When your grain car has a leak...

Rich Melvin posted:

...It's not the train crew's responsibility make sure the hopper doors are secured. That's the job of the  shipper and the railroad's car inspectors...

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Inspectors not inspecting? That is not a good thing at all. Sadly it is not only the railroad industry that has inspectors not doing their job to the fullest....

Whoa...wait a minute!

I didn't say the inspectors were not inspecting! It is VERY easy for a covered hopper door to come open in transit, even though it may have looked fine and been properly secured when it was inspected. All it would take was hitting something between the rails just right, or any of a dozen other possibilities. Rare, but possible.

Rich Melvin posted:

Rich Melvin posted:

...It's not the train crew's responsibility make sure the hopper doors are secured. That's the job of the  shipper and the railroad's car inspectors...

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Inspectors not inspecting? That is not a good thing at all. Sadly it is not only the railroad industry that has inspectors not doing their job to the fullest....

Whoa...wait a minute!

I didn't say the inspectors were not inspecting! It is VERY easy for a covered hopper door to come open in transit, even though it may have looked fine and been properly secured when it was inspected. All it would take was hitting something between the rails just right, or any of a dozen other possibilities. Rare, but possible.

Apologies Rich, I was joking. I'm sure everyone who has ever worked with any equipment understands the importance of inspection(heck, even something simple like a hair trimmer). In my work this is the same because of what is manufacturers and where those things go. My late brother in law's Uncle Frank was in the Navy between the two World Wars and explained to me where he worked at a very young age. Hoppers that ground up material and sometimes accidents happened.

I've seen some weird stuff happen during my early work years that still baffle me. My one co-worker some how managed to be completely unharmed as the entire aisle was blocked up because the racking holding the material fell apart. It was discovered that the racking had no way to lock together so it just came undone and collapsed in front of him and began to topple the rest. Since he was on the lift, he backed up as fast as he could out of the way. Good thing no one else was over there because that would not have been pretty.

Things break or come apart under the best circumstances, just like us!

I have read this thread with more than a passing interest. I was a car inspector for more than 40 years and have seen all kinds of commodity leaked from coal hoppers, tank cars, and covered hoppers. The first picture at the beginning of this thread did not surprise me in the least. Luckily it was just corn and not soy beans. Corn eventually rots, but soy beans rot and turn into what we referred to as "bean dip", the most foul smelling stuff ever. It would clear out a room if it got on your boots. Rich is right about it not being up to the train crew to be responsible for the leakers. When we found a leaker in the yards we would try to close the doors with a come a long and if that didn't work we would stuff rags in the opening to slow the flow. Leakey non hazardous tank cars got the 36 inch pipe wrench treatment, coal cars with loose doors had them locked with small wooden wedges. Box car doors were secured with baling wire or large oak wedges. This all might sound rather primitive but it was all about getting the freight to destination as quick as possible. In regards to the car inspector not doing his job, there were a few that would "run over" the train to get back in the building. In the case of a hump yard situation the receiving inspectors were allowed one to two minutes per car to do the inspection unless the hump yardmaster was in a hurry to get the train "over the hill". Then it was all about keeping the hump fed. In the departure yard the inspectors were responsible for the air and inspection of the outbound trains, if there was a shop car it had to be dealt with quickly or the wrath of Transportation would be unleashed. Sorry to take so long on a subject probably few would have an interest in.  Doug

I think both the picture of the O.P. and the "imitation" are just too CORNY.  I'll  take these with a grain of salt...said this popcorn lover...with all respect...thanks to those for posting pics...

pc cr ns yard rat posted:

I have read this thread with more than a passing interest. I was a car inspector for more than 40 years and have seen all kinds of commodity leaked from coal hoppers, tank cars, and covered hoppers. The first picture at the beginning of this thread did not surprise me in the least. Luckily it was just corn and not soy beans. Corn eventually rots, but soy beans rot and turn into what we referred to as "bean dip", the most foul smelling stuff ever. It would clear out a room if it got on your boots. Rich is right about it not being up to the train crew to be responsible for the leakers. When we found a leaker in the yards we would try to close the doors with a come a long and if that didn't work we would stuff rags in the opening to slow the flow. Leakey non hazardous tank cars got the 36 inch pipe wrench treatment, coal cars with loose doors had them locked with small wooden wedges. Box car doors were secured with baling wire or large oak wedges. This all might sound rather primitive but it was all about getting the freight to destination as quick as possible. In regards to the car inspector not doing his job, there were a few that would "run over" the train to get back in the building. In the case of a hump yard situation the receiving inspectors were allowed one to two minutes per car to do the inspection unless the hump yardmaster was in a hurry to get the train "over the hill". Then it was all about keeping the hump fed. In the departure yard the inspectors were responsible for the air and inspection of the outbound trains, if there was a shop car it had to be dealt with quickly or the wrath of Transportation would be unleashed. Sorry to take so long on a subject probably few would have an interest in.  Doug

Thank you for posting this!