Runaway Mine Cars! Was the C&S "careless"?

[Kurt Maechner]

I'm always finding historical gems in Daniel W. Edwards South Park books.  This post summarizes a dubious practice by the Gilpin Railroad (while under C&S ownership) of running whole strings of ore cars down grades without a locomotive.  It must have worked most of the time.  This time it did not.  

Forgive the following story as it is not C&S or narrow gauge related.  While writing the above blog post I was reminded of a curious railroad practice that I witnessed as a teenager:

Though hardly a comparison, I remember an interesting practice near my house on a double track Ohio Conrail mainline in the late 1980s/early 1990s.  There was a paper mill siding just off the main line heading toward Cleveland.  The mill often received one boxcar.  The mill was situated in a manner that required the boxcar to be pushed in to the bay.  Conrail would tow the single boxcar behind a locomotive to get there so had to switch the boxcar around when delivered to the mill.

A Conrail diesel would pull the car north on the righthand track of the main and stop just before the siding switch (which went south).  The boxcar's brakes would be set.  The engine would uncouple and pull ahead where there was a crossover to the left main track.  The engine would back over to the other track.  Then the boxcar's brakes would be released and gravity would pull it past both the crossover and the siding switch at which time the loco would cross back over and grab/couple the boxcar in motion.  Now coupled to the 'back' of the boxcar, it would pull it onto the siding, up a steep grade and past yet one more switch (much like a switchback).  Then it could push the car onto that spur and into the paper mill bay.

That's a terrible comparison to letting a trainload of ore cars down a mountainous track, but it was the only time I'd ever personally witnessed railroad cars being rolled on their own 'power.'

[Robert McFarland]

DSP&P #9 "Kenosha" met it's end when it was struck by heavily loaded run
away freight  cars on the U&N.

[snapped_bolt]

?!? Careless ?!?

   Can we say "Dutch Drop"?

    If you are trying to solve a switching problem, you must at times be creative in solving those problems. In the case of any "runaway", perhaps equipment failure can be the cause. However most of the time it is human error- no air on the cut, let them fly and they fall where they may.

    Without a "Dutch Drop", you can do a "flying switch", or use poling pockets....

      Cheers!

       Stan

[Chris Walker]

Kurt,

Gravity trams once were very commonplace.  Some line were operated only by animal power upgrade and braked back down.

The Gilpin must have been a cakewalk with its handbrakes and platforms to stand on allowing a clear view of the line ahead compared to working on some of our Bush tramways.



The Gilpin Tramway operated orecars and general freightcars such as flatcars and coalcars and also had cabooses. Hand operated Brakes were fitted to each truck on all the Gilpin stock less the snowplow possibly. Minecars on the other hand were usually of the lesser 18" gauge, remained in the mines and don't as a rule have brakes.  I think your title was more suited to the emotive and directed more at getting views than a proper query.  Such tactics are commonplace on the likes of Youtube.

I can see how a Coroner's Jury of People who have no idea of real life situations could find against the C&S in this situation.  These people walk among us even today seemingly unaware of reality and dreaming of a Utopia.  What difference is there in doing this than strapping sticks onto your feet and sliding downhill on snow, or riding a 12speed racing cycle downhill in the likes of tour de France?

Such ideas now in practice in the workplace have now reduced productivity to practically 10% of what used to be.  Trains here today are basically shuttled back and forth as dedicated container platforms or unit trains not shunted about loosely like I used to do, and only then are the cars, all with the air cut through are placed by a remote operator.  Kicking, slipping and catching handbrakes, coasting cars, the length of the yard prohibited now.

Provided all brakes were in proper working order, and sufficient to stop a normally laden orecar and sufficient brakemen to control the descent, knowledgeable in every curve and dip and change of gradient in all weather and light conditions then yes, coasting cars would be no different to having a locomotive in front.  Wet rails offer less resistance to acquiring speed,  braking and overloaded cars also are a factor in the gameplan.  Remember that the Gilpin did not have trainlined air-brakes on the rollingstock or locomotives and relied on the judgement and skill of the Enginedriver to control the train and whistle directives to the Brakemen, the Locomotives fitted with steam jamb brakes only.  Since the use of a loco to fetch an orecar or two would be costly given the slow Shays and more manpower required, the use of gravity seems prudent and cost effective.

When operating downgrades one uses the curvature and gradient changes to achieve retardation of the train while recharging the brakepipe.  From what little you related in your blog, it seems that the employee may not have had the training and experience required to make it home, or just maybe he forgot where he was on that last curve: we'll never know.

I cut my driving teeth on a graded backshunt, where the 35 ton 0-6-0 loco could only pull up 400 tons, and struggled to brake such back down without drama.  It was imperative that upon rolling the rake back into the yard that the speed was kept to a minimum if one was to stop when signaled to do so.  We were able to insist on the air being charged through 10 cars available for braking purposes, one learned how to and when to use the deceleration momentum to achieve a hook lift instead of reversing and easing up to allow the uncoupling.  

I can speak with firsthand knowledge here since I operate my own Tramway and until recently exclusively by handpower and gravity, without brakes fitted and using the curves to retard the speed.  Knowing to ease over the top, and not overload is also a requirement.  My grades are steep, 1in14 in one place but only for a short distance and with plenty of line for rolling out the speed buildup.  
Even today, on the very heavy trains, even with pressure maintaining brakevalves, it is possible to get beyond the parameters of accepted control and have Gravity take over.  

However the properly trained and cautious Enginedriver will be fully cognizant of these issues that take him beyond the means of control.  My fireman once did that to me, on a moderate downgrade but still a grade more than found in the MidWestern US, he forgot where he was, didn't make any effort to reduce power until we reached road speed despite my cautioning him, only by my taking to crossing the cab did I get it held for the curves and only then we were lucky that there were no sharper curves ahead before the bottom of the hill unlike other parts of the line.

[Paul R.]

Chris,
I agree with all you say, we did all what you describe in Victoria when I was a fireman. A long time ago. Paul R.

[Kurt Maechner]

Thanks so much, Chris, for sharing your real life experience with a tramway.  Edwards' book, where I got the story, is a collection of newspaper accounts and is chock full of accounts with a sensational nature (much like today's news!)-appealing to readership interest, not necessarily in a way that explains the real life conditions of running a railroad.  I found it humorous that the public outcry was that the C&S was called "careless" in this case.  Like you said, this is coming from a utopian perspective on how one must run an actual tram.  

I really appreciate your explanations.  Do you have photos of the tramway that you operate?  I think many of us would enjoy seeing it.  

I did find a bit more information on the Tabb accident recently.  It can be found here.

What really happened to Tabb and his train is still unknown, so it was mostly guesswork then and now.  
Kurt  

[Robert McFarland]

Plenty of photos in the Gilpin reference Kurt  cited.

[Chris Walker]

Kurt,

I thought I'd done this before, maybe over on the NGDF perhaps, anyway movies and photos are in my Flickr https://flic.kr/ps/2wcrBZ

one coasting video especially is https://flic.kr/p/pijWqh  and note the length of actual grade isn't much.

[John Greenly]

Chris,

you did post the link before somewhere, and I looked at a lot of the photos and videos with great pleasure.  But I hadn't looked through the whole series on the construction of the Motor before-- wonderful!  A couple of questions if I may.  Are you gradually clearing your land or managing it for continued production of timber?  What species of tree is this, how fast does it grow?  Your goats are beautiful, and I think if only they were as helpful as they are curious and friendly, you wouldn't have to lift a finger to get the work done!

thanks so much for letting us have a look!
John

[Robert McFarland]

Reminds me of the Popeye cartoon where he TRIED to stop a goat from eating a battleship.

[Chris Walker]

John,

my land was only bare paddock 30 yrs ago, none of the species are native to this land other than the hedgeing/screening Pitosporum.  The Birch, Cedar and Spruce were planted around '90 to '93 with the pole-type trunks being Eucalyptus Nitens, all planted yearly '96, '98, '99 in separate plantations.  These would all be over 100ft tall now, some with trunks up to 4ft dia at the base, most around 18" ave.  1st Gumtree was harvested at 11yrs was 77ft and 14" trunk for over 28ft.  Great splitting, hot burning firewood with palatable bark for the goats to strip off, and consequently planting more is out of the question without secure fencing.

I'm slowing down on the harvesting now, needing only one or two per year and more than happy to have the shelter from the winds on this river terrace.  There is something cathartic in rolling through these tall trees.

Glad you enjoyed these items.

[John Greenly]

That's fast growing!  Those are beautiful trees, and I love the way your tramway winds its way among them.  

Thanks again,
John