dis0nored Posted February 8 Posted February 8 During my travels in Romania from Bihor to Constansa when i was young I recall in some of the major stations, the train started small and then more wagons were added to it but also one particular practice i recall was that i heard a hammer beeing tapped against the wheel? So what's the theory behind it? There is a job of a Wheeltapper. A wheeltapper is a railway worker employed to check the structural integrity of train wheels and that axle boxes are not overheating. Hammering of metals to identify internal flaws, by observing the different types of emitted sounds, is a very rudimentary method. In Simrail, the feature would add a "wheel tapper" where if the train is at the station for more than 1 minute, he would do a random inspection, you would hear him tapping at random carriges and maybe see him do it as well. What do the images explain? The red locomotive: A wheeltapper signing off after checking the wheels of a train at Budapest-Keleti railway station in 2014. He has placed his long hammer on the train's buffers The orange man: A wheeltapper's hammer with the rings. The man walking by passanger carriges on dirt foothpath: A wheeltapper at work on the Bulgarian railway in 2009.
Atoka220 Posted February 8 Posted February 8 (edited) I read the wiki article and that's not their only job, at least here in Hungary Here, they are called car inspectors and their job is much much more than that. They are responsible for checking and making sure that every mechanical part of railcars are in good conditon and safe to run, including correct coupling. And for the tapping, yes they check the 'ring' of the wheels to listen for cracks or loose steel tires but another very important task is the brake check. Older cars are equpped with brake shoes that press up against the tread of the wheel and they check both the braking and released state of the shoes by trying to move them or tapping the brake shoe holder (don't know its name in english) Newer cars have disk brakes so of course they aren't gonna duck in and hammer the disk or the pads but instead there are little screens (and often brake cylinder pressure gauges) on the side that they must check during brake check. They might also have to check the continuity of the EP brake cables and the operation of magnetic brakes. Given the versatile job they have and all the needed animations, i don't think the devs will work on something like this. Though yes, doing actual brake checks and car inspections before departure would add some good immersion I also read a joke about it some time ago A man sees a wheeltapper tapping on the wheels with his hammer on a station. He goes up and asks why they do that. The tapper doesn't respond and keeps working. He asks the tapper once again, why is he tapping the wheels. Again, the worker doesn't respond. The man leaves him be and asks another wheeltapper that why are they tapping the wheels with the hammers. He responds: We check the integrity of the wheels using its sound. You know when a wheel is cracked, it doesn't have that nice ring and the car must be taken out of service. -Ahh i understand now. Then why could your colleague not tell me this when i asked him? -Oh him? He's deaf Edit: Forgot to add that the rings on their hammers are spare seals for air hoses to replace quickly on the run their rank insignia 😁 Edited February 9 by Atoka220 typo 1
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