It means the yard crew isn’t allowed to let that car roll downhill by itself under gravity in the sorting yard … it has dangerous stuff in it, so a switch engine needs to be used to move it around.
A humping yard is a a switching yard set on a slight downhill, and is used to sort cars.
It has one entrance, and branches out into several dead ends at the bottom of the hill. A car rolls into the yard, and is switched as it rolls down and into the siding that holds the consist the car is supposed to be part of.
When the a siding is full, the new consist is pulled out of the yard with a switch engine, attached to locomotives, and sent on its way.
Another amusing misunderstanding made utterly realistic by a few simple facts.
Is there an opposite to a humping yard in rail car sorting? Sort of an uphill unswitching yard, wherein a train is built by selecting individual cars from several sidings full of cars?
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:29 am
And in smaller letters on the flanges you are told to downpower Optimus Prime and any of his transformer friends, before they enter the vessel.
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Mheh.
It means the yard crew isn’t allowed to let that car roll downhill by itself under gravity in the sorting yard … it has dangerous stuff in it, so a switch engine needs to be used to move it around.
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:30 am
Thanks, Kris. I was unclear on the context. Don’t dump the contents, or don’t take a dump on the container…?
Neither seemed a desirable choice.
July 3rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
My eyes and a BlackBerry make it hard to read, but i am familiar with the concept and I believe the term is “hump”, not “dump”.
July 4th, 2010 at 12:09 am
A humping yard is a a switching yard set on a slight downhill, and is used to sort cars.
It has one entrance, and branches out into several dead ends at the bottom of the hill. A car rolls into the yard, and is switched as it rolls down and into the siding that holds the consist the car is supposed to be part of.
When the a siding is full, the new consist is pulled out of the yard with a switch engine, attached to locomotives, and sent on its way.
July 6th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Another amusing misunderstanding made utterly realistic by a few simple facts.
Is there an opposite to a humping yard in rail car sorting? Sort of an uphill unswitching yard, wherein a train is built by selecting individual cars from several sidings full of cars?