I’ve never really gave much thought, but I would guess in the days when handbrakes were all there was, each handbrake only set one truck on the car.
I’ve collected some old Railroad Magazine issues from the 1930s and 1940s. There are letters and articles from retired railroaders reminiscing from when they were young. They somewhat dispell the conventional thinking we now have that to slow or stop a train they had to go from car to car on almost every car on the train.
Often, only a few cars need have brakes applied to slow or stop a train. Not every grade was mountain grade. Some alluded to being able to set the caboose brake from the cupola and also being able to connect a chain from the caboose to the brake on the adjacent car. They said they would try to “ballast” the caboose with extra heavy items they could scrounge. The brakeman then could control speed by setting brakes on the caboose and last car when needed without leaving the cupola.
The British developed a chain brake on this general principle in the early 1840s, and we had the Loughridge ‘graduating’ chain brake by the late 1850s. Creamer developed a spring emergency brake that could stop a car (a bit slowly) when tripped, but I suspect this was expensive to put on a freight car and potentially dangerous if tripped by mistake on an individual car while the train was running (analogous to a ‘dynamiter’ with air emergency brakes).
For sheer wacky ingenuity it would be hard to beat the Heberlein . brake, which used a cable arrangement down the length of a train. This would be winched up from a particular location (usually at the locomotive) and as tension was pulled on the cable it would lift weighted levers with what would come to be called ‘servo action’ from adjacent axles. If tension on the cable were relieved for any reason it would let the levers drop to apply the brakeshoes, and the train’s momentum would aid in pulling the levers…
Please take a look at this timeline tracing the introduction of vacuum brakes to Japanese trains, and the transition to automatic brakes. “WH” stands for Westinghouse. This is something I researched, so there may be some inaccuracies. The terminology may not be appropriate as it is translated from Japanese.
1825 UK: (Stockton & Darlington Railway begins steam locomotive service)
1831 US: (B&O begins steam locomotive service)
1833 UK: Steam brake developed (locomotives only)
184? UK: Chain brake developed (Wikipedia)
1844 UK: Vacuum brake patented (straight type, practical use unknown)
1848 UK: Straight brake invented (pneumatic type, confirmed by source)
1856 Germany: Cable brake developed (Wikipedia)
1867 US: WH invents Straight Air brake
1872 US: Vacuum brake partially introduced (Smith type & Eames type)
1872 US: WH invents Automatic Air brake
1872 Japan: (Service begins between Shinbashi and Yokohama)
1874 UK: Vacuum brake introduced (straight type, confirmed by source)
187? UK: Vacuum brake improved (double straight type)
187? UK: Vacuum brakes improved and made automatic
1878 UK: Vacuum brakes improved and increased capacity
1887 US: WH improved Automatic Air brakes and added emergency brakes
1889 UK: Continuous brakes made mandatory
1893 US: Automatic Air brakes made mandatory
1897 Japan: Vacuum brakes started to be installed on passenger cars (Wikipedia says 1886)
1900 Japan: Vacuum brakes started to be installed on freight cars (Wikipedia says 1898)
1905 US: US: WH improved Automatic Air brakes, added step release function, etc.
1906 Japan: (Railways nationalized)
1909 US: WH added emergency brake function to Automatic Air brakes
1909 Europe: International Railway Engineering Union resolved that international trains should be equipped with continuous brakes
1919 Japan: Decision made to adopt Automatic Air brakes
1921 Japan: Installation of Automatic Air brakes started
1925 Japan: (Nationwide simultaneous Automatic Knuckle couplers installed, preparations began in 1918)
1925 Japan: Installation of brake pipes for Automatic Air brakes completed
1931 Japan: Automatic Air brakes started to be used on all trains (some cars were left without brake cylinders, Wikipedia says October 1930
There are other videos like the one @BaltACD introduced, and many photographs remain. There is also a similar scene in a movie called “Emperor of the North Pole.” Therefore, it is generally believed that on North American railroads, brakemen walked around on roofwalks, operating the hand brakes on moving freight cars. Many people in our country also believe this.
But think about it. Have you ever stood on a speeding train without holding on to the handrails? Furthermore, have you ever walked? You’ve probably stumbled from side to side. That was in a comfortable passenger car. However, this video is on the roof of a freight car, which was shaking violently. What’s more, the aisle is only 20 inches wide.
Brakemen were not called out on stormy days, and engineers applied the brakes slowly. Trains were suspended on rainy or snowy days. Plus, North American workers were all superhuman with outstanding athletic ability. And their human lives were cheap.
These videos and images are pure fact. Is it true?
By the way, do visitors to this thread think that the purpose of the “tell-tale” was to warn the brakemen on the roof? The Wikipedia author seems to think so, as does the site he referenced. In other words, they think that the owners and managers of the railroads were such cruel people.
So why were there “tell-tale” on roads and highways for cars? Were brakemen on trucks and buses too?
In the days before air brakes the speed of freight trains was generally less than 30 MPH - most were in the 10 to 15 MPH range. Walking on roof tops is in fact difficult, however, at slower speeds it is routinely possible. We have all heard the stories about a Brakeman’s experience being gauged by how many fingers he still had on his hand.
Perused a ‘Railway Age’ a number of years ago. In their ‘100 Years Ago’ snippet column a reference was made railroad employee fatalities - the reference stated that the number was in the two thousands and it was also stated that number was a sizable decrease from fatalities in the prior year.
Brakemen in the days before air brakes most certainly were called out in all weather conditions to operate hand brakes. In the winter they would try to clear the roof walks, at least on the ends of cars, from any snow or ice best they could before starting out of a terminal. They would try to throw sand, ashes, or anything else they could find on the ends of roof walks to improve traction when going from one car to another.
As Balt said, most early freight trains were slow. 20 mph was fast. On some days and locations, a few brakes applied were enough. In other places and bad weather, more were needed. Then there was the dreaded “broke in two.” Trainmen on the rear portion had to get out and stop the rear end from running into the back end. (This is still a concern today. Engines are equipped with a 20 second delay before they go to idle when the train goes into emergency caused by something happening back in the train. To allow the head end to pull away from the rear end.) It was the development of power braking systems that allowed trains to get longer, heavier and faster.
Roof walks weren’t outlawed until about 1966, allowed in interchange until about 1978. Even after air brakes were on every car and were deemed reliable, trainmen still had to “deckorate” the tops at time. Hand brake wheels remained high, but moved to the end of the car. The retaining valve was kept next to the brake wheel. Brakemen could walk the tops turning up or down retainers as needed. Another reason to go high was to use or pass hand signals to the engineer in days before trainmen had portable radios.
I started writing my fantasy novel four years ago, and thanks to all of you, I’m pretty close to finishing it. I’m almost there. Please wait a while until it’s released.
Tell Tails existed BECAUSE men were expected to be near or on the tops of cars and conditions shortly after the tell tails would not clear a man on the top of a car. Tell Tails were a safety device to warn brakemen of a up coming obstruction, which could kill them.
Another situation where Brakemen were in mortal danger was in poling cars - ie. moving cars on an adjacent track with motive power on a different track. Brakemen aligned a ‘poling pole’ between the poling pocket on a car or engine on its track and align the pole with the poling pocket of the car on the adjacent track and hold it until both ends were in contact with their respective pieces of equipment. As the equipment was being shoved, the pole could drop out if tension wasn’t kept on it and if too much pressure was placed on the pole it could be shattered - in both cases the brakeman could end up injured or dead.
Compare this with the original provisions of the Power Brake Law in the United States – which as I recall was 1908.
For a long while during the freight transition to one-pipe Westinghouse braking, it was normal for many cars to have just a through hose for continuity, with no expensive components otherwise. The unbraked cars as I recall were supposed to be ‘blocked’ in the front of a train where possible.
Chalk me up to read the novel when it comes out in English translation.
The PRR Federal in January 1953 proved that an engine and 4 cars with operative brakes weren’t sufficient to stop at train entering Washington Union Station slowing down from track speed
Dad was working Inaugural duty in DC at the time and took me down to the basement to see what was taking place.
If I recall correctly, one of the cocks had opened by being repeatedly smacked by nearby equipment and therefore the cars had no brakes at all. It was in “Train Wrecks” Kalmbach 2012(?)
Had the anglecocks ALL remained opened things would have been fine. The anglecock closed and did not permit the brakes to apply on the read 13 cars of the 16 car train.
