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I'm reading about cabooses that are converted to remote control shoving platforms. Unfortunately, nobody has explained how they work. If the caboose is on the other end of the train a dozen freight cars away, how does the remote control work? I heard some people mentioning that the caboose was MUed to the engine. Wouldn't that only work on unit trains?
Also, around what year did railroads start using remote control?
Mike Kieran
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The whole point of using a caboose as a shoving platform is that it is manned. So why would "remote control" of one be needed? Please provide us w/ a source for your information. Used one about 12 years ago & the only thing closely remote control were our pack sets. LOL
Andy Jackson
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lajry Wrote:The whole point of using a caboose as a shoving platform is that it is manned. So why would "remote control" of one be needed? Please provide us w/ a source for your information. Used one about 12 years ago & the only thing closely remote control were our pack sets. LOL
I've been seeing it mentioned in other forums when I typed caboose shoving platforms in the search engines. CSX has a few.
Mike Kieran
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Have seen photos of a couple of the CSX R/C platforms as you mention, but I'm thinking that their purpose was to be attached to a locomotive so it could be operated by R/C and not used as a shoving platform. Of course a trainman with a R/C pack could stand on the back of a caboose with several cars between the locomotive and the caboose and operate it as of course the R/C pack transmits radio signals to the locomotive.
This was done on the Willamette & Pacific's operation to the Hull Oaks Sawmill and a video can be found here: http://dawson-station.blogspot.com/2009/...-tour.html
Ed
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lajry Wrote:The whole point of using a caboose as a shoving platform is that it is manned. So why would "remote control" of one be needed? Please provide us w/ a source for your information. Used one about 12 years ago & the only thing closely remote control were our pack sets. LOL
A remote platform has remote control equipment on it, and MU capability. The point is you can MU it to any standard diesel locomotive, in order to remotely control that locomotive. The ones I have seen on CSX are made from flat cars,
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and on UP they are made from retired and gutted GE U-boats.
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Typically a shoving platform made from a caboose is simply an area for a crewmember to ride on safely while making long shove moves. I have not seen any remote control shoving platforms made from cabooses, but that does not mean they don't exist.
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-Dave
There's nothing to prevent the operator of a remote control loco from riding on a shoving platform, which would give him the visibility he needed for a backup move. Naturally, cabooses, pre-remote control, have been used for backup moves for a long time -- the conductor would ride the rear platform on the reverse move, using a horn connected to the train air line to blow for crossings, and with the emergency brake handy. As a high school kid, I saw this on the B&O Georgetown Branch not far from my house. The same principle would be used with a single operator with an R/C pack on a shoving platform, just no need for an engineer in the cab.
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Right, but the point is there are shoving platforms that are just for riding, and remote platforms that have the capability of M.U. remote control. They are not the same critter. The belt pack for a remote controlled locomotive typically goes directly to the locomotive being controlled. And as you pointed out there is nothing preventing a crewmember from riding a shoving platform while remotely controlling the unit doing the pushing. A remote platform is different. A shoving platform would be on the leading end of a long shove, whereas a remote platform must be coupled to the locomotive in order to perform it's intended purpose and M.U.ed to it. It is not necessarily for riding on, but it's purpose is to take a non radio controlled locomotive and make it radio controlled. the belt pack communicates with the platform, which controls whatever unit it is M.U.ed to.
-Dave
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On CSX the most common term is "remote sled" which allows for RC use of conventional locomotives by MU. The remote equipment is mounted on a decommissioned locomotive or heavy duty flat car. The operator may or may not ride on the remote sled, depending on the situation.
A "shoving platform" is usually a modified caboose to make riding long back-up moves easier on the conductor. This would likely not be used in an RC situation as the conductor would need to ride while the engineer was in the locomotive on the rear. In an RC situation there would only be one operator who could stand on the ground and watch the shove himself.
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So I guess that it's safe to say that the only way tahat a caboose shoving platform would be used would be a unit train that keeps the same consist, such as a shuttle unit train. Then you could operate it push pull.
Mike Kieran
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Mike Kieran Wrote:So I guess that it's safe to say that the only way tahat a caboose shoving platform would be used would be a unit train that keeps the same consist, such as a shuttle unit train. Then you could operate it push pull.
No. A caboose up front as a shoving platform would typically only be used for long shoving moves during switching. The guy controlling the locomotive in that case would normally be located in the locomotive.
Has nothing to do with unit trains - they don't generally need a shoving platform, since unloading and loading often will be organized as a continuous loop which also will turn the train back towards where it came from.
Passenger trains sometimes operate in push/pull mode with fixed consists. In this case, they would not use caboose, but a cab car - either a converted passenger car or a locomotive without it's prime mover or something like that.
A remote control platform (as opposed to a remote controlled locomotive) is some car, a flat car or whatever, that has gotten radio control equipment and MU cables, so you can hook it up directly (via the MU cables) to a locomotive that doesn't have remote control, and which will function (seen from the other locomotive, via the MU cables) as the lead locomotive of the consist. A remote control platform is typically used in a yard for switching, where the person controlling it is on the ground, using a belt pack.
Smile,
Stein
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Sorry, I didn't realize that some of the message didn't go through. I meant a remote control caboose shoving platform.
I was wondering if this would be an option on a unit train. Thanks for the info guys. I was just wondering why I saw cabooses labeled with remote control.
Mike Kieran
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Mike Kieran Wrote:Sorry, I didn't realize that some of the message didn't go through. I meant a remote control caboose shoving platform.
Conceptually, a remote control led caboose shoving platform makes no sense. A remote controlled unit is controlled from elsewhere. It makes no sense whatsoever to have a remote controlled unit on the front of a train moving over the road, with the person controlling it being elsewhere. Especially since you would need to string MU cables all the way from that caboose back to the actual locomotive.
Conceptually, it makes no sense to have a shoving platform fastened directly to the locomotive with MU cables, with a shoving platform having a radio receiver for remote control - you don't need a shoving platform if your locomotive is second from the front of the train - then you might as well just have the engine on the front, and you will be pulling, not shoving.
You of course could stand on a caboose/shoving platform wearing a belt pack, remotely controlling an R/C loco at the end of the train. But that wouldn't really take any special equipment on the shoving platform, I would think - in that case you could have stood on anything, using the belt pack to control the locomotive at the end of the train.
Course - there is no rule that says that you cannot use the same car in two different roles at different - either as a shoving platform (with some kind of protection for a conductor) at the front of the train when shoving a cut of cars a long way, or as an RC platform, MU'ed to a locomotive when you want to control that locomotive from a belt pack.
But neither role makes much sense for running at the tail end of a unit train across the road. It makes no sense to run a train across the road at road speeds with a shoving platform at the front.
Smile,
Stein
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But neither role makes much sense for running at the tail end of a unit train across the road. It makes no sense to run a train across the road at road speeds with a shoving platform at the front.
Stein
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I agree besides that that would require the operator to stand the whole distances in all types of weather.
However,the R/C platform is just a means to use a non R/C equipt locomotive in yard service.The operation would be done by belly pack like your standard R/C yard engines.
Larry
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Just for fun, here's a good video of a CSX train running at speed with a cab (shoving platform) in the lead at Lakeland, FL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x1-pkd4Q9M Note that the shoving platform has its own horn. I saw the CSX Patio switcher run like this with 15 cars from Richmond back to Patio not too long ago. Does causes folks at grade crossing to do a double take! Of course this is not being operated R/C, but you do find situations where local freights or switchers are operated by one man with an R/C pack on the cab such as this now abandoned operation on the Willamette Pacific Railroad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHkL9q6TIaU. If you've never seen all three of these video's, it's a treat.
Ed
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Interesting example of a short local doing a reverse move. There is of course no doubt whatsoever that shoving platforms are used for lengthy reverse moves for local switchers. That is the express purpose for taking along a caboose as a shoving platform.
The move seems to be faster than I would have thought safe - if that train had hit a truck at a road crossing, the odds for survival without injuries for the conductor on the caboose would presumably not have been all that great?
Not very relevant for the question of taking a unit train of say 50 or 100 cars (give or take a few) hundreds or miles (or more) caboose first to avoid having to run the engines around the cars, going through a balloon track, or to have the engineer move to the cab of a locomotive at the other end of the consist.
Thanks for the videos.
Smile,
Stein
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