NKP Muncie posted:From what I read and from the pictures, it would appear the UP locomotive was in the middle of the train. The lead locomotive ended up on its side in a creek, and the mid locomotive was in a jumble with cars (the UP locomotive is upright). The lead locomotive was too badly damaged for access to the event recorders, so far.
I'd like to ask a couple (one of them possibly dumb) general questions about the hand brakes on grades:
- Can the DPU locomotive hand brakes be set from the lead locomotive?
- No.
- Of course, I picture the wheel being turned to set them, but perhaps there's a motorized control of them, as well.
- Many modern units do have motor assisted handbrake, however it can only be operated from within the cab of THAT specific unit.
- Hot Water mentioned rules about setting hand brakes on a sufficient number of cars. Is it a percentage of the number of cars?
- A lot depends on each individual railroads operating rules, for SPECIFIC grades. In this particular case, the CP rule book for THAT territory does indeed state "ALL HANDBRAKES".
- If so - I assume that tonnage of the train (or, perhaps more accurately, average weight per car - empties vs loaded) and the grade are factors - are there others? Temperature? Is the crew expected to know how many to set, based on their training, knowledge of the territory, and the weight of the train? Is there a handbook in the cab with procedures for such an event (not the runaway, just being stopped on the grade)?
Thanks in advance,
David
