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THE BRAKE .TESTRecapitulation of the Result* by a Competent Writer.The Kailway Master Mechanic prints the following report of the competitive tests of freight car brakes held near this city thi9 summer:The tests by freight train brakes, undertaken by the special committee on that subject of the Master Car Builders’ Association began at Burlington, Iowa, July 13. They continued through three weeks, and are now completed. Of the five companies which brought their trains to engage in theSontest, viz.: The American, Eames, Rote, Westingbouse, and Widdetield Button, the Rote has not practically entered into the contest at all. Preliminary 'trials on the ground convinced the managers of this Company that changes would have to be made in the apparatus before it could accomplish what they expected of it.The Widdifleld Button representatives entered into the trial with 25 car trains, but the records made by them on the first 50 car train test in which they took part were not encouraging, and they uudertook no others. This brake, like the others of the buffer class, as stated below, failed to hold evenly on the wheels during stops, and showed a lack of power on the grade.The American Brake company pluck-ily took its turns on the program with 25 and 50-car trains, but every run, especially with long trains, showed that there were imperfections to be overcome before the brake would be satisfactorily adapted to alljconditions of railway freight traffic. It must be added that these imperfections seemed to be common to all the independent brakes. With trains of 25 cars, and still more with those of 50 cars, the effort to hold the trains to a moderate speed on a down grade was a practical failure. In a run of this kind with the American brake, in an attempt to hold the train to a speed of 15 miles per hour, down the 55 feet grade, there was a constant succession of shocks and lurches, much too severe for stock trains.The buffer brakes clearly failed to exert sufficient braking power on the down grade. The indications are that the retarding force exerted by the locomotive with its driver and tender brakes was very considerable on level track, and that the comparative absence of this help on the grade greatly increased the distance of the stop. If our railways had no grades or only slight ones, the task of producing a satisfactor buffer brake would be a much but one bunching of cars, and consequently one shock, though sometimes there would be a second one, far more severe than the first. Tests made with trains so coupled as to reduce the slack to a minimum showed a large decrease of shocks, thus scoring a point for the hook couplers. It is not impossible that much of the imperfection in the working of the buffer brakes may disappear if slack can be eliminated from long and heavy freight trains. The extent to which draw bars can be compressed also appears to be an item of some importance. There were indications that the trains whose draw-bars were capable of only slight compression did not show as severe shocks as did those which permitted more variation in the space between the cars.The Westinghouse air brake and the Eames vacuum brake were the only continuous brake systems entered for the tests.The Westinghouse surpassed all the other competitors in the completeness of the perfection of its equipment and the familiarity of its representatives with their duties. Those upon whom devolved the handling of the brakes bad an invaluable practice in all that was required to bring out the full efficiency of the system in all the tests. While it is believed that no train of fifty cars, each loaded with twenty ton9, had ever before been handled with this brake, it is in extended use on the freight equip ment of many roads, and long and heav trains are being handled with it every day down the grades of the great mountain and Pacific coast lines. Its representatives, when they began the tests knew fairly well from actual experience what the system could be depended on to accomplish.Doubt as to the possibility of controlling loaded trains of 60 cars with continuous brakes need no longer exist. When, on the morning of July 24, the Westinghouse train of 50 cars,each with a 20-ton load, thundered along the track and swept down the 54 foot grade, making each stop smoothly, in short distances, and practically without shock, the fact that such trains can be handled by continuous brakes in all the exigencies of the service, was shown for the first time, but it was shown conclusively. .The same fact was demonstrated by the Eames vacuum train, which in similar circumstauces made in these run records which fully satisfy all those v identified with it, or interested successYet it should be said that it is very doubtful whether the brakes on the rear third of a 50 car train, in either of the two systems, exert much effective retarding force. Although the gauges on the last car always indicated nearly as as. much air or vacuum pressure as those at the front end, and showed that the brakes were on in from 14 to 19 seconds, other facts lead to the belief that the stops were made before the rear brakes were effectively applied. It was certainly shown that 50 car trains could be well handled if the brakes were cut out of the last twenty cars.The general facts established by the tests, as regards the systems taking part in them, may be summarized as follows^1. Continuous brakes, operated by air, can be applied to and released from the wheels of trains of fifty cars with all the promptness required in the ser-SII2. Brakes operated by compression of the draw-bar may be used with a good degree of success upon trains not exceeding 25 cars, if handled intelligently. To be used on long trains, some device must be contrived by which the brakes will be steadily held to the wheels during the whole stop.3. In running down grades, the buffer brakes do not show retarding power relatively proportioned to that which they exhibit on level track, or to that shown by the continuous brakes or down grades.4. The comparatively gradual put ting on of the full power of continuous brakes in what are called service” stops is sufficient to meet all or nearly all the exigencies of service. The records show that these stops, or, at least, many of them, are made in ju9t about the same distance as the corresponding emergency” stops, while the injurious shocks which accom pany the latter are avoided if the brakes are applied with a fair degree of skill.5. The proper handling of long freight trains with either continuous or buffei brakes, requires a coupling device which shall largely decrease the amounl of slack caused by the use of the ordi narn link and pin. This proposition ist perhaps, not absolutely established by the tests, but its truth .is ce.tainly indicated.
Newspaper Details
Burlington Daily Gazette
Burlington, Iowa, US
Sat, Sep 11, 1886
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Burlington P.
IA, USA 02 Feb 2025
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