I no longer own a car so I ride the MAX a lot. For those of you who don’t live in Portland, the MAX is our light rail system. It runs through downtown Portland and extends to both the Gresham and Hillsboro suburbs, the Portland International Airport, and to the Portland Civic Center. It’s pretty accessible from most places and thankfully I live right next to a MAX stop out in Beavtown. So again, since I don’t own a car, I ride this train a lot. I’m pretty familiar with how the system works and where the stations are. I know there are three models of railcars in use and I’ve ridden in all three types. Every now and then I’ll be sitting towards an end of the car and notice the metal boxes located beneath the seats just outside the operator’s station or cockpit. Inside these boxes appear to be sand.

I’ve often wondered what they were there for. I’ve had my theories such as it was a safety device surrounding a fuel line to prevent fire, but that was quickly squashed when I remembered the trains are electric. It was a “if an electric train is going east at 100 mph and the wind is blowing 10 knots S/SW, what direction is the smoke from the engine car blowing” moment. My thought process can be over complicated at times. Anyhow, I’ve been riding the MAX for almost 4 years and it wasn’t until today that I decided to search for an answer on the interwebs. I first searched for IBEG and it turned out to be the manufacturer of railcars and systems used on railcars. They’re based in Germany. Interesting right? Blah, blah, blah. On their site, in the products section I saw hyperlinks to sanding systems and sand filling systems. I read on and I still couldn’t find the answer I needed. What were these things? It was obvious they were meant to distribute sand but for what purpose. So I went back to searching and typed in sanding systems and found my answer in Wikipedia of all places. Sidenote: I’ve been very wary of Wikipedia in the past, mainly because its entries are notorious for containing false information. I read on with skepticism, but the Wikipedia entry made sense. I searched other sites to validate and Wikipedia was accurate. You may have won this one Wikipedia, but we shall meet again. Anyhow, these sandboxes are just one part of the sanding system. The purpose of the sanding system is to apply sand to the rails when conditions reduce traction. Via a tube connected to the sandbox inside the train, sand is applied to the rail which improves traction of the wheel. Fascinating stuff!

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle…YO JOE!