MR Tank Rupture

Is this frightening, or what? Thankfully, we don't operate these units! This looked like certain death if you were walking alongside this unit at the wrong moment! I wonder if my RR issue safety glasses would have saved me.

I have run that very locomotive. You can see from the red classification lights on the end...it's a former Conrail unit.

As I said on the other thread...The air pump is supposed to cut out at 140 lbs (that GE has an electric air pump). If the cutout fails, valving behind the pump is supposed to pop off at 160 lbs...and there are many CSX units that do in fact charge all the time with the relief valve hissing...

I believe the spitter valve is supposed to blow if all else fails, as well.

I blame corrosion. If the unit were MU'd up, other units would have had their systems popping off in case of catastrophic air system overpressure failure...

Did you know CSX wants us to put SALT down on locomotive walkways in winter? What do you suppose that salt DOES on a metal structure, with metal hardware and fixtures?

Warranty issues, originally reported here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14177
The issue doesn't seem to have been addressed, by all carriers, and all units affected, yet..........

I had never heard of it before. Apparently it's one MORE safety-related issue swept under the rug.

The loco manufacturers use contracted-out parts from teeny-tiny manufacturers to avoid liability. You cannot tell me, for example, that over at GM-EMD, in the day, AC-Delco couldn't make a better heater than Prime, Incorporated. Or that they needed to rely on glass from Sully, when GM is the largest maker/user of safety glass in the world.

No, they bought these off-brand parts to deflect liability in case of injury or failure.

This is the flip side of it. In attempting to deflect liability, they've exposed workers to REAL danger. GE can make its own diesel engines, but cannot weld up an air tank? That they have to go with some supplier who's a workshop in a garage somewhere?

I'm certainly not a lawyer but I would think that if GE, EMD, or whoever contracts out a given part to a supplier and then puts it on their locomotive, they are still on the hook for liability as well as the supplier itself. These days the policy is to sue EVERYBODY so I'm not sure how far the excuse of "WE didn't make it" would go. Maybe someone can get Trainlawyer from the M&E forum to take a shot at this one.

It's tough enough to sue a railroad or anyone connected to that industry.

Yes, a lawyer could easily make a case against a supplier in case of injury - but that's not the point. The reason for using teeny-tiny suppliers is that they lack the DEEP POCKETS of a GM or GE - and thus contingency-lawyers won't take the case.

Money, like honey, attracts flies and vermin. Sloughing off liability to a shop that has next to no assets heads off a lot of liability lawsuits right at the start.