NPR does a brief story regarding electric brakes

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6526322

2

I heard this. It talked about the addition of electrical brakes to regular air brakes. The guy talking about it was making some pretty bold claims about how quickly the trains would stop under new system.

3

A big part of the industry’s resistance to electric activated brakes has to do with cost and availability.

The more you complicate a machine, or any mechanical part, the more likely it is to fail.

The current brake system has very few moving parts, and those parts ore huge, almost over engineered.

They are rugged, and can take quite a pounding.

What they are discussing is a modification to the brake valve, and the manner it is activated.

Currently, the valves are cheap, relative to other parts for a railcar, easy to inspect, and very easy to maintain.

A good car man can swap out a set of brake shoes in minutes, with nothing but a simple pry bar.

He can swap out a bad valve with a simple set of hand tools in almost the same amount of time.

The new electrical system will also require an additional connection between cars, which creates one more point for problems to occur, and one more thing to be inspected.

Having said all that, I still think it will be within my career time that some form of electrical activated brake system will become, if not the standard, much more common.

4

I believe that was FRA Boardman and he may have “slightly” overstated the possible reduction in stopping distances. The whole cost benefit thing is laid out in the FRA report, along with the operational benefits and things that need to be addressed in getting the system up and operational.

5

  1. Does this have some kind of fail/safe mode – if the electrics go out, does it degrade gracefully to standard air brakes?

  2. After John Kneiling’s ideas some 40 years ago in Integral Train Systems, Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, doesn’t this have initial application in captive service like coal unit trains (the very heavy and the loaded/empty issue) and intermodals (high speed)?

6

You can find the full story at:

http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/1713

then hit the link to the Booz Allen Hamilton Report. (1.08MB pdf)