"Bottling the Air"

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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

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