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Re: Incompetent FRA safety specialist on air brakes
Author: Ed Workman
Date: 06-21-2014 - 08:23
The use of electricity to speed propagation of braking goes back into the 19th century.
The first brake trials at Burlington were held in 1886.
The only results that were acceptable were produced by the Carpenter Electric-pneumatic brake.
Except for the difficulties with the electric part- when it worked it worked well, but any fault in the wiring made it ineffective.
So the MCB brake committee invited folks back for more trials over the same course 1887.
Mr. Westinghouse and IIRC [from reading] the late Mr. Eames Vacuum Brake Co presented electrically operated brakes as well as Carpenter. The WAB air brake, without electricity significantly reduced stopping length but created horrid shocks, such that WAB did not complete all the test program.
The efficacy of electric propagation was confirmed, as well as the impractability.
Mr Carpenter sold his brake in Prussia for awhile and his main inventor, Mr. Hollerith, returned to inventing tabulating machines- the IBM punch card is said to have been based on Hollerith work. In a few years WAB replaced Carpenter in Prussia. Geargoe W. spent the summer and fall of 1887 improving his brake to make it propagate at the speed of sound, without electicity, and shock was sufficiently low.
The next round of electro brake was promulgated by the Pennsy, based on extensive passenger tests in New Jersey in 1913. High speeds and big steel cars demanded more than the WAB High Speed brake could deliver, so PRR adopted electric air brakes and clasp brakes on all wheels- that's 24 shoes/car. Part of the solution came from the quest to delete flammables from car lighting- oil acetylene and Pintsch tended to set fire to wood cars in a wreck. Perfection of the electric connections consumed a coupla decades
About the time the K brake was 'perfected', California Valve and Air Brake of Los Angeles was developing an alternative, and eventually PO'd the RR industry by demonstrating the improvement that could be made. So ICC held hearings and a new series of tests was begun by ARA , mostly on the SP in Oregon. hundreds of runs were made and up to 160 cars used. Testing concluded in the early 30s on the PRR a& C&O and the AB specification was adopted in 1933- it took 20 years to retire all other brakes from interchange. CV&AB, reorganized as Automatic Straight Air Brake, failed to qualify . Lots of resentment from the ARA folks, but ICC agreed that A-SA failed in a couple of areas in their rebuttal of the ARA report.
The articulated trains of the 30s used electric propagation, account light weight, etc. plus the wheel slip detectors etc.
BUT
The streamlined passenger trains , particularly the early Zephyrs, were short and dedicated.
The quest for 'ECP' continues with testing- and probly wishful thinking? for restricted freight use, such as ore, coal, and intermodal trains
As for the gummint folks, Nimbys and the rest, there's an oil train leaving Williston this afternoon- be under it
The first brake trials at Burlington were held in 1886.
The only results that were acceptable were produced by the Carpenter Electric-pneumatic brake.
Except for the difficulties with the electric part- when it worked it worked well, but any fault in the wiring made it ineffective.
So the MCB brake committee invited folks back for more trials over the same course 1887.
Mr. Westinghouse and IIRC [from reading] the late Mr. Eames Vacuum Brake Co presented electrically operated brakes as well as Carpenter. The WAB air brake, without electricity significantly reduced stopping length but created horrid shocks, such that WAB did not complete all the test program.
The efficacy of electric propagation was confirmed, as well as the impractability.
Mr Carpenter sold his brake in Prussia for awhile and his main inventor, Mr. Hollerith, returned to inventing tabulating machines- the IBM punch card is said to have been based on Hollerith work. In a few years WAB replaced Carpenter in Prussia. Geargoe W. spent the summer and fall of 1887 improving his brake to make it propagate at the speed of sound, without electicity, and shock was sufficiently low.
The next round of electro brake was promulgated by the Pennsy, based on extensive passenger tests in New Jersey in 1913. High speeds and big steel cars demanded more than the WAB High Speed brake could deliver, so PRR adopted electric air brakes and clasp brakes on all wheels- that's 24 shoes/car. Part of the solution came from the quest to delete flammables from car lighting- oil acetylene and Pintsch tended to set fire to wood cars in a wreck. Perfection of the electric connections consumed a coupla decades
About the time the K brake was 'perfected', California Valve and Air Brake of Los Angeles was developing an alternative, and eventually PO'd the RR industry by demonstrating the improvement that could be made. So ICC held hearings and a new series of tests was begun by ARA , mostly on the SP in Oregon. hundreds of runs were made and up to 160 cars used. Testing concluded in the early 30s on the PRR a& C&O and the AB specification was adopted in 1933- it took 20 years to retire all other brakes from interchange. CV&AB, reorganized as Automatic Straight Air Brake, failed to qualify . Lots of resentment from the ARA folks, but ICC agreed that A-SA failed in a couple of areas in their rebuttal of the ARA report.
The articulated trains of the 30s used electric propagation, account light weight, etc. plus the wheel slip detectors etc.
BUT
The streamlined passenger trains , particularly the early Zephyrs, were short and dedicated.
The quest for 'ECP' continues with testing- and probly wishful thinking? for restricted freight use, such as ore, coal, and intermodal trains
As for the gummint folks, Nimbys and the rest, there's an oil train leaving Williston this afternoon- be under it
