Leaf Residue (Pectin, Slip/Slide, Waterworld, Sanders, and Lasers to Prevent Flat Spots

the missing link wrote:is there any timeframe for when it goes up the danbury branch?

Someone who knows better will be along soon, I'm sure - I don't even know IF it goes up Danbury. But if it does, it will be after midnight, since it passes through Mamaroneck at around 11pm.

Mike

Waterworld does not normally go up on Danbury branch unless it gets real bad.
On the Danbury branch MNCR uses a rail scrubber made from old ballast regulator, its normaly stored in bethel siding.

Last evening I was standing on the track 3 platform at Tarrytown waiting for my wife to come up from NY to meet me (we live in NYC and my office is outside the city). A train of M7s came along GCT-bound and stopped at the track 2 platform. To my ears this consist sounded as though there was literally not a wheel on it that wasn't flat --- or was I hearing something else? Just curious

FWIW, a couple of comments . . .
1. I am talking about the train that stops at Tarrytown GCT-bound about 5:15 PM.
2. The Hudson Line seemed to be generally screwed up for some reason I do not know. Trains in general wqere crawling and nearly everything was 7-15 minutes late.

Tom yesterday was hell on wheels for MNCR, as the rail was so slippery from leaves. wind and rain. Even the Genesis with sand just had wheels spinning in 3th notch.

On the New Haven - trains were close to 20 minutes late just because of the snowball effect.

Do all trains have flatspots? no. A lot of that are so called slide flats where only a small flatspot is present but a chunk of metal melted next to it from locking up the wheels.

Some tread build up will wear off and correct it self and with lots of wheel spin the wheels will sometimes kind of wear back in shape during powering.

I was in Croton last night when that train pulled up to the platform, and it did indeed have flat spots on a lot of wheels.

My Hudson Line local last night left about 20 minutes late but didn't get me home until 30 minutes late since we only went 10-15 MPH all the way from GCT to Harlem-125 where we were kicked off the M-7A set (it seemed to have SEVERE flat spots) and then picked up by a following M-7A set.

I know sometimes there is no way to avoid flat-spotting wheels, but as a rider I hate nothing more than pizza-box wheels. WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP... Except for maybe a crummy truck kingpin with too much tolerance or a noisy bolster. Commuter trains are good for sleeping, not listening to the ghost of Keith Moon demonstrate railroad percussion.

I don't know the exact amount of M7s that were shopped due to severe flat spots, but I heard it was almost 100!! WOW!!!

Yesterday (11/13) was one of the worst days for slippery rail that I have ever experienced in over 17 years of operating trains for MN.

Today there were 146 M7 shopped for wheel defects. With only two wheel trueing machines at harmon, it will be hard to keep up if the weather doesn't clear up soon. But everyone is doing what they can to make this situation better.

I have to agree, there are few things worse than riding a car with severe flat spots, really makes the ride lousy.

Only two trueing machines? Yikes, how long does it take to re-round one wheel?

There are two wheel true machines at Harmon and only in New Haven. I don't think that's quite enough to handle over 700 cars and engines!!!

How long does it take to re-round a wheel it depends on how big the flat spot is. On and average 4 wheels can be trued a day. I do know that they are sending some m7's to new haven for trueing, but its going to be a while before you don't hear the loud thuding noise as and m7 goes by. on a side not at harmon they are in the process of building a new wheel true facility, which will be able to true two axles at a time, but they just started working on that a few weeks ago.

4 a DAY, YIKES

Railroader wrote:Today there were 146 M7 shopped for wheel defects.

Ouch. Good luck. Bad enough... but how many are still running? I took my sons down to Mamaroneck tonight, for the evening rush, and at times it sounded like a blacksmiths forge... how bad does it have to get before they're shopped?

Mike

You've seen snowsheds on Donner Pass, now we need leaf sheds at Croton Pass...

All kidding aside, it sounds like time for another waterworld train or two to be put in operation.