The issue of blended brakes is something (thankfully) I never experienced (I left RR before introduction). I very much liked "old school" stretch-them westbound stops (and resulting in no-slack take-offs). Similar to my training (by - in my opinion - the best ex-Q air brake/speed running wizards) on freights. Slow down as stretched as conditions/situations/tonnage allowed.
Not to say dynamic brakes/bunched braking did not have their role. Just not as the default method. When I left, the company was pressuring use of that style in all situations.
Doug
I worked the dinkies in rain service in the late '90s, but never in engine service. I had gotten cut off by closing the Cicero hump, and scabbing out the Fox River. I went into engine service in Galesburg.
When I was working the Galseburg-Chicago pool, we stayed downtown, just outside the Loop. I walked over to CUS a few times, and rode a rounder out to Aurora with my old crew.
The engineers said that the cars had been converted to composition shoes about the time the F40s came. One time while riding the head end the engineer was showing me his present mark for certain stations. A little ways down, he said that such-and-such had been where his old mark with cast shoes was.
i believe that the E units and coaches had electro-pneumatic brakes. The stand in the engines looks similar to a 24RL. I don't know how the cab cars were configured.
The F40s have blended brake. The dynamic brakes come on automatically when the air is set. They did not have a dynamic brake handle on the control stands, so the dynamic brakes only work with the blended brake. The Winnebago units have desk control stands with 30CDW brakes, while the older ones have 26L.
The cab cars were also converted to 30 brake schedule. The controllers were older EMD.
The
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, GLEN HAUG <glenehaug@...> wrote:
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> The following comments are strictly from a 'non-expert', observational point of view, because my railroading background is Engineering. I never operated a locomotive and I rode E-9's only when they were green and were rebuilt. I did observe the E's of old on numerous Zephyrs in and out of Lincoln, from my dormitory room on 14th Street, in the years 1966 to 1969. Some of the comments are a little nostalgic, but I think still accurate. In the CB&Q days, it seemed to me that the E Units were louder but mellower, if that is possible. Perhaps the loudness was because most of the trains I observed had multiple units, with 3 or 4 units on many occasions. I particularly remember one occasion where I observed the westbound Empire Builder - North Coast Limited south of Maiden Rock. I could pick up the sound between 30 seconds to a minute prior to the train appearing, in spite of the curves. From a braking standpoint, it seemed to me that the old E's could brake hard and fast, regardless of disc or clasp brakes. The re-builds seemed to brake slower after they went away from cast iron shoes. At Lincoln in the late 60's, there was still a lot of westbound Zephyr traffic at night, with #11, #43, and #17, and even #1 if I was up that late. When the window was open on warm nights, and if the wind was coming from the east, you could hear the whistle from as far away as Havelock. When the whistle was sounded at Adams St., 27th and 17th, it was clear that the train speed was still high. At 14th Street, the speed was usually still between 30 and 40, motors at idle but still very audible, and braking heavy to get speed down to 10 mph at 10th Street. Regarding the rebuilds, I paid more attention to their performance during the twilight of their careers, because by that time, some of my Engineering responsibilities involved track design for commuter rail, and included things like optimum turnout/crossover location and size in relationship to station stops, etc. Concerning acceleration, I can only compare the E-9's to the Metra units, not the E's of old. With a short train (6 cars or less), they were quicker off the line, and appeared to out-perform the F-40's for some distance at least, but would fairly quickly lose against the MP-36's. I think their initial quickness was due to their transition capability, which occurred at 24 mph if memory serves me correctly. The E-9's appeared to reach transition very quickly (with a short train), usually within 500 feet from start. Time to transition increased somewhat with a loaded 6 car train vs. one that was empty, and the time increased dramatically with 9 or 10 cars. This may have been from the lack of shear horsepower for a single unit. The rebuilds must have had a governor, also. It seemed on express runs that you could continue to run them wide open and they would never seem to get beyond 70 mph. I know nothing technical about the brakes, but prior to the discontinuance of the cast iron shoes, I thought the braking ability of the rebuilds was phenomenal. Braking was so good that you could run up on a control point at track speed, and reduce to turnout speed within the distance of the interlocking, provided that the interlocking was long enough and the crossover you were going to use was at far end of the interlocking. The best example of this that I remember was crossing over Main 2 to Main 1 at Fairview Avenue for a stop at Downers Grove Main Street. Also in the cast iron shoe era, you could cross over and then moderately increase speed and still get stopped at places like LaGrange, Hinsdale, and Downers Grove. After cast iron shoes were discontinued, I didn't see as much of this, although it may have been the particular trains I observed, or fuel savings or something else I don't know about. Regarding braking on the old E's, I do remember one Zephyr trip that includes a story that may be related to braking ability. On a Spring weekend in 1967, I went to Denver, and rode the California Zephyr back to Lincoln. We left Denver about 4 hours late, and I was riding in the head vista dome when we approached Fort Morgan. As we prepared to stop, we were still doing something like 40 mph when we were 500 feet west of the station. Evidently no one was getting on or off, because the station agent/operator (or someone) gave the engineer the hi-ball with a light, and off we went without stopping. Whether the engineer knew that he did not need to stop, I don't know. However, if he was intending to stop, he evidently knew he had good brakes, as quick as he was running up on the station. These are some of my memories, hopefully accurate. Glen Haug
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