The nickname comes from tapping wheels and castings with a hammer and listening for the dead ring of a cracked part. Carmen perform air brake tests, inspect cars at interchange and departure, replace knuckles, wheels and brake shoes, and run the rip track. Train crews lean on them for departure inspections, and a terminal without car knockers leaves that work to the conductor.
Car knockers are still walking the outbound, so don't start pulling until they give us the air test.
Also heard as
- carman
- car toad
Related terms
Rip track
A yard track where carmen make light repairs to cars without sending them to a heavy shop.
Bad order
A car or locomotive with a defect that keeps it from running until it is repaired.
Blue flag
A blue signal marking equipment that workers are on, under or between, which no one may couple to or move.
Set and release
Applying the train's air brakes and then releasing them, the basic sequence of every air brake test.