What is a kicker?

[amzopff]

88G headed out of Danville tonight at 2100 and asked the NE Dispatcher for special consideration due to the fact he had a kicker?  What is that?

[Gage O'Dell]

whats 88G? I've never heard of that train through here

[etalcos]

We change a LOT of #8 vent valves, among others, this time of year for this reason.  Generally it's a combination of moisture, temperature, and age of the equipment that leads to this.  And yes it's a colossal pain in the ass with a kicker in a train and the longer the train, the harder it is to locate. 

[NS145]

How exactly do you find the car that has the bad valve so that you can repair it?

[etalcos]

Usually you'd go to the middle of the train and close an angle cock and then do a "set and release".  If it goes into emergency then you know the problem is in the front half of the train -- if not it's most likely in the back half.  When you isolate it to one end or the other, then you keep dividing in half until you have it isolated.  And as you might expect this is a process much better taken care of in the yard during the initial terminal brake test rather than having to hunt it out in the middle of the mainline somewhere. 

This process is all well and good until you have "Gremlins".  Some kickers won't act up every time.  I've also seen a kinked end air hose play games especially on long cars and cushioned underframe cars as the slack runs in and out.  Another personal favorite is a little bit of ice fouling up the choke in a #8 vent valve -- below freezing it's a problem, but warm it up and it's fine.....

[lwjabo]

A kicker would be a quick valve. Every time the engineer uses air it goes into emergency. Not a stuck tripple valve.