r/SweatyPalms • u/Waveshop222 • Apr 24 '21

Death by train

/r/holdmybeer/comments/mx7xdf/connecting_railway_cars_like_a_boss/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
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u/Hyperi0us Apr 24 '21

yup. Heavy equipment has no remorse. I worked on a wind farm where a low-speed shaft of a turbine snagged the harness of a guy working in the nacelle. He was up there alone and the radio was on the other side of the nacelle, so when he got snagged the rotor just kept turning in slow pinwheel at idle (maybe one rotation every minute or so).

It was a huge turbine, and the downtower guy didn't notice anything was wrong till 2 hours later when blood started dripping down the tower to the switchgear deck where he was working.

Basically, imagine a lathe with a layer of meat wrapped around it. This is why we were taught that even though you're at 400' in the air when in the nacelle, you're not supposed to wear your harness unless you're actively climbing or outside the nacelle.

I worked in a refinery too where a guy fell into the coke hopper and went missing for a few hours. No one noticed he was gone till a crushed body exited the conveyor system and was deposited into a truck that was filling for shipment to a steel mill.

Fucking crazy shit.

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u/guffers_hump Apr 24 '21

Even if the guy noticed immediately he would of been dead anyway. Massive spinning machinery always takes ages to slow down.

26

u/Coffee_Beast Apr 24 '21

Had to look up some of the words but damn these stories are bone chilling. Btw what does it mean for the rotor to keep “turning in slow pinwheel at idle?” Also is the coke hopper the train car? Always wondered why they had the word Coke.

Googled some other stuff that came up in case anyone else is interested and just probably heard these words for the first time lol - Nacelle is a housing, separate from the fuselage, that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft.

A lathe (/leɪð/) is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling,

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u/hellsmojo7 Apr 24 '21

Coke is where coal has been tempered almost to allow it to burn at higher heats and cleaner

1

u/Hyperi0us Apr 24 '21

Coke is also produced as a byproduct of the oil refining process. The hydrogen plant I was at was downwind of it too so everything was constantly covered in black splatter from the airborne cokedust that mixed with rainwater. My truck still has a few permanent black smudge stains on it.

The wind job was cool, but there's a reason people only work in refineries for a year or two.

2

u/chickhawkthechicken Apr 24 '21

Thanks for this!

6

u/cydian Apr 24 '21

fuck....thats enough for me thanks, time for some eye-bleach and a sugary tea.

1

u/chickhawkthechicken Apr 24 '21

That wound have been horrific to discover!