safety
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:06 pm
ChrisW,
In the early days of railroading before the invention of the Westinghouse airbrake (patented in 1872; made mandatory in 1893) brakemen were needed to apply, and then release, the brakes on each car in the train. The head end brakeman rode in the engine; the rear brakeman rode in the caboose. When the engineer gave the whistle signal to apply brakes, both brakemen could spring into action. Without a caboose, it would take twice as long to apply the brakes on the train, and also to release the brakes when the engineer wanted to pick up speed.
Until the days of dynamic braking on diesels (and electric engines), extra braking was needed when descending lengthy steep sections of track. The train would come to a complete stop at the top of the grade, and the two brakemen would walk the train and turn up the retainers on all, or a certain percentage, of the freight cars. This helped to maintain steady braking on the descent. At the bottom of the grade, the train had to stop again and the brakemen turned the retainer handles back down before proceeding. This contributed greatly to safer train handling in the mountains.
The increased surveillance of the train from the caboose, as Orange46 mentioned, became espcially helpful as train lengths increased and it was no longer possible to see the whole train from the headend.
In the early days of railroading before the invention of the Westinghouse airbrake (patented in 1872; made mandatory in 1893) brakemen were needed to apply, and then release, the brakes on each car in the train. The head end brakeman rode in the engine; the rear brakeman rode in the caboose. When the engineer gave the whistle signal to apply brakes, both brakemen could spring into action. Without a caboose, it would take twice as long to apply the brakes on the train, and also to release the brakes when the engineer wanted to pick up speed.
Until the days of dynamic braking on diesels (and electric engines), extra braking was needed when descending lengthy steep sections of track. The train would come to a complete stop at the top of the grade, and the two brakemen would walk the train and turn up the retainers on all, or a certain percentage, of the freight cars. This helped to maintain steady braking on the descent. At the bottom of the grade, the train had to stop again and the brakemen turned the retainer handles back down before proceeding. This contributed greatly to safer train handling in the mountains.
The increased surveillance of the train from the caboose, as Orange46 mentioned, became espcially helpful as train lengths increased and it was no longer possible to see the whole train from the headend.