Main Reservoir Lines

Hello, everyone. I'm a new member to this great site, and I have a question for the pros out there.

I'm an electrician for a Class I. The other day, a co-worker and I were cutting apart a consist of three engines. The leader was a GE EVO, the middle unit was an EMD SD-70MAC, and the trail was a GE -9 Wide Body. When I was separating the Main Reservoir line between the first and second units, I experienced a pretty violent kick at the glad hands.

I of course cut out the angle cocks on both units prior to separating the glad hands, and I know I heard the air vent off. My co-worked witnessed this and later told me that he had experienced this in the past as well.

I blew the incident off, but now I'm wondering if I should have said something to our supervisor.

Has anybody out there experienced this in the past? If so, was a cause ever discovered? There was no damage done, but if my head/face was in the wrong spot, I could have become even uglier....

Thank you very much!

Were you seperating them by hand? If so, why? They'll break apart just like the brakepipe hoses.

CN_Hogger wrote:Were you seperating them by hand? If so, why? They'll break apart just like the brakepipe hoses.

From my first day, that's what I was trained to do. We would separate the three lines, the chains between the engines, and the MU Cable. The only line we separated with the engine was the brakepipe line. Funny you should mention it, though. Once the DMMO got wind of it, hand separation came to an abrupt halt. It turns out we were the only point on the system, basically, that was doing this.

Always preferred separating by hand, helps avoid the gladhands being hammered by the plow. To each his own.........

I've always thought it was the safer way to not do it by hand for the exact reason that was mentioned. There are still a lot of engineers up here in Chicago that do it by hand...of course, I am not one of them.

[quote="gski452001"]When I was separating the Main Reservoir line between the first and second units, I experienced a pretty violent kick at the glad hands.

I of course cut out the angle cocks on both units prior to separating the glad hands, and I know I heard the air vent off. My co-worked witnessed this and later told me that he had experienced this in the past as well./quote]

You can't avoid the sudden release as closing the angle cocks traps the compressed air between until you allow if to blow out thru the gladhands...

Holding each side while doing it would control things as you'ff only have high pressure for a split second.

Many locomotives nowadays have a vent that when you close the main resevior MU valve the pressure in the hoses vents through a 1/4" vent built into the MU valve. If they dont do this, i don't break the MU glad hands apart by hand. Not worth getting hit with 140psi air and often water.

CSXT's rules state then whenever possible let the hoses uncouple when the equipment parts, which is the safest thing to do.