1978 CPR Train Air Brake Qualification

I bought this pamphlet for its fine cover photograph of a freight on the Nipigon Subdivision.

However, the subject of air brakes and regulations pertaining to their use is an evergreen field of study if one is interested in freight trains. 

The pamphlet provides a nice, concise explanation of basic air brake technology. The tone is 'friendly' and even empathetic ... "[Gosh!] That's quite a complicated title for a small brochure." However, operating employees are accustomed to stern, terse, lawyerly rulebook language which can be both specific and vague at the same instant. Perhaps the authors also considered a secondary audience?

... The Boeing 737 Max and the issue of 'regulatory capture' is being discussed regularly in the media these days.

In the pamphlet, the reader can see an example of a sector of the transportation industry experimenting with changes to procedures - brought about by a new technology.

Some of the money-saving 'benefits to industry' in this case might arise from:

• Fuel savings - a few years after the OPEC oil embargo and just before the Iran-linked 1979 oil crisis.
• Staff reductions - perhaps including carmen and tailend crewmembers.
• Quicker terminal brake testing of freight trains. 

Forty years ago, the pamphlet also mentioned mid-train power and air supply. Today these are standard plug-and-play technologies.

Continuing along with our regulatory 'benefits to industry' ...

With data in hand, the industry then approaches (lobbies) politicians and government regulators with a wish that regulations be changed ... and in some cases, the regulatory change works out quite well.

In other cases, one-person crews are approved and subsequently assigned to Bakken oil trains (with a higher content of light oil fractions, e.g. 'natural gasoline') and an unforeseen cascade of normally-harmless errors results in a 'negative outcome'.

At least we can still enjoy the photograph from the north shore of Lake Superior!