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A recent thread asked about handling _steam_ engine helpers. I didn't hire onto the RR until 1968 so my experience is with diesels but I thought some might be interested to hear about how we ran helpers. I worked for the Penn Central and for BN/BNSF for 40 years. I ran A LOT of helpers at many locations, helping trains distances of less than a mile to 215 miles. Most of this post took place on former CB&Q lines but during the BN era so if Moderators feel it is off topic go ahead and delete it. I hired out in '68 on the NYC side of the new PC and we did use helpers on heavy trains getting out of Cincinnati, usually coupled to the front of the road power but occasionally shoving on the rear. But most of my helper experience was for the BN on former CBQ lines at Crawford Hill, Angora, Belle Ayr, and Sheridan Helpers. Every where I worked it was required by rule that the train air brakes be hooked up to the helper consist, whether the helper was on the front, in the middle, or on the rear of the train. That was so the helper engineer could tell by watching his air brake gauges when the train engineer was setting the brakes. It was also so the helper engines would go into emergency if the train brakes were put into emergency and vice versa. Imagine if you were on a rear-end helper traveling at speed and your helper derailed. Yes it happens. Without the air brake hoses connected to the train there would be no way for the helper engineer to put the train into emergency to stop it. Before radios were common you'd be in real trouble as the train dragged you helplessly along behind it. With radios you better hope they worked well, and even then there would be extra delay between the time your helper derailed, you contacted the train engineer and he understood what was going on, and he put the train into emergency from the front end. When diesel locomotive air brakes go into emergency it trips the Power Control Switch (PCS) which causes the locos to stop producing power and return to idle. Thus the train engineer can 'shut down' rear end or midtrain helpers by putting his train, and thus the helpers, into emergency. And similarly the helper engineer can put the train into emergency and 'shut down' the train's lead locos by doing the same. When coupling helpers to the rear end or on the point the rules required an air brake test before departure. This was not always done. For very short assists of only a mile or 2 often the train air was not coupled to the helper. This was against the rules but crews took their chances and as long as nothing happened the officials tended to ignore it. An example would be shoving a train out of a yard and over a short but steep hill, as is the case at CBQ/BN Sheridan WY 1.6% grade departing eastbound. Or if you were waiting at a siding to meet a train coming up a hill and that train stalled on the hill, you'd cut your power off your train, go down the hill to where he was stalled, knuckle onto his front end and by 'double-heading' pull him up the hill stopping between switches. Cut your power off and duck in behind your own train to let him pass. Then come out and run around your train to get back on its head end and proceed. Where I worked when helper engines were added to the front of a train, how they were connected and handled depended upon how far the train was going to be helped. If it was only a few miles then usually only the train brake pipe would be connected, the train engineer would cut out his brake valve and the helper engineer would control the train air. Each engineer would control the throttle on his consist (double head). If the train was to be helped say 20-110+ miles then the helper engines would be fully MU'd to the train's locos, the train engineer would run all locos and the train from the former helper unit while the helper engineer just went along for the ride. After the help the helper units would be cut off and the helper engineer would run them light back to the terminal or help another train. With helpers on the rear of a train a good helper engineer made a lot of difference in how the train engineer handled the train. With a good helper engineer who knew what he was doing almost no radio communication was needed between the two. The train engineer when ready to go might call up the helper engineer and say something like "Here comes the release, lean on 'em". From then on there would be almost no communication as the helper engineer knew when and where to ease off topping the hills or small humps and when to leave 'em in 8. But with a newbie or doofus helper engineer there was a lot of radio chatter between them as the train engineer was constantly telling the helper when to shove, when to notch down to #6 or #4 to prevent getting slammed with slack the helper shoved into you, etc. Usually our helpers shoved on the rear of trains. The train air would be coupled up and cut in to the helper units. At the end of the shove we almost always cut the helpers off on the fly. This was somewhat dangerous but I don't know of anyone getting hurt doing it. The conductor and brakeman were not allowed to ride in a caboose while it was being shoved so they would ride in the last helper unit to keep an eye on the track behind and the helper engineer would run from the unit next to the caboose. Near the end of the shove the conductor & brakeman would walk up through the helper units and while still moving cross over the gap between the helper unit and the caboose, usually by swinging from loco steps to caboose steps. One of them would lean in and reach around front of the helper loco from its steps to close the anglecock and then close the caboose anglecock from the caboose platform. They would pull the coupler pin and the helper engineer would gradually throttle down a notch at a time until the caboose pulled away from the helper. The helper engineer would immediately set the independent brakes and stop. After too many cabooses derailed at the newer longer switches (low angle frogs), we had to use 'drawbar blocks'. These were steel devices that fit over the top of the caboose drawbars and had small steel blocks that fit between the side of the drawbar & the caboose frame. They limited the amount of caboose 'skew' when it was being shoved. When uncoupling helpers on the fly the rear end crew also had to remove those drawbar blocks from both ends of the caboose and toss them onto the deck of the helpers. We also began to get too many hotboxes from shoving on cabooses with brass bearings. So an edict was issued that we could no longer shove on brass bearing cabooses. The helpers had to be cut in just ahead of the caboose. This obviously ended the practice of cutting off on the fly since we had to switch out the helpers and recouple the caboose to the train. This was accomplished in several different ways depending upon the terrain where you cut off. 1. If the terrain was down hill the train would stop just past the siding switch, the helpers would shove the caboose backwards past the switch then get into the clear. The rear end crew would then roll the caboose down to a joint on the train using the handbrake to control it. A variation of this method was for the rear end crew to uncouple the caboose from the helpers on the fly just before reaching the switch. That way when the train stopped beyond the switch the caboose was already clear of the switch and the helpers did not need to shove it back, they just got in the clear and the caboose was rolled onto the train. 2. If the terrain was flat or slightly uphill where the helpers cut off and the caboose would not roll onto the train then after the helpers got into the clear the train could back up to couple onto its caboose. 3. If the terrain was such that neither of the above methods would work then the helpers had to run around the caboose through the siding and come up behind it to shove it back onto the train. Having to pull a brass bearing caboose when shoving a train was a PITA. Luckily we could still shove on roller bearing cabooses thus eliminating all the cutting in and switching out of the caboose, and still permitting cutting off on the fly. When the use of cabooses was discontinued we soon got 'Helper-Link' which is a device attached to the air hoses of the helper engine. In effect it 'couples' the train air to the helper units via radio signals between it and the train's FRED rather than actually coupling up the air hoses. With Helper-Link the helper brakes follow the train's brakes and it will put the helpers into emergency if the train goes into emergency. The helper engineer can also put the train into emergency if needed. The Helper-Link can also be commanded by radio to pull the coupler pin. Thus now the helper engineer can cut off on the fly without ever getting out of his seat. Several decades ago there were occasionally some odd, and mostly 'illegal' helper situations. For instance I have assisted a stalled train up a hill taking my own train with me and then cutting off on-the-fly at the top. I have also snuck up behind and coupled NON-STOP onto a struggling but MOVING train ahead with my own 110 car empty coal train and then shoved him several miles over a hill where we cut off on-the-fly. In either of these cases, had the train being shoved gone into emergency it could have been messy. __._,_.___ Posted by: runextra@gmail.com __,_._,___ |