"Bottling the Air"

[NW Mailing List]

What was done at Bluefield was simply a variation of what they still do in 
"hump" yards (where retarders are used instead of riders). Which makes me wonder 
- how do they go about releasing the brakes on cars that are humped? I can see 
the men working the cut levers at the Radnor hump in Nashville, but I don't see 
them doing anything with the angle cocks. In Bluefield there were riders in 
proportion to the length of the cut to do the braking, and there was a big motor 
car which brought the riders back up to the scale house. Once in awhile, not 
enough riders would get on a cut, and there would be a big derailment when the 
cut got down to the cars already at the east end.
     As to the length of time to pump up an entire train, that is why N&W put 
the second air pump on the S1a's and retrofitted the S1's. I can remember a 
railroader saying that the first S1's assigned to Williamson took a long time to 
pump up the train. (they were accustomed to the two pumps on a Z1a) Shortly 
afterward, the 200 came out of Roanoke with two pumps. How C&O got by with one 
pump all those years is a mystery. They obviously had a different operating 
philosophy from N&W.    Jim Nichols




________________________________
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Mon, October 25, 2010 10:12:46 AM
Subject: Re: "Bottling the Air"

Gene 

Technically I would seriously doubt that.

What was done on what you saw, and someone who actually was a brakeman/conductor 
like Jeff could confirm. In Bluefield yard, and other places, the cars were set 
out on tracks, and a certain number of cars had hand brakes tied down. That 
would depend on the size of the cut as to how many brakes were tied down. Once 
hand brakes were tied down, the switch engine would cut off, the air on the cut 
was dumped, causing an emergency application, but hand brakes had already been 
applied. Over time, the air system would leak off, depending on how long they 
had sat.

Once the yard shifter came in and coupled on to the cut, and applied its 
independent brake (for the locomotive) to hold it all in place. The brake 
systems on the cars had probably sat long enough that most if not all the air 
had bleed off the system, but the brakemen would walk along the cut to the 
triple valve on each car, and bleed off the remaining air, to release all air 
brakes. The brakemen did not couple the air line, therefore the hand brakes were 
all that would hold the cut. The hand brakes would still be on, once the air had 
been bleed, the brakemen would go along and release the hand brakes, the switch 
engine would pull back out, with the cut, into the clear, then shove the cut 
towards where they were to be put, if they were sorting cars, one man would pull 
the cut lever between the cars, and a brakeman would ride the cut, if needed for 
controlling the speed with the hand brake, while the cars rolled down into its 
track and couple with the other cars in that track, the brakeman would tie down 
the hand brakes, and the go back and do it again with another cut, etc.

Generally handing rolling cars, not coupled to a locomotive, was rarely done 
with air in the system. As Harry reported, air pumping can take some time to 
fill the entire train line. You used to see with the diesels, running at high 
RPMs while standing, the engineer, is running the diesel up to run the 
compressor faster, and pump air through the train quicker. A number of factors 
can determine how long it takes to pump a train, including, of course, train 
length, cold weather, how many leaks are in the system and how much initial 
terminal time that crew wants to report on their time sheet! I've heard of 
occasions where it would take several hours of pumping time to release all the 
brakes in a coal train.

In my younger days, when I was riding my bicycle down to the track, I'd sit and 
watch, and see eastbound coal trains get stopped by the signal at VN before 
going into South Yard, once the signal cleared, it might take them 30-45 minutes 
to pump air before they moved, and that was in good weather. They were great 
days, and I wish I had the interest and time to do that today, but alas, I have 
neither today.

Ken Miller


On Oct 25, 2010, at 9:12 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

Ken;

> 

>Bluefield had a natural grade in both the East and West yard with the high point 

>being in the area of the Round House. I remember as a young fellow in the East 

>End of Bluefield, watching the "yard shifters" sorting the cars. There would 

>be a number of cars released to freely roll to an appointed switch to make up 

>trains. The Yard brakeman with his brake stick would control the speed until 

>making couple with the other cars. I remember watching the men try to time the 

>coupling just right and jump up in the air so as to miss the coming jolt of the 

>sudden stop. I assume that free roll had to be done by "bottling the air", which 

>was a common practice even in the late 50's. Also I remember watching "road 

>shifters" push cars up to a speed and then stopping the locomotive allowing the 

>cars to run freely though a switch, either coming to a stop on their own, or 

>making couple with other cars.

>

>Gene Arnold 

> 

>

>"Bottling the air" which I think, is now prohibited by most rule  

>books, means to close the angle cock (air line) on both ends of the  

>car or cut of cars before separating them from the train. That way,  

>air stays in the system, and does not dump the air to emergency on  

>that car or cut of cars. It is, among other things, made to speed up  

>operations, as with air already in the train line of those cars, it  

>means that the locomotive air compressor, does not have to run as long  

>to pump air back into the system, which can be a considerable amount  

>of time, meaning the crew can get underway sooner.

>

>If the air is dumped from the car or cars, it sets those brake systems  

>into emergency, and to release those brakes, the air system has to be  

>pumped up again from the locomotive. By bottling the air, it means  

>that only hand brakes, or chocks may be holding the cut of cars in  

>place, which can lead to a drift off, or runaway, or difficulty  

>coupling if the brakes are not holding well.

>

>Ken Miller

>

>

>________________________________________

>NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

>To change your subscription go to

>http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

>Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

>http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20101025/4afa9284/attachment.html>