Train dowty retarder maintenance worker: stepping on "mushrooms" more than 1,400 times a day

At 8 o'clock in the morning on February 22, at the freight train marshalling yard of Hengyang North Railway Station, Peng Hui, the maintenance worker of the dowty retarder, has changed into dark blue cotton work clothes and thick-soled shoes, pushing a tool cart, carrying a tool bag and a water bottle, and starting the day work.

In front of a free weaving lane, he stomped on a cylindrical object. "This is the dowty retarder. We are mainly responsible for testing their performance and repairing and replacing faulty dowty retarder." Peng Hui introduced that Hengyang North Railway Station is a regional marshalling station, which is mainly responsible for the de-marshalling operation of freight trains. The "assembly facility" of the marshalling train business, and the decelerating roof is the "brake off" for the unmarshalling trains to enter the station, which can avoid accidents such as speeding collisions and hook collisions of the cargo vehicles entering the station.

"It uses the hydraulic principle to adjust the rolling speed of the vehicle through the rolling of wheels." Peng Hui told reporters that the detection of the performance of the dowty retarder mainly relies on manual footsteps. Since the dowty retarder is shaped like a "mushroom", they also call the stepper detection jokingly. Step on the "mushroom".

Stepping on the top may seem simple, but it's actually hard work. “It’s the most expensive footwork in our business. The soles wear out after a while. Everyone has thick cocoons on the heels.” Peng Hui said. There are 20 braided roads in Hengyang North Railway Station, and each road has a dowty retarder. There are more than 180 jacks. On average, the staff need to step on the jacks more than 1,400 times a day, squat and get up more than 300 times, and the labor intensity is very high.

"Treading on the top is also a technical job." Peng Hui explained while demonstrating that the air pressure may be insufficient if it is too good to tread, and the pores are blocked if it is too difficult to tread. In order to prevent misjudgments and missed judgments from malfunctions during the operation, they also need to correct Only by observing and measuring the dowty retarder on the strand track and slagging the line can accurately judge whether a dowty retarder is faulty.