Hot Water posted:EBT Jim posted:Hot Water posted:hullmat991 posted:Did I hear that correctly at 1 hour 7 minutes in; that the challenger has rubber hoses installed instead of the normal steel pipes in the frame? When would that have been done?
Typical BS from the current manager to downgrade the previous crew/crews. He always has to include such innuendoes in all of his presentations. Of course there are "rubber hoses" at some specific locations such as high pressure lube lines, which were replaced with HIGH PRESSURE flexible hydraulic hoses (yes, they may even LOOK like 'rubber hoses').
And, high pressure hyd flexible hoses are rubber hoses, or similar compound. Reinforced rubber hoses, and they all fail at some point. So, since they hard to reach for replacement, pipe is preferred.
No?
No, NOT in the modern era. The flexible high pressure "hoses" are generally not affected by the vibrations that the hard pipe components are. Remember, back in 1943 when 3985 was designed and manufactured, they did not have the high pressure flexible material available in the late 1990s.
Yes, Hot Water .... hyd hoses fail in the "modern era." They have a predictable future even under perfect conditions.
They fail unexpectedly and prematurely from a myriad of causes, even if properly installed in proper application .... heat, internal oxidation, cavitation, etc etc.
Many failures are traced back to the assembly of the hose ..... the fitting not being perfectly crimped onto the hose. The assembled hose looks fine, tests fine (where testing is done in critical applications), but fails some time after installation.
I know a little about offroad equipment, I work at a CAT dealership, and while in college I had a part time job in a forklift parts shop assembling hydraulic hoses for customers, but .... I know nothing about steam locomotives. However, if getting to that location is as Ed says .... pipe belongs there.
Anyway, best of luck to the UP steam program! I for one, hope that 4014 steams down the rails next year. And, then 3985 after her. The more steam engines operable in America .... the better. They are an important part of the history of our country.
