Re: Disneyland brake question

For what it is worth, I don't think that Disneyland is using a "trailer" or "truck" style braking system on its trains (ie, one where springs are used to hold the brakes on at all times and air pressure is used to release them)

I base this on a couple of observations from the video;

First, during the night maintenance sequence, you can see the mechanic grab and wiggle the brake beam on one of the cars and it is clearly loose and moving. This is how you would expect a typical train brake system, be it straight air or automatic to behave when there is no air in the system and the handbrake on that particular car is not set.

Secondly, when the locomotive and or train are moving in the video, the air pressure gauge in the cab shows the red needle (generally main reservoir pressure) at around 80psi, while the black needle (generally train line/brake pipe pressure) at 0psi. When the locomotive is stopped, the red needle is still at about 80psi and the black needle is at about 20psi. That is typical of a straight air system. (In a truck or spring brake system, the brake pipe pressure would be at 0psi when stopped and would increase to whatever pressure was needed to overcome the springs when the train was moving. In an automatic air brake system, the reservoir and brake pipe pressures would be at least equal when the train was moving and the brake pipe pressure would be reduced as the train was slowing or stopped.)

Also notice that there is only one brake pressure gauge. In a locomotive with automatic air there are two, one for the locomotive's brakes (independent) which are straight air and one for the train brake which is automatic air. There is only one brake handle and valve in the Disney locomotive as well, and it looks like a straight air or independent valve. A locomotive with automatic air would have two handles/valves, one for the independent/locomotive brake and one for the train brake.

Jason Midyette