Bill:
I agree with Pete's assessment regarding the spinning
brakewheel. Perhaps the only thing spinning during the writing of
the story were distilled spirits....
Hand, air and vacuum; straight, automatic, and electric; early
experiments with steam; all make sense. I can't imagine a
spinning brakewheel, especially if connected to the brake rods
by a chain! Given the energy needed to just move brake rigging, I
can't imagine that mechanism driving a brakewheel.
Now, if the brakeman was clubbing the wheel with all his might
and the wheel or pipe broke free.... I can see the wheel spinning
and the club and its owner flying!
Ed DeRouin
--- In BRHSlist@y..., "William Franckey" <budapest@g...> wrote:
> Greetings List,
> I have a tough question for the group concerning braking
systems on Q freight trains, mid-1882........I've found a recorded
story involving a Peoria freight coming into Galesburg that
needed to make an emergency stop. The engineer whistled out
signals for the brakemen's application of handbrakes AND he
"turned the steam into the pipe." From the way this was written, it
leads one to think of a trainlined mechanism that connected
each boxcar's handbrake to the actions of the engineer's steam
application.
> Given the low steam pressure in a small boiler and the
physical requirement of 10 to 20 cars this story is perplexing.
This particular brake wheel had been previously twisted up. The
article goes on to explain the results of the handbrake wheel
spinning as the steam is applied to the pipe? This action
caused a brakeman to be spun off the top of the car as the
brakeman had the misfortune to be sitting on top of the brake
wheel itself. There seems to have been some odd attempts at
braking systems just before the initial attempts of engine and/or
train air but I've never heard of anything like this.......any ideas,
anybody? Bill
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