Shunting fitted stock?

=>Folks, =>

=>As title, how was this done? Specifically at lot of shunting engines were =>unfitted but surely there were times when stock had to be moved around to =>make up a train, thinking of the interwar period was there some device on =>fitted stock that locked off the brakes enabling them to be pushed and =>pulled around or was it a case having to use an engine fitted with the =>appropriate braking system?

A worker would go along the cut of cars and make sure that the brakes were off. There's a hand-operated valve on fitted stock that does this. Engine brakes (and sometimes a brakevan) were used to brake the train. When the train was assembled, the fitted stocks' vacuum lines were connected. AFAIK, trains of mixed fitted and unfitted stock were rare -- short, local runs only.

Now that all stock is fitted, the same problem exists, and the same solution

- a man/woman on the ground who walks up and down the train setting and unsetting brakes as needed.

HTH

Chris the shunter would get down beside the fitted whatever and destroy the vacuum by pulling on a wire after the vehicle had been moved it could be parked with a screwdown or lever brake.

Paul

...

Sitting there watching one of my little shunters shift a parcels van to the front of some passenger stock I just got to wondering, "How on earth can it do that?" It was just one of those silly things that niggle 'till you've had the definitive answer.

"Paul Stevenson" <

Called "Pulling the strings"

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

"Paul Stevenson" wrote

I may be way off tack here but I was under the impression that in a fail-safe braking system, including vacuum braking, the effect of applying the vacuum was to release the brakes. Release the vacuum and the brakes come on.

I recall reading somewhere in the distant past that on loco's with faulty vacuum ejectors it sometimes proved impossible to generate enough vacuum to release the brakes.

If this is true Paul, your hypothesis is totally wrong.

John.

"John Turner"

You need to read up on how vacuum, and for that matter, airbrakes work, as the principles of both are the same, but different.

Simply put, both vacuum and airbrakes rely on a balance between reservoirs. To apply the brakes, you reduce the pressure/vacuum on one side of the brake piston, and the brakes apply. Reapply the vacuum/air pressure and the brakes release. Equilibrium = brakes released.

To move a fitted vehicle, you destroy the vacuum/air pressure by uncoupling the brake pipe. This will apply the brake automatically. On each vehicle, you then destroy the vacuum/air pressure in the reservoir on each vehicle. "Pulling the strings", you now have no brake pipe pressure and no reservoir vacuum/air pressure on the vehicle. result, brake cylinder now is equalised (No pressure either side of the piston) and the thus you have no brakes.

The above is very simply put.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

The release cord releases the vacuum (or air if it's air braking) in the Vacuum (or Auxiliary) reservoir - This being de - pressurised (or pressurised) is what keeps the brakes on - see

for Vacuum info and

for air info.

At the railway I work at (Ruislip Lido Railway,

) we use air braking in the same way as shewn on the page above, with release buttons (as opposed to cords) to allow coaches etc. to roll freely without trainpipe pressure (eg: when hand - shunting)

R M S

Indeed Roger!

excuse me if this had already been made clear but..........

i as i remember it when were making up a train, i occasionally would find a wagon that would not move, the brakes were locked on solid !, after scratching my head and then checking the hand brake was off, i would remember to pull the string (indicated by star painted on the sole bar) and as if by magic and a slight hiss the wagon would move.

cheers david a. pritchard

Paul Stevens>

"Roger T." wrote

reservoirs.

OK, I stand corrected. :-)

John.

"Chris Wilson" wrote Sitting there watching one of my little shunters shift a parcels van to the

Chris Wilson

Chris, Prototypically, unless the wagon was also vacuum braked, it would not go between the loco and coaches as this would mean an unfitted train (Unless the wagon were through piped, i.e the vacuum pipes at both end, but not actually braked). The said wagon would run after the coaches and be termed where I work as a "swinger". I have seen this done on a preservation line and to aid the braking, a brake van was added after the wagon which was after the coaches.

Hope this helps... Any more advice, buzz me off list!

-- Andy Sollis Churnet Valley Model Railway Department (Remove the Standard Tank from E-mail to reply)