A thread was recently started asking about coupler conversions to older style passenger cars. Wasatch has performed a number of passenger car adaptations over the past year, and I felt it a good time to share all of them with you. All of these adaptations are items that our industry will have greater need for.

The subjects of this message include:

• Coupler Conversion
• New Pedestal Jaws
• UC to ABDX Conversions
• New Diaphragm conversions
• New Roof Instlation
• Paint

Coupler Conversion

It is true that it is very hard, if not impossible to get "new" Sharon Couplers. Many of the passenger cars in use on tourist lines or at museums have Sharon couplers. Our conversion package is not a full Amtrak, tight lock style conversion. The Amtrak tight lock requirement is only for cars that are to be hauled by Amtrak. Most roads will take a car that has "modern" couplers. It is not always a requirement to have tight lock couplers. In addition, FRA requires that couplers used in tourist or museum service be safe and suitable for service. There is no FRA rules that requires the use of tight lock couplers in tourist, museum, or insular service.

Our conversions require that we build a new adapter box for the coupler and hardware. This includes the lugs on both ends of the draft gear and a new coupler yoke to be installed. Our draft gears are 4 inch buff/draft which means that they go both directions (forward and backward) about 4 inches max travel. This is about what most original Sharon couples with draft gear included. Our draft gear is NOT Amtrak compliant for Amtrak service, but it is compliant with the couplers we are using and the systems we have designed. So far, FRA has not taken exception to our adaptation for tourist, museum or insular service.





New Pedestal Jaws

We are seeing an increased number of cast truck pieces failing. We have designed a new steel fabricated Pedestal Jaw that we have used a few times to replace old broken castings with. Our process includes tramming the truck, removing the failed casting, installing the new fabricated item and them tramming the new item to the truck. Truck tramming is so critical. Wheels that cut flanges are wheels that are not properly trammed to the truck.

Our fabricated pieces include new wear liners and all new hardware. Our new pieces are rough cut on our plasma machine, then fit and finished on location. Every single one of these that we have done has had some minor variance from the one before. There seems to be no set formal standard for the originals.






UC to ABDX Brake Equipment

A number of tourist museums and other lines have started to convert UC brake valves (or any other obsolete type valve) to more modern AB (version) of brake equipment. There are a variety of AB style brake valves and or portions as they are called. These include ABD, ABDW, ABDX, and so on. I personally like the ABDX, and it seems that most of the conversions (ours or otherwise) are ABDX.

This conversion includes a new pipe bracket, new service and emergency portions, a new cylinder with an adapter plate, a hanger for the slack adjuster, and a new piston rod. These conversions are becoming popular as they do not need to be changed as often, and even when you do change a portion, it is much easier and far less costly.

New Diaphragm Installation

We have performed a number of new diaphragm installations. These can be done a number of ways. These are actually easier than you may think and not as costly as you may think, either.

New Roof Installation

This item is becoming ever more popular and needed. We have done a number of layover roof jobs which is to install a new roof over the old roof. We have also done a number of new-install roofs where the old roof is removed and new one installed. The first picture below is a layover roof for a project we did in Canada. The other is a more recent full replacement that we helped with at the Pacific Locomotive Association.






New Paint

Most of our industry believes that DuPont is the only way to go when it comes to painting a passenger car. We have actually found that there are many good products out there and some of them lay on better than DuPont. For example, this Great Western Passenger car is a Nason layover paint job. We are also doing a lot with Century Coatings and we are very pleased with the performance of that paint as well.



I am happy to answer any question and provide as much help or advice as I can. Thanks for taking a peek.

Always yours,

It's great to see this emphasis on a somewhat neglected side of heritage railroading. Our wonderful steam locomotives wouldn't have anything to do if they didn't have cars to pull.



A question--how well do these freight based AB valves work compared to traditinal passenger equipment? This brings up the question of why passenger equipment used to have a different brake schedule in the first place. I've been told it was for a faster and smoother response than was available from freight valves. Does this still matter today? It might not on a heritage road at low speed, but things might be different for a car certified for Amtrak service.

The modern line of AB style valves are actually very fast. In fact, much faster than an old UC valve. The also use less air by comparison. Don't quote me on this one, but I believe that there are a few private cars that have ABDX valves with other brake equipment installed as well that are Amtrak certified.

We mainly do UC/ABDX conversions on tourist cars that do not have other brake equipment on the car (there are a ton of extra passenger specific valves that could be included.). We have found that often we need to adjust for total braking efficiency or brake force (which ever term you choose to use). This is done a number of ways.

All of our conversions have been loved by our customers. They like how strong the brakes are, how well cars slow or stop and most of all how fast they charge and re-charge. Customers also like how well the new systems hold air. Our conversions also include a detailed inspection of the train line to rid it of any leaks.

Here's a little insight on their passenger equipments' braking system.

I've got to run these cars a number of times over the years... a few local public excursions and one trip of about 150 miles.

Seems like on the long trip (about 14 years ago), the cars were still equipped with graduated release, but the last few trips (some local excursions) they had removed that type of valve from the cars. Any more, not all engines come equipped with the "passenger" position on the automatic brake valve.

The card in the picture is put up in the engine to inform crews of what is expected of them and how to handle the train.

I assume that during the process of converting a car from UC to ABDX that you also switch over all the shoes from cast iron to comp shoes, if that has not already been done? High friction or low friction?

During the 2002 Winter Olympics we had a truck that was stationed at Soldier Hollow which was reading brake shoe temperatures on buses for safety reasons. The operator of the truck actually did a scan of the train (a few times) and we learned a lot about comp shoes vs cast iron shoes and we also learned a lot about brake rigging and slack in brake rigging.

All of that said, when we do these conversions I am actually far more focused on even brake force per wheel and axle than I am on what type of shoe the car has. We have found that often we have to put thick shoes with thinner shoes (still compliant shoes) so that we get even braking force on all wheels and axles. Too often we get into a habit of changing one shoe=change all of the brake shoes. This is not always correct. You may end up with one axle on a car that is taking 90% of the effective cylinder force because the linkage has so much slop that the other three axles get nothing. If you rotate some shoes around and put thicker shoes in the back, thinner in the front sometimes (not always) you can balance it out. Ideally you want even force on all axles and wheels. A four axle car will have effectively 25% per wheel set or axle. If you end up with 90% on one wheel and you put the car in emergency, you can end up flatting that axle (wheel set) while the rest keep spinning.

Keep in mind, today you can still buy cast iron shoes, comp shoes, tread guard shoes, cobra tread guards.....the list goes on and on regarding the different types of shoes you can buy and install today.

Now, how can you test this on your RR?

If you have access to to a heat sensing gun, run your train down a hill and make a good heavy set on the brakes. Do this a few times if you have a long enough hill. Then, stop the train and go take a temperature reading on each wheel of each car. One wheel will be say, 125 degrees while another is 110 degrees and the other two of that same car will be barley over ambient temperature. You can see fairly easily which two axles of that one car are doing the effective braking work. Trust me, if you try this little experiment, you will be shocked at the results.

Kindly,

JohnE.

If your brake rigging is so worn that you use different thicknesses of brake shoes to obtain even braking pressures, you're not solving anything. You are applying a bandaid at best. There's a reason that 10% wear on pins and bushings is the limit. Actually, there's more than one reason. In addition to lost motion and uneven forces in the brake rigging, you are also approaching the limits of the case hardening in the pins and bushings, which leads to even faster wear and increased stresses on components that now have less and less material over which to distribute stresses.

Bandaids are no substitute for proper maintenance and repairs.

Whether most care to admit it or not, it is time for tourist railroads and museums to start taking real care with maintaining equipment properly. Many have fault with Amtrak SMP's for truck maintenance and overhauls. Frankly, they aren't some hocus-pocus dreamed up to be super difficult. They are in fact based on various railroad and OEM maintenance practices that predated Amtrak's adoption of them by decades. Read the articles on the truck maintenance done on the Canadian equipment by CP in the 50's and 60's. Amtrak's 40 year truck SMP's are essentially 750,000 mile overhauls. Most equipment running in tourist/museum service these days hasn't seen REAL maintenance and overhaul in 40-50 years and it was marginally maintained then (most railroads were down to bare minimums as they could see the writing on the wall regarding passenger trains). Swing hangers, brake rigging, etc, are worn beyond their acceptable limits.

Increasing failure rates are coming to your railroad if you don't take this stuff seriously. At a minimum, operators need to be doing truck roll-out inspections. Lack of proper inspection and maintenance makes a simple, easy fix into an expensive, difficult fix and a liability as time goes by. As failures become more common, the risk of more regulation increases, and that's the last thing we need in this or any other industry.

That said, there are several operations that take this stuff seriously and do actually do truck tune-ups and rebuilds. Those operations should be modeled and applauded. Trucks aren't some rocket science mystery. They're basic mechanical devices with many wear surfaces that need to be inspected and maintained.

Thank you New River, you are so correct on so many fronts. I would point out, often the groups that we do this work for are doing truck inspections. The issues we end up finding has to do with linkage problems under the car as much as in the truck. Often times, our installation opens eyes to the point that even though we have a new braking system.....the work is not over.

My brake shoe example helps our customers understand what is "really" happening with the brake system and then allows them to address these items as needed.

The first step to any correction is realizing that something stands in need of correction.

The ABDX needs a very minor modification to react as quickly as the older UC and D-22 equipment. With that and the addition of the necessary safety valve to prevent too much cylinder pressure during service applications it will essentially act exactly like the older passenger equipment.

Great information, very practical and useful. John, might you do a presentation on this in Savannah this fall?

Thanks for the note, Dave.

We have not been asked to make any formal presentation on this. If we were invited I would be happy to make it happen.

Kindly,

Personally, I think you should do the 'presentation' now, and have it in the can for a wide range of opportunities.

Not least among them, a chapter in Becky Morgan's 'best practices guide'. With a section that specifically discusses when you choose or shim the brakeshoes to make stops safe when you don't have the time or money to go through and fix the 'rest' of the foundation gear...

Might make Terry an offer - he may be unaware of your program. You can't ask for something if you don't know it's there. I think it would interest a lot of us.