[PRCo] Re: Braking Systems

[Boris Cefer]

The air brake systems used by railroads and the history of these may be very
interesting. Unfortunately, I have only basic knowledge in this area. There
were more systems than we can imagine.

B

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 9:14 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Braking Systems


> I don't remember a signal light on the 1700s.   The Philly 2700s do
> have a "shaft brake" indicator light.   I think this was one of those
> customer options.    If the car was drifting with the pedal latched
> down, the shoes were worn or the drum brakes were not applied.   Who
> needed a light...
>
> Same deal with the air-PCCs.   Baltimore installed brake pipe
> gauges ... huge mothers, 4 inch gauges.   Told you that the brake
> shoes were applied.   Those were the only air-PCC cars I ever saw
> with brake pipe or brake cylinder gauges.   Every other one I rode or
> ran simply had a reservoir gauge.    Again a customer option.
>
> Most older U. S. streetcars also only had reservoir gauges but a few
> had double hand gauges, with one hand showing the brake pipe and the
> other the brake reservoir.    The Baltimore Peter Witt (and I'm sure
> some other safety cars but I have no clue how many) mounted the air
> gauge on a separate emergency reservoir instead of the main
> reservoir.   The logic was that the main reservoir charged first and
> then the emergency reservoir, so if the ER gauge showed enough air,
> both tanks were charged.
>
> Digression applies only to straight air and not train air (or
> automatic air) systems which required separate gauges for both
> reservoir and brake pipe because they were independent of each other.
>
> I am not competent to talk about the more recent electro-pneumatic
> schemes after the 1960s.    Wish I was.   Newest locomotive I ran was
> a 1948 GE 44 ton diesel.   Oldest was a 1905 Juniata Shops built
> 4-4-0.   So you know my range of knowledge.   And triple valves from
> P up to UC.
>
> On Oct 19, 2005, at 2:53 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>
> > Didn't the 1700s have a drum brake signal light? The motorman had
> > to notice
> > that. What was the practice of motorman training?
> >
> > B
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> > To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 8:16 PM
> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: Braking Systems
> >
> >
> >
> >> Yes.   Broken motor lead so the dynamic brakes failed.   Because they
> >> failed, all the motorman had was drum brakes.   He was young,
> >> inadequately trained, and didn't understand why he was sliding
> >> through all the stops on the way in that morning.   And the problem
> >> was compounded because PAT removed the timed derail at South Hills
> >> Junction .... had it been there, the car would probably have been on
> >> the ground at the top of the hill instead of slamming into the P&LE
> >> station.   But if memories are short and we can't remember that we
> >> had two previous runaways in the tunnel, well, you get the picture.
> >>
> >> On Oct 19, 2005, at 12:37 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> Perhaps the most tragic story of a streetcar which lost its brakes
> >>> (well, in
> >>> the PCC era) was an accident of 1727 at Station square on 28th
> >>> October 1987.
> >>>
> >
> >
> >
>
>