A defective control valve can respond to an ordinary brake pipe reduction as if it were an emergency, venting the pipe locally and dragging every other car into emergency with it. The result, an undesired emergency or UDE, stops the train without warning and can cause hard slack run-ins. Carmen track down the kicker by watching which car fires first during repeated sets or with a test device, then cut the valve out or set the car out.
Third UDE this trip on the same train, we've got a kicker somewhere in the middle and nobody can find it.
Carmen often find a kicker by elimination, splitting the train and repeating sets until the guilty car is isolated.
Also heard as
- dynamiter
- UDE car
Related terms
Big hole
The emergency position of the automatic brake valve, which vents the brake pipe and stops the train as fast as possible.
Set and release
Applying the train's air brakes and then releasing them, the basic sequence of every air brake test.
Car knocker
A carman, the mechanical worker who inspects and repairs railcars and tests their brakes.
Bad order
A car or locomotive with a defect that keeps it from running until it is repaired.