Dear List, Does anyone have an idea of what kind of early passenger coaches
were used by the CB&Q in the mid to late 1850's? Were passenger cars from the
Aurora Branch extended to the CMT ? If so does anyone have an idea to the
makers name? I have some early Q reports but the information is stored out of
harm's way.
I've found some information on an earlier question put to the list in regards
to locomotive controlled, train brakes (pre-air): Momentum brakes went under
several names.....buffer, bumper, and compression brake. An early Grigg's
design involved used the motion of the train to drive a windlass which wound up
a rope or chain. An early McLaughlin self-acting buffer brake was somewhat
improved on by a Chicago inventor, Joesph Olmsted by introducing an
electromagnetic clutch. This type of arrangement appearently lost favor just
before the 1880's. Early primitive continuous brakes with a chain connecting
all cars were used in passenger service in England as late as the 1890's, but
stopped in practice far earlier in America. William Loughridge's chain brake
was another locomotive connected system was used somewhat until the late
1870's. William Creamer introduced a spring-powered brake meant for emergency
stops. As trains got heavier (passenger trains) steam, compressed air, vacuum,
electricity and hydrostatic pressure were all suggested and tried. Steam pumped
through a train needed to be high pressure which was dangerous, low pressure
tended to freeze in winter. If the Q used an water system, the cars would have
been trainlined that supported water presure which was kept constant by
locomotive steam admitted to a holding tank under the locomotive cab. Soon,
brake systems such as the Smith Brake, Eames Vacuum Brake, Westinghouse vacuum
and later air brakes began to change to change the face of railroading.
I've found some information on early electric brakes on Q private cars and hope
to uncover more on the early mechanics of Q railroading, but his is a really
thin area some hundred and forty years later. How all these different systems
might apply to Q freight in the early 1880's and before, I'm not quite sure.
After the Holidays I'll get to a stored Q report on early equipement and will
report anything interesting.
Bill
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