"Bottling the Air"

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Mon Oct 25 13:35:22 EDT 2010


When I was a teenager watching the LIRR crews on the Babylon Freight switch
the team track in Massapequa, they showed us a little "L" shaped rod that
stuck out to the side of the car from the triple valve. If you pulled it
out, the air was bled out of the brake cylinder. You experienced operating
folks will have to tell us whether that was the universal way to prepare a
cut for humping or "kicking."

Dave Phelps


In a message dated 10/25/2010 1:13:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:


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


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