This subject was brought up in the thread on Sumpter Valley/Utah & Northern cabooses, so as to not hijack that thread here is the documentation I have on hand. Hopefully it is illuminating on the question of straight air vs. automatic brakes. It seems the company was testing automatic Westinghouse brakes as early as 1881 but it took several years to make them standard.
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G.W. Cushing, Superintendent of Motive Power of the Northern Pacific Railroad
“As to automatic brakes, I have very decided views, and do not hesitate to express a preference for them on all cars and on all trains, and for the Westinghouse system as a whole.
“I did have doubts about the automatic system as applied to freight trains until a trial of a freight train fitted with them was had, under my charge, on the Veta Mountain (211 ft. grade) of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway during 1881. I then became convinced, and in actual practice since on this line have seen nothing to change my opinion.”
“Automatic Freight Train Brakes,” The Railroad Gazette 4 December 1885 p769.
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Eighteenth Annual Convention of the Master Car-Builders Association
MR. McILWAIN - I don’t think railroad companies are ready yet to take up that question [if automatic brakes should be universally required]. I don’t think the automatic freight car brake has come before us yet.
MR. HACKNEY - We [Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe] have only just commenced putting those brakes on. We have about 800 on. But we have not yet applied them on a train. We are putting them on at a rate of 25 a day on our entire freight equipment.
MR. BISSELL - Is anybody here from the Central Pacific road? I understand that the automatic brakes are largely used on that line.
MR. HACKNEY - I would say this: I know that on the Denver & Rio Grande they have been running Westinghouse automatic brakes for years. They have found them a perfect success.
“Report of Committee on Automatic Freight Car Brakes,” Report of the Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the Master Car-Builders Association 10-12 June 1884 p122.
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Railroad Gazette
Our next classification is the air brake, representing which we have taken the Westinghouse automatic. It is by far the most expensive brake, costing $50 per car, exclusive of fitting up, in addition to which it is necessary the engine be fitted with an air pump, which for each engine and tender entails and additional outlay of $360. The brake, however, is very effective, and the only one your Committee considers comes properly under the heading of automatic. Notwithstanding the cost of the Westinghouse, we find it the most largely introduced. Up to May 18 [1885], the following orders have been fulfilled:
Central Pacific…10,600
Denver & Rio Grande…30
Union Pacific (11,580 ordered)...2,800
In addition to the above, 6,806 sets of the Westinghouse non-automatic brakes are in use on the freight cars of different lines, one of which is the Denver & Rio Grande.
“Report on Automatic Freight Car Brakes,” The Railroad Gazette 19 June 1885 p386
Josh B.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2022 07:59PM by D&RGW 223.
