>Wilson wouldn't be amused about my opinion of ABDW. Since 8 came first, 24 should be the hangover.

Never had one , , , well errrr only once.

>Not sure what you call 22,

a PIA. Just watching IRM recover from an emergency in their Q E unit and what they told me about a certain spring and the tolerances of the values of force it produces . . .

>"24 (for pass cars)" - did you mean 22?

Yah, - - - I was typing from memory and forgot about the D-22-PTE diagram I have (not to mention the 'struction manuals on my shelf).

>As I recall, U12 does use a port to control the air acting on the bottom of the slide valve to change its sensitivity in some positions.

More than one, as I recall.

>I heard that Wabco had promoted the U12 to become standard for both freight and passenger use, but either NYC or Pennsy (I don't remember which) refused the idea and since they had a substantial percentage of the US freight car fleet at the time the idea failed.

1) to complex, 2) too expensive, 3) to difficult to maintain, which is one of the reasons why D-22 was developed --labor shortage of WWII--or so I've been told by someone in the industry.

>There was an effort to convert the service piston on AB to diaphragm, (ABC?)

I think so. AB-1B was some sort of foolishness with aluminum components. During WWII, WABCo used phenolic for some bushings (seen this in a 6-E and a #15 DCV from that era).

For our readers: contrary to popular belief, "AB" stands for "Automatic, Balancing" [control valve], not "Air Brake" [control valve].

>Wabco did build on set of 25, 24 converted to piston valve. Supposed to be one set installed on a loco for one trip before being considered a failure.

Ply me with some decent Speight's, and I'll look this up in my Designation Committee tome (an approximate date would help).

One thing our readers need to understand: WABCo developed all kinds of designs which were sequentially numbered from A-1. The only ones you hear about here are the ones they released for sale and use. For example, there were U-4, U-5, control valves and things like A-7-ET (for the NSWGR), which were released commercially. 9-ET was a failed design which was not released.

>I am reasonably sure the original 26 actually came out of the transit side. A friend found an early 26 control valve with a release rod connection on the bottom cover plate. I found a transit parts list for a 26 (no suffix!) engineer's valve, a little primitive but clearly recognizable. It is believed the first 26 systems were used on some early train-set designs (Aerotrain?), should be in the early-mid 1950s.

Transit. Hmmmm. Well Spartansburg doesn't make mistakes, just ask them.

>>Let the air out of the pipe, and the brakes apply? ;>)

>Only if the auxiliary reservoirs have enough air in them!

Details, details

> >Let the air out of the pipe, and the brakes apply. Simple -- haven't gotten it down to any fewer words. Physics?? It's the universal gas law, which is a combination of Charles's Law, Gay-Lussac's Law, and Boyle's Law (also throw in Avogadro's Law).

>And then there are those that don't think the laws of physics apply to them and realize too late ...

I'd comment ont his but 1) there isn't enough space on Altamont's servers and 2) it would be deleted because of those four letter words, so vulgar, salacious and obscene (and never mind considerations of becoming off-topic).

>> Right now it's dark, but it's neither cold nor raining. My keyboard works jut fine, so I had to resort to a brewski or three to have fun.

>My ancestors are from Kentucky and Tennessee - I prefer something stronger than barley pop.

Tennessee Prune Juice (senior grade). Ikkkkk.

>You can't imagine how much trouble I had trying to get BN to take a carload of beer back. Anheuser-Busch refused the "empty" we spotted them as it was still full of someone else's beer. BN's kept saying - "The computer says it was released empty."

On one occasion, back in the 19-ought-60s, a boxcar with them new fangled moveable bulkheads and [supposedly] loaded with booze showed up at a customer on the SF State Belt. When the customer opened up the car, no booze [was visible]. It took the SF Harbor Police, govmint revenooers, SP Special Agents, and so on several days to be unable to figure out what happened (how did they snatch all that hooch without breaking any seals??). Finally an SP switchman came along and moved one of the bulkheads and viola! le Booze, c'est ici!