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Article: First aid for "cripples." (air brake failures)
- Article from:
- Railway Age
- Article date:
- January 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Conrail was looking for a way to reduce costly downtime on trains crippled by air brake failures. Strato's solution: A lightweight, portable runaround hose.
How much time is wasted when an air hose blows out on the road, miles--and hours--away from the nearest terminal? What does it cost to cut a disabled car out of a consist, to dispatch a repair crew, or miss a just-in-time delivery requirement? What effect does one disabled car--in railroad parlance, a "cripple"--have on the rest of the system's ontime performance? How long before operations are back to normal?
These are problems that most railroads grapple with on a regular, if not daily, basis. ...