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The lead engine..ie the one in the front of the train has control of the brakes...The brake valve on the second engine is "cut out"...The brakes on the second engine operate just like the brake on the other cars in the train. There is a valve on every locomotive which is called the "cutout cock"...This takes all control of the brakes on that engine away from that engineer. If there is a "pusher" for the helper it seems that it was standard practice to not even connect the air from the last car to the helper....although I seem to recall that some roads required that the air be connected, but, of course the "feed valve" would be closed. I have never been an engineman...what I have "posited" here is strictly from "bits" of stuff I've picked up over the years...I would be delighted to hear from someone who actually knows, from experience, how this stuff works.
From what I've seen and heard the operation of helper whether on the head end or at the rear end was pretty much "by the seat of the pants" of the engineer. Those guys could feel what their engine was doing...or not doing.
Getting a heavy train started with a rear end helper was a real "act' orchestrated by an exchange of whistle signals between the engineer on the head end and the pusher.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Don don.bowen@earthlink.net [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, Aug 21, 2017 8:09 pm Subject: [CBQ] Signaling between steam locomotives I have been curious about steam locomotives whistle signals when in
helper service. Where is the lead locomotive and who has braking control? -- Don Bowen --AD0NB-- __._,_.___ Posted by: jpslhedgpeth@aol.com __,_._,___ |