Railroad Forums 

  • What is "three-step protection?"

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

 #598110  by DutchRailnut
 
yes train brake, cause just slack running in or out could hurt someone in between cars.
 #598210  by scooterz66
 
DutchRailnut wrote:yes train brake, cause just slack running in or out could hurt someone in between cars.
Exactly. I regularly build a train that I have to hang the EOT. The train is normally anywhere from 130 to 160 cars. It's not uncommon for there to be a car length or two of slack when they stop after pulling the last track.
 #599531  by OneForTheKick
 
You can't apply a blanket statement to which brake is used.

Switching with no air? Setup the trainline and see what good it does. You just accomplished the same thing as using the independent!
 #619618  by NV290
 
Hoosier Joe wrote:"Brakes set" does that mean the train brake or just the independent brake ? Joe
Dutch Railnut wrote:"yes train brake, cause just slack running in or out could hurt someone in between cars.
Actually, it depends on the railroad. The idea of applying the train brakes each time would be almost impossible in many instances. You would spend hours recharging when making large doubles. And if that was a rule, how would you accomodate it when your holding onto cars without air cut in such as during flat switching or hump operations?. If i was a local with only a handful of cars and it was for one move, i might make a reduction, but there is no rule that says we have to.

The policy we have and are taught is independant fully applied and the then conductor will have the common sense to wait for the slack to stop moving. Any railroader worth his salt knows his or her grades and knows to be alert for slack.

The other rule is 3 Step can ONLY be given and removed verbally. Not through any sort of hand signal. We center the reverser, apply the independant and open the generator field switch (Although the Gen Field is not readable on the event recorder so most people dont bother)