that puts them into the siding.
Rotary dump cars which only have a single rotating coupling and need to be carefully aligned -- one end is painted up so that you can tell from hundreds of feet away.
None of these have a concern for the brake wheel.
Yep, in that case the brakewheels will end up aligned the same way, but it's not the brakewheel that is the driving consideration.
Passenger cars may be turned so that the cars all are configured in the same direction, and to properly position the entry vestibules.
Freight cars only need to be turned if they need to be loaded or unloaded from a certain side or end (autoracks and ramp-loaded TOFC flatcars are good examples of cars that must be oriented a certain way for unloading), or to align rotary couplers.
Passenger cars may be turned so that the cars all are configured in the same direction, and to properly position the entry vestibules.
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Actually a lot of cars had "flop over" seats so,they wouldn't have to turn the cars.
The only pasenger car I seen turn was a observation.
Thanks Guys for your comments, I can see the sense in rotary dumpers and auto racks, and the remarks on vestibues for passenger cars helps my understanding of how the trains should be made up.
I note Tyson Rails comments on electric cars, but over here (NSW) all our power apart from roof top solar is generated by coal fired power staions. It is interesting that when the anti coal publicity shots show photos of our big plants polluting the air they show sream and not smoke.
Paul
Coaches on a modern push-pull train are all oriented the same way because the cab car - to - locomotive remote control lines run down one side while the door control and PA system lines run down the other side.
steemtrayn Wrote:Coaches on a modern push-pull train are all oriented the same way because the cab car - to - locomotive remote control lines run down one side while the door control and PA system lines run down the other side.
Does those cars have double seats(seats facing each other) or flop over?
Larrry: the BBD cars on GO Transit have seats in sets of 4 except at one end of the upper deck where the guard/trainman sits; there there are 2 pairs back to front.
When I went in with my wife, we tried to get these as we aren't very sociable at 8 a.m. The guard only needed them in one car.
The lower deck has slightly different arrangement but no walkovers.