In the early days of railroading, pull pins were utilized to connect the cars. It was easy to spot men who were engaged in separating them. You looked at their hands and saw the missing fingers. When you lost so many fingers that you could no longer pull out the pins you were out of a job. Scrambling along the tops of ice covered cars to turn the brakes was another hazardous occupation. If the brakeman was lucky he felt the knotted cords strung in front of tunnels to let him know it was time to duck. Working among the freight cars in the days when life was cheap was not a fun way to earn your bread. Times have changed and so have attitudes toward what is considered acceptable working conditions. Among the railroads the AAR (Association of American Railroads) was formed to ensure that cars were and are maintained to strict standards providing a safe working environment. They set out how the repairs are to be made and make sure everyone is synchronized as to what material is purchased. Listed in the 560 pages of the AAR's rules and regulations and the 658 pages of FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) regulations are the rules the carmen live by. To guarantee a safe work place they set the standards so that freight being shipped across the country will be in cars that are maintained by the roads handling it enroute. They not only mandate the inspections and repairs that are to be made, but also perform spot checks to see that the rules are being followed in a fair and equitable manner. To see how this system works coordinated between train crews, carmen inspectors (car knockers), and rip tracks we will be looking specifically at Union Pacific's East Los Angeles Yard and in general how the Union Pacific Railroad works to make sure that cars leaving their yards are in a safe operating condition. Some pertinent facts: Between October and March 85% of all broken wheels occur on the system due to the harsh winter conditions faced racing along the track under a car. Other causes of wheel failure are improper positioning of brake shoes with an overlap leading to thermal fracture. The cushioning device known as a Freightmaster can fail due to the constant back and forth swaying and tugging on the cars. Hand grabs can come loose simply from the heat and cold expansion as well as rust from exposure to rain, snow, and sleet. Airbrake hoses can leak leading to failure. Noting a car as defective on runby inspections or from hotbox detectors may result in the car being put off on a siding out on the road for a repair crew to handle. If the defect is not serious enough to demand immediate action it may be flagged on the computer noting a defect needing to be handled at the next yard. Crews may also report cars blowing air or excessive lateral movement indicating extensive wear on the trucks. Each time a car stops in a yard it is inspected by the car knocker before being allowed to leave. In what is called the Class "A" inspection the car knockers inspect as a pair walking down the lengths of cars choreographing their check: -Look at the coupler for cracks, chips, and worn spots. -Squat down and look at under frame, cushioning devices, inside wheels and axles. - Stand up and look at the ladders (both end ladders), crossover step, and brackets. -step to side and check on the stirrup and side ladder. -check brake shoes with a 3/8" minimum (worn past 3/8" and the brake shoes are changed by the inspector). -Check flanges on the wheels. -Check springs on the trucks. What are they looking for? On safety appliances rust around a bolt may indicate it is loose and needs to be tightened or replaced. Wear on brake rods or axles, metal missing on wheels, leaking grease from bearings, and rust on the wheel bearing backing ring. All of these plus others may be an indication that something is going wrong. This dance is also known as the 1000 mile inspection since the freight car is supposed to be in good enough shape to travel at least 1000 miles before experiencing any problems. However, should the next yard it stops in be across the street or fifty miles away the inspection will be repeated before it is allowed to leave. As well as this dance the carman must measure such open top loads as tractors, military equipment, and wing cars (such as those headed for McDonnel-Douglas in Long Beach) to make sure they will clear all tunnels, bridges, and obstructions on their designated route. They also make the final inspection on piggyback and containers to make sure all locking devices are in place. As each inspector finishes with a car he uses a white chalk to make the pull mark on both ends of the car. The mark TD11128 indicates TD (trailer dock), 1 (first shift), 11 (month), 28 (date). He also marks with the chalk the cross key and container mechanism. Each set of flatcars receives these marks on the end cars along with specific marks. A car with a defect is marked with a bad order card. Cards attached to the car vertically indicate the need for only a light repair that may be handled by the repairman. Horizontal bad order cards mean that the car must be pulled from the train and sent to the RIP Track. Defects of this nature include defective wheels and cushioning devices. Once a car is bad ordered seriously enough to require major repairs, the supervisor is notified. He in turn updates the computer in his office and notifies the yardmaster that a car must be pulled. The computer connects with Customer Service in St Louis, and Customer Service eliminates the bad order car from the train list that it has been maintaining. In the LA yard there is one repairman assigned to each shift. Because of the wide range of cars to be dealt with and the expertise involved, this falls on the most experienced men, such as head repairman Joe Velez. The repairman is responsible for welding, heating and straightening, replacement and removal of air valves. He works out of a truck equipped with an oxygen and acetalene apparatus allowing him to carry out work that would otherwise be sent to the RIP (Repair In Place) track resulting in a delay in leaving the yard. From 12 to 20 light repairs crop up each shift with an average time of twenty minutes involved. The repairman may also have to handle problems at local industries such as difficulty in opening a door (some car doors weigh as much as 2,000 pounds). Should a crew switching at a local industry find a problem, they notify the yardmaster, who in turn notifies the supervisor, who calls the repairman. While many of the repairs can be carried out at trackside with the car in place, if the repair requires work to be done at higher than head level the car must be set out. When the bad order problems have either been pulled or repaired and before the train leaves the yard the initial terminal air test must be performed by the designated inspector. Should a leak be detected the testing is done on the cars in sets of five until the defective one has been identified. When the air test indicates everything working properly a sticker is attached in the cab of the lead unit by the lead man, on the day shift Ben Lucero, certifying that the airbrakes have met a standard of five pounds or less leakage (actually if there is a leak at the five pound limit the carmen will attempt to cut it even further). A second inspector mounts on the rear end device (FRED) with a fresh battery and then the set is walked to release all hand brakes. During this final walk through on piggyback and containers the inspectors also check to make sure all locking devices are in place. As the cars leave the yard they are given the 1000 mile roll by inspection to check for sticky brakes (binding or sliding wheel), dragging equipment, loose equipment on open top loads, and any other abnormalities. If a problem is noted the train is stopped and the problem corrected or the car set out. The principal object here is to make sure no defects leave the yard. This intensive inspection and repair program has greatly reduced the number of bad orders. A car bad ordered is not producing revenue for the railroad, so the objective is to inspect and repair in such a way that bad orders are reduced to an absolute minimum. It has also led to a decrease in wheel failure. Wheel failure can lead to catastrophic consequences and so wheels are intensely monitored for thermal cracks on the small outer rim, upper flange, and back rim retarder as well as for flattening due to sliding. The constant monitoring has reduced broken wheels from 22 in 1984 to 10 as of November of 1992. What happens to cars that cannot be repaired in place? They are pulled from the train and moved to the RIP or One Spot section of the yard. In the East LA Yard the One Spot sits just east of Diesel Service with its own assigned office. Since no car is allowed to leave the yard until every defect has been fixed, it is the job of the One Spot to carry out the heavy repairs. The nine people assigned here consist of: -1 Foreman -1 AAR writeup lead man (checks the completed repairs to and certifies that they were done correctly). 1-Material Expediter 6-carmen (freight welders) While this may seem a small crew compared to the over 40 assigned to the One Spot the Southern Pacific maintains at West Colton, it must be remembered that UP's East LA Yard is no longer a freight yard concentrating more on the intermodal traffic. Still there is enough work to repair approximately 200 cars a month. The One spot has three tracks assigned to it. Track #501 next to the office and track #502 as well as s the west end of track #500. Two men work each track as a team. Track #501 is the designated fast track for wheel changeouts and brake work requiring the car to be jacked up. #502 is the heavy track for time consuming repairs from 4 hours to 2 or 3 days. If more than twenty hours need to be expended in the repair work the car may be sent to the home road, or if Union Pacific, to Pocatello, Idaho, or Palestine, Texas. To keep the work flowing the RIP has on hand an 18 ton Pettibolt Crane, 1 track mobile (for moving cars), 12 3-ton Jibb Cranes (for lifting truck frames), and three types of jacks (100 ton, 80 ton, and 50 ton) for lifting up cars (the hydraulic equipment is maintained by an outside firm). Each morning the RIP Track foreman Ed Peralta obtains a computer list of the bad order cars in Los Angeles. He also prints out a list of the bad order cars on track #500 from west to east. He then makes an eyeball inspection of the cars that have been added to #500 and makes the assignments based on priorities. He sets up his triage with super light repairs such as bent hand holds and light air brakes put on the west end of #500. He also checks for safety appliance problems, wheels that are broken or thin, defective doors, and accident damage such as side swipe or derail. Once he has determined what is on hand he can start to make assignments. Loaded cars that are bad ordered are fixed ASAP to get them out of the yard and on their way. Second are foreign empties because the UP is charged each day they are on the system. System cars (UP, MoPac, etc.) are allowed to be on bad order status no longer than eight days. To get this work done the needed materials must be on hand which is where material management comes into play. For instance a twenty year old MoPac car needs a freight master (hydraulic cushion). The inspector had noted that the coupler was making contact and on checking underneath had found that the pocket was broken. The Item number was checked against the catalogue to determine what type is used for that particular car. It is then up to the Material Expediter to come up with the appropriate part so that the carmen can make the repair and get the car back on the road. In Los Angeles the Material Expediter is Carlos Boren who handles the supply orders for the main LA area primarily the train yard, trailer dock, and RIP track, but also trouble shoots for the City of Industry Yard, Long Beach, and Yermo. He deals with whoever can help him out to get the job done and the car repaired. For airbrakes this may require a call to Joe Tebeau in North Little Rock or Craig Nelson for freight car material in Pocatello or Wayne Matson in Omaha. To grasp an idea of the supplies that Carlos can draw on the 66,000 square foot warehouse at the Jenks Shops in North Little Rock is scheduled to be expanded to 108,000 square feet by March of 1993. With Omaha sending its inventory to Jenks they will have on hand approximately 17,000 items. An unusual item for a foreign car (not owned by the UP system) may require phone calls around the country to locate the needed item and then a call to Pocatello to generate the necessary purchase order and arrange shipment. In this instance a call was made to Ed Hewett at Freight Master in Waco Texas, the company that supplies UP with most of their freight masters, and Ed assured him the proper one was in stock. Carlos then contacted Pocatello to let them know where it was available and they took over in getting it to Los Angeles. Of course Carlos could have simply called Pocatello and let them hunt it down, but this way time was saved and the job completed more efficiently. (In addition to such mundane items as freightmasters, knuckles, drawbars, etc. Carlos has to be able to come up with such items as refrigerators and microwaves; however, he does not carry kitchen sinks, since these are handled by the maintenance of way water service). While the ordered freight master was enroute the carmen had to build up the broken pocket by welding so that everything could be assembled on arrival and the car sent back out of the yard. The bottom line is getting the job done. All of this must also be done safely so equipment is important here. A burned retina from an improperly shielded welding helmet is a lot more expensive than the $250.00 helmets now being used that adjust automatically to shield the eyes. New equipment that has come on the market such as the new helmets are brought to the attention of the supervisor through company bulletins describing what is available. Ed Peralta was informed on taking the Los Angeles RIP Track assignment that if anyone was injured on the job he was going to have to accompany the superintendent on the trip to inform the family. So far Ed has not had to make one of those visits and he is determined to make things as safe as possible for his carmen in order to put off his first one as long as possible. Obviously safety is the first priority. It is also important to generate enough repairs to be cost effective. It does not help budgetary concerns if you spend $10,000 to repair a freight car that will only generate $5,000 in revenue. It also does not pay to have cars standing around idle. For this reason the LA yard has started a program to bring back into service bad ordered coal cars that have been sitting idle in the yard. Between October and November of 1992 twentyfive were returned to service. All of these repairs are logged on the computer by either the Supervisor of Mechanical Operations Roy Magdaleno or the Lead Man on the RIP Track, Art Gomez. For the RIP Track the system is as follows: A bill is started on paper with the needed repairs listed on the form and attached to the car by the Lead Man. The carmen get the form with the needed repairs and perform them after which the Lead Man certifies that they were done and records the part number of what was replaced along with the job code. All of this is entered into the computer and sent to Omaha and the original record saved. This allows Omaha to generate a bill for services rendered that is sent to the affected railroad. All of the prices for repairs have been set by the AAR such as replacement of a draw bar plus labor is billed at $449.00. To offset any claims of cheating the AAR does provide spot checks. For instance wheel sets that are removed are stored at what is called the wheel garden until they can be sent to Pocatello to either be retrued or scrapped. Each removed wheel is marked with the car number, the owner road, location, and defect. Using a wheel check gauge it can be determined whether or not the flange was legitimately pulled (depending on usage) at the 7/8", 15/16", or 1" the new standard for doublestacks. In a recent spot check by the AAR the inspector thought he had a problem with one set that were over the 7/8" width until it was pointed out that the markings indicated they were from a TTX double stack and the 1" standard applied. The penalty for being caught cheating is a stiff one, one year of free repairs. Big bucks are involved here, a definite incentive to play straight. All of the computer information available on the cars can be put to additional uses. By checking the printout of problem cars the supervisor can see if any cars certified at Los Angeles show up on the list. These can then be examined to prevent similar problems from cropping up in the future. The computer also provides an early warning if a certain type of car needs to be inspected and modified. It lists the last noted location of each specific car so that particular yard can check it. If the yard cannot perform the modification it may be sent to its home road, or if the modification is performed, this is entered against the car's number and it is removed from the list. All of this intensive checking and repairs have been aimed at reducing the number of cars needing their ministration. In November of 1992 the yard performed repairs on 1,367 cars with a total for the eleven month starting at January of 13,085. The previous 11 month period was 17,177. For the RIP track November's total was 288 with an eleven month total of 2,119 down from the previous eleven months total of 2,335. In some places a reduction in repairs might be considered bad news. If, however, the major aim is to make sure there are more cars rolling than are parked, the effort has to be greeted as a success. It is the men in the yard changing the brake shoes, inspecting the cars, doing the air tests and making sure that everything is ready to roll that keep those freight cars traveling across the country. Unseen and unheralded they and the men on the RIP track (or One Spot) changing out those wheels and doing the other heavy repair work make the railroads more than competitive with the trucking industries. If the cars were not in condition to carry freight there would be no economic sense in just sending light engines around the country for railfans to photograph. To them we should all say thankyou the next time we get to shoot the head end of the train that gets most of the attention climbing Cajon or wherever. In particular thanks to Ed Peralta, Roy Magdaleno, Carlos Boren, and Art Gomez for their excelllent help in preparing this article.