Do you want a quickee?

Haha, no, at my age a quickee is a midnight trip to the bathroom. Now it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night.

n the old days we would frequently "bottle the air" meaning we would close the angle cock on the cars left standing, the air brakes would (usually) remain applied but not in emergency and it was faster to get the brakes released and moving when you were done with your work and ready to depart.

Of course with wave action and newer brake valves this activity was the cause of many a train running away so it is never done anymore.

As for the the air hose couplers (glad hands) giving trouble, I have no idea how many times they can be coupled and uncoupled but it is more than the car itself will last.

Our most common air trouble in freight service would be the glad hand gasket leaking and that could very well be due to wear from coupling and uncoupling.

The air hose itself is another cause of frequent failure and recently I had to change an air hose because the glad hand of the air hose was caught in the open knuckle of the drawbar and dumb ole me didnt see it and smashed it when we coupled in with the power.

The only thing I would add is that air hoses and glad hands do put the train in emergency. It seems to happen about once a year or so. Two things cause it. When the bungees or brackets holding the air hoses are hung too low sometimes a low hanging air hose will hit a crossing at grade that is just a little higher than the others. In that case after the conductor makes the hoses back he has to bungee or bind the hose up higher. Sometimes a over ambitious conductor or utility man can bungee the air hoses to high and when the slack is stretched the glad hands become close enough to horizontal and become uncoupled.

The other air hose issue comes up in undulating territory when you have some cars with long draw bars. (Lumber cars, auto racks) If your train was bunched meaning all the slack was together and against the engines because you were going downhill and you start to go up hill or across a shelf, the cars begin to stretch out. As the draw bars and slack stretches out the air hoses become stretched too. Sometimes this can stretch the air hoses so that they become uncoupled. Because they are bungeed up too high or because the hoses get caught on the brackets that hang them from the draw bar housing. An engineer can try and mitigate this by stretching the slack out slowly or by stretch braking (using air brakes and power at the same time). On my territory stretch braking is a common occurrence, but the air hoses are just one of many consideration in deciding to do this.

It is the glad hand that does the trick. They are engineered to come apart as well as put together. It has to do with the angle.

When lacing air hoses, it is required that you step between the cars, take one hose in hand and one in the other, then it requires that the hoses both be in an extreme angle, like the center of a 'W' for the grooves to lace up properly and couple the hose. When they come apart, a much lesser degree of angle is necessary (lets call it horizontal, but not quite) allows them to do so without damage.

But it also involves the angle-cock, which must be closed on the portion you are going to cut away with and by rule left open on the detached cars being left.

Conversely, a quickie usually involves the cock-angle, which is totally different and can be painful if confused with the other.... noooooooo place for dyslexics.

Desperate for attention? Grow up and lose the immature sense of humor. And learn how to spell would be helpful, too!

i got punked.