Getting a traction motor

Has any other hog blew a traction motor on an AC yet? Im pretty sure i did. [ a 8000, emd SD90 i guess ]

We dogcaught a local one night, and the way i run from that spot is i blast off, getter up to speed, go to idle in the bottem of dip and she rides nice and smooth at track speed all the way to town, with a little dynamic brake here and there to keep her bunched. So i worked it up the 8th run quick, leaned over to grab a dew out of my grip, BLAM. The unit felt like it jumped two feet of the rail or we sucked a car under the unit. It died and the computer said it would try to restart in 20 minutes, ya it never tried to turn over lol. I talked to the hog on that local the next morning and he said he had that motor for a few days and it was acting up from time to time. Told him i put it to bed.

Ive fried many DC traction motors, a little bang, a shower of sparks from under the wheels, the smell of burning wires lol but it never tried to snap my neck. Hate those AC's.

UPRR engineer wrote:
The unit felt like it jumped two feet of the rail or we sucked a car under the unit.
Ive fried many DC traction motors, a little bang, a shower of sparks from under the wheels, the smell of burning wires lol but it never tried to snap my neck. Hate those AC's.

Were you disappointed it wasn't "a car you sucked under the unit?" Great choice of words. Frying DC motors- I guess we all need to be proud of our accomplishments.

Out here in wyoming there are these things called hills and mountains so when you pull 13000 tons up one of them, sometimes things happen.



Ill start a talk about railroad crossings in railroad operations alright.

From what you said, it sounds to me that the diesel engine died and when the Seimens computer running the inverters sensed that someting was wrong it fired what is called a crowbar. This is not actually an actual crowbar but a thristor panel that is gated to short out the dc link and capacitors. This is a means of saving itself from a catastrophic failure if, for some reason, the inverters were to short out. We run a test on those crowbar circuits when the Mac 90's are in the shop and when they fire there is a pretty loud thud and a pretty good bump that you can actually feel up in the cab. Its fun to fool the new guys into thinking they really blew something up by running one of these tests!

Thanks for telling me.

Were you disappointed it wasn't "a car you sucked under the unit?" Great choice of words. Frying DC motors- I guess we all need to be proud of our accomplishments.

What exactly is your malfunction? I don't think he was implying anything that you suggest in your reply.

TxBritt

Thanks buddy. Wasnt any other way to put it.

I think the railroad prefers it this way. They would rather have you tone up the dispatcher, have them get ahold of Mr. Goodwrench, who will have you describe the problem/give fault error, press a code into the computer and go. If no go, isolate and let someone else worry about it later. I would love for the railroad to truely give us a ground school where everything is spelled out for us, instead of knowing where the low oil button is located. Also an annual sit down and going over the rules/ssi/general orders/supers would be nice, instead of heres the new rules, have at it. I would presume that is why everyone has thier own interpretation of the rules.

We just got our new stack for our rule book and a new SSI book. I think slchub just got his the other day. lol

When i get a traction motor or a motor dies i never call the dispatcher (which i know your suppost to) or Mr goodwrench, if i can make it to town. I know how to hack into the computers to reset most problems. The first and last time i told anyone i had a problem it took an hour to get the power desk guy on (which im sure there arent many guys on every shift and their busy as hell im sure) so i dont anymore.I dont think they wanna keep us in the dark, theres just too much to tell everyone. I use a tally book to keep codes and how to reset problems.

If there is a new BIG rule that came out (red zone and all that stuff) a manager has always came in the shack and told me. Must be different in the SLC hub i guess.

Well for the most part, the MTO will sort things out for us as you stated, but I am sure you have had one manager vs. another who has thier own interpretation as to what and when such and such a rule applies and for what situation Granted the basic such as ppe and cardinals are a given, but some of the more complex rules can be interpreted by diffrent guys/managers as one way and another guy believes it in another way. Hey, as long as we get there, every one safe, then it was a great day. We just had three new sd70ace's yesterday on the KAPLA. The second unit was DB already, with only 1168 miles on it. I guess they stil needed a break in, as the dynamics just sucked. I do not like the new cabs at all. And I don't know how the conductor can work on the small desk now either. And hey, don't you love how they have taken out half the lights in the cab as well on the new units?

Is the desk smaller on the conductors side on those new units? I havent really looked over there much. I have noticed there seems to be less lights in the cabs now a days, mostly on the 8000's. The other day when i was dogcatching i got on a K train with three new units on it and the dead hog said that the power desk called him and told him there was a problem with the leader and to kill it and drain it. Pretty cool i thought, units taking to a computer if it sences a problem.

I havent really had too many accounts of different veiws on the rules from managers here. Just on some RCL rules, like the FRA saying you cant wear a coat over your vest. We never heard anything like that in RCL school. But the managers say the FRA said no. Dont forget tho, right or wrong your suppost to do what they say. Ive been there before many times. lol

I hear ya. Play the game, do it safe, make it home.

Well, the 70ace's we had the other night has the conductors desk back down to the size of a monopoly board. I have ne idea why. And I do not like the old style control stand they are putting back in place. I like the desk style, especially when I am having to sit there and manipulate and feed the dyno and throttle modulation and blow the horn, etc. Much easier on the desk, but okay i guess on the flats. I was surprised to see the units did not have the cameras mounted as they company said they were going to do. Maybe one of the shops will do that soon.