Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a lever on the knuckles and the cars are pulled apart, while the
hoses and cables part by themselves.
Train Orders
Immediately before departing from the train's point of origin, or
wherever the engineer boards the train en route, he or she is given
a set of train orders. These are a sheaf of papers which authorize
that specific trip and notify the operating crew of any changes
from normal track conditions along the way. These could include
locations where crews are working on the track or slow orders
for other sections of track. Trains operate at slow speeds over
new track until it has had a chance to stabilize. Train orders can
also be called track warrants .
Starting to Move
Smooth starts are much easier with a passenger train, because
there are a lot fewer cars and little or no slack between them.
Engineers pride themselves on smooth starts, which, with prac-
tice, can be done consistently.
Starting a freight train of 100 or more cars is quite another
matter. Theoretically, it's just not possible for a locomotive to
move all that weight. It does, though, and the secret is in the
coupling mechanisms on all those freight cars. There's roughly
a foot of slack between each car in the train. When the freight
engineer wants to start the train moving, he or she first gets rid of
all the slack by backing up enough to compress the entire train.
Then, when the engineer starts the locomotive moving forward,
the slack is gradually taken up and the train starts moving liter-
ally one car at a time. Once all the cars are moving, the locomo-
tive can keep them rolling and even speed up and slow down. But
it was the slack that got them all started.
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