Karl,
While this was just a broken knuckle I found what was said on the radio
rather interesting. Was a "Drawbar Texas" leaving Pueblo via the
"New Way". Just after they cleared Pueblo Jct the second unit just
dropped it's load, all at once. Engineer said on the radio that before
the air went the lead unit had shown 160,000 lbs tractive effort.
It's hard to believe you can get that to the rail with 6 axles.
Russ
> > > Pete got the definitions right and Jan selected the correct "medium".
> > >
> > > I uploaded a couple a pics of busted drawbars to the "Photos" section.
> > >
> > > No. 1 is the typical manner of failure of the rotary drawbars on coal
> > > equipment. The "old break" is that part of the shank that displays
> > > discoloration and a noticeable difference in texture. In the case of
> > > no. 1 it's right hand half of the shank.
> > >
> > > No. 2 is also typical of rotary drawbar shank failures. The piece
> > > missing in this picture is the "Mystery Part" mentioned in another
> > > shot. The "mystery part" was once an integeral part of the shank and
> > > was responsible for holding the drawbar in the car. Its failure,
> > > over time, ultimately led to the failure of the shank under a period
> > > of high stress. In the picture showing MP 122 the period of high
> > > stress occured as the train was ascending the 1%+ grade just out of
> > > Pueblo, CO.
> > >
> > > While these are late vintage drawbars the failures are representative
> > > of the failures of countless thousands of drawbars in years gone by.
> > > Just ask Max Wissel.
> > >
> > > Hey, anybody out there remember "Bullchain" ??
> > >
> > > Karl
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