COWS!

[Summertrainz]

this may be a bit off topic for this board
but does the cow catcher commonly on the front of steam locomotives...
did it push cows off the rails?
because i was wondering if it didnt have that, could it derail the train if it was a 4-4-0? or 0-6-0?
because i was playing railroad tycoon 3 on my pc and a consolidation 2-8-0 loco on the game was designed with red (stuff) on the cowcatcher.
which brought me to my curious question.
did they hit the cows if they did'nt get off the tracks?

[Guilford Guy]

Back in the day a cow was a large beast that sometimes could derail a locomotive. There were other large animals such as bison fluffalo, etc which were also a problem. The solution was to built a plow to angle the cow and other debris off the tracks to provide a clear path for the locomotive. I think over the past 150 years Cows have learned trains=more hamburgers for the train crew...

[Summertrainz]

good point... thanks for the fact

[Mike]

But the "cowcatcher" modern version, AKA the "plow" is still a very important part of modern engines. Two or three years ago I was in the engine when a pickup truck with a trailer load of telephone pole size logs lost the whole load on the crossing. Fortunately, when he saw us coming, he had the sense to drive along the track toward the direction from which we were coming. When we hit the poles at about 35-40 mph, the large ones went flying off the track like so many toothpicks spreading in a fan pattern, and the smaller one were cut into three shorter sections by the wheels. Anyone standing "down track" from us would have been history. Amazingly we did not derail. The plow only showed a few scratches and splinters of wood. The next day, in the same engine, opposite direction on the same track we rounded a corner to find a large (12"+ diameter) tree fallen across the track. The plow kept us from derailing and sustained little damage itself; but the steps and handrails on one side were pushed up more than a foot. I shutter to think what could have happened in either case had we not been equipped with the plow!- Mike S.

[taz-of-boyds]

I ride a commuter train to work (the MARC) and every once in a while some ding-bats have something on the track including old ties.  It makes quite a racket.  But so far the worst has only been a cable disconnect between some cars.  The end of the train without the locomotive has a passenger car with a control head (or whatever it is called), and on that car, it also has a plow to push such things off the track.

Plowing ahead...
Charles

[Guilford Guy]

I was on an inbound train chatting with a conductor when we hear the emergency brakes go on. Engineer runs back a little from the cab portion of the cab car and I see a big brown object on the tracks. Takes about 5 car lengths to stop the train so we go out to walk the train. Well, some teenagers put an old x-mas tree which had been lying beside the roadbed across the rails. There were a few small bits littering the tracks but the main body of the tree got wedged in the cables and brake lines. The conductor had to pull out the tree seeing as if we had hit a switch further down, it could snag the break lines and MU lines thus disabling the train from inbound operation.

[Dusten Barefoot]

Here is a funny thing with a cow on the ET&WNC, cows were not no were near the line in real life, but the photo of this cow is filmed for the movie "Tennessee Tweetsie"

http://www.johnsonsdepot.com/crumley/tour1.htm

[pdlethbridge]

A number of years ago, I was riding the Arcade and Attica RR When a cow meandered onto the tracks. The engineer stopped the very slow moving train and waited for the cow to cross. It took a few minutes, the cow liked looking at the 2-8-0.

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
On a Maine railroad:

Passenger: "Conductor, why are we slowin' down?"
Conductor: "Cows on the track."
Passenger: "Oh..."

Passenger: "Conductor, why are we slowin' down NOW?"
Conductor: "Caught up t' them cows again..."

                                                                            From Bert and I

Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Summertrainz]

good one bach man 

[pdlethbridge]

udderly funny

[Guilford Guy]

Dear All,
On a Maine railroad:

Passenger: "Conductor, why are we slowin' down?"
Conductor: "Cows on the track."
Passenger: "Oh..."

Passenger: "Conductor, why are we slowin' down NOW?"
Conductor: "Caught up t' them cows again..."

                                                                            From Bert and I

Have fun!
the Bach-man

LOL
I wonder what a forney would do to a cow? hmmm

[SteamGene]

Could a Forney catch up to a cow? 
I think its cowardly for a train to chase a cow.
Gene

[Guilford Guy]

Forney's are fairly fast. They did after all put them on "crack"(more like splintered) passenger trains.

[r.cprmier]

Forneys pulling the Rangeley Express" were, to quote Lin Moody, occasionally clocked at 60 MPH across "the straight".  Now, just how much of that is fact, and how much is told with a wink, is now subject to speculation.  Dead men do, indeed, tell no tales!  Ayuppp!

Rich