Mastodawn

sidereal Jan 18, 2024

Got tired of having this conversation over and over again so I just spent way too long making this:

sidereal Jan 18, 2024

In case anyone is wondering: yes, this is how train robberies operated in the Old West. Slip the switch after the locomotive passes by, passenger cars are stuck there. They could rob everyone and get away before the locomotive could even stop and reverse back to the passenger cars.

And in case you were also wondering: yes, this tactic is still used by people stealing UPS packages from trains in various American cities today.

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sidereal Jan 18, 2024

This actually comes from railroad workers talking in comments on a fb group. I just made the meme for them.

They were like "those trolley memes are stupid, we have to do this in our railyard like once a week when some intermodal runs loose."

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haifisch Jan 19, 2024

@sidereal wtf what railway is this, first time I’ve heard of anyone doing this 💀 “kicking cars” is pretty metal but forcing them fucking derail because cars “run loose” is actual insanity. brothers this is why we have switcher locomotives. this shouldn’t even happen when a line is sitting without a locomotive. not unless they’ve let the car air reservoirs bleed out, which does happen after some time - and is why they’re supposed to set handbrakes on some of the cars.

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OpenDNA⚙️Jan 19, 2024

@haifisch @sidereal I'm guessing "intermodal" contains a lot of baggage. In an industry notorious for poor maintenance and under-investment, things with wheels suffer from the Tragedy of the Commons.

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haifisch

@opendna @sidereal yea pretty much lots of cargo moving around, intermodal yards are usually where boxes get loaded onto cars, eventually get pulled to a shunting yard to get organized by destination in a long train. never heard great things about management from any line tbh, once described as the “Eye of Sauron”. Railroaders do have a lot of rules and the saying “every rule is written in blood.” most of the time the rule helps avoid fatal injuries while on the job.