To quit is starvation, and to continue is death; not immediately perhaps, but inevitable if he remains long enough in the service."
EF O'Shea, Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen.
A fraternal-financial organization with 15,000 members in 1890.
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This post gives a short sample of the testimony given to the US Senate's Interstate Commerce Committee in 1890. It follows my earlier look at railcar construction in the late 1800s. During that period, the obvious necessity of developing consistent safety standards for North American railways was receiving widespread attention.
In 1863, Ezra Miller had patented the Miller Hook to help prevent passenger car telescoping during a collision or derailment. It was reviewed in a previous post.
Ezra Miller Saved Lives
In 1873, EH Janney had received a patent for his most recent coupler innovation. This patent introduced the movable 'knuckle'.
Just reading the testimony before the Committee provides a vivid image of the deplorable safety conditions for railroad employees.
The shocking loss of life in passenger train accidents was easily presented in the newspapers so it would receive the attention it deserved from the politicians and railroad officials. However, the lethal working conditions for running trades employees in freight service - with most citizens being unable to imagine or identify with their plight - was a more persistent area of regulatory neglect.
In testimony, it was estimated that 1 in 5 brakemen and conductors would survive their careers to 'die a natural death'.
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It would take the efforts of a social reformer who served as Iowa's Railroad Commissioner from 1883 to 1888 to focus the attention and action of the US Congress on the issue. While the early, relatively short railroad lines had come under state jurisdiction, the growth of railroad company systems far beyond state lines required the oversight of people seeing the 'big picture' of railroading.
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| from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; Random House. |
Lorenzo Coffin (1823-1915) was one of the people responsible for the eventual development of the Railroad Safety Appliance Act.
Appropriately, Coffin is the first witness as the testimony begins.
The 'power brake' is differentiated from the manual train brake then in use which was applied by brakemen running along the tops of cars to apply handbrakes. One witness takes care to distinguish between a power brake and an automatic brake. Today, we would expect an automatic air brake system to create an Emergency application in the event the train line was broken in some way - without it being initiated by the engineer.
In some of the testimony regarding the formal testing of early air (and other) brake systems, a witness speaks of riding in one of the 50 boxcars travelling down the 1% grade used by the test train. The violent run-in of slack caused the riders to be thrown against the leading end of the boxcar. Some riders had taken the precaution of surrounding themselves with pillows ... but pillows and all still made the sudden trip forward. It seems likely that experimental straight air systems were also being tested ... and the slow propagation of the straight air through the train line would be a very effective way of creating such violent slack action.
The 'automatic coupler' in its simplest terms meant that a brakeman did not have to stand between cars during coupling - that the coupler 'dropped the pin' automatically as the brakeman stood safely outside the rails and watched.
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Here are some of the defects in the design of railroad freight cars identified in the testimony.
In searching through my books, I have seen hundreds of triangular 'cowcatcher' pilots from the late 1800s with their hinged link and pin coupling bar in the centre. The 3/4 front view of trains has always been extremely popular. However, photos showing the rear of a tender, or the end of freight cars are relatively rare.
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| from: The Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads; Lucius Beebe; 1963; Howell-North. |
Above, at Promontory, Utah in 1869 is an example showing many of the design shortcomings of freight cars. You can see a coupler pocket into which a link has been inserted, with the pin dropped to hold the end of the link in the coupler pocket. A brakeman coupling another car would insert that link into the approaching pocket and drop another pin to secure it there.
Braking system: You can see the narrow roofwalk and the handwheel at the roof to apply the 'train brakes' when they are called for by the engineer's whistle signal. At the very bottom of the handbrake shaft is a chain which will wrap around the shaft as it is turned. The chain is connected to links/levers which will draw the brake shoes into contact with the treads of the wheels. The large transverse wooden bar below the coupler is the brake beam. At the left end of the brake beam, thanks to the sunlight, you can see the left brake shoe which will be applied to the left wheel tread.
Above the coupler pocket, and bolted to it, is a heavy 'deadwood' (probably a slang term). The deadwood is a sturdy piece of wood providing a strong connection between the coupler pocket and the car frame.
Why automatic couplers are needed: An identical car is approaching the (imaginary) brakeman, standing beside the coupler pocket of the car above. With a pin in hand, he is ready to insert that link and drop the pin into the approaching pocket. Assume the momentum of the movement approaching the car above will push the standing car back two or three feet ...
- You (you have become the brakeman) stand beside the stationary coupler pocket, align and skilfully insert the link into the approaching pocket and quickly drop the pin.
- Avoid getting your hands or fingers crushed between the link, the two coupler pockets and the pin.
- As the cars move two or three feet, walk with them, so the approaching brake beam does not catch your ankle and break it, or cause your legs to become trapped under the approaching car.
- Keep your torso back so it is not crushed between the deadwoods as they approach each other.
- You may prefer to keep one foot outside the rail so you can quickly shift away from the cars if something goes wrong. However, if you adopt this position and fall, your body and limbs will land on the rail in front of the approaching wheel.
- Become proficient at this act so you can perform it at night, in the rain, by the light of a dim coal oil lantern.
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| from: Railroad Album; John O'Connell; 1954; Popular Mechanics. |
The lovely illustration above shows two different designs of car end appurtenances. The upper design shows deadwoods (or perhaps metal 'bumpers', in this case) which are almost flush (if viewed in a side profile) with the contact face of the coupler pocket. A brakeman would have to be particularly skilful to perform a coupling pin drop and extract his arm so it was not caught if the second car had identical deadwoods/bumpers.
On the lower image, you can see a brakeman walking with the approaching movement. The link is raised, ready for insertion into the stationary car. Then the pin will be dropped into the stationary car's coupler pocket. At least in this case, the deadwoods pose less of a crushing hazard than those in the upper design.
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| from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; Random House. |
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Again, here is detail from a photo taken during the construction of the Union Pacific as a stone bridge is being constructed by masons. Beneath the straddling man, you can see the link and pin couplers and the two pins inserted into them. This image shows that the faces of the two coupler pockets are in direct contact with each other. This illustrates the crushing hazard between the coupler faces ... the brakeman's hand must occupy that space between those faces as he inserts the link.
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I will likely continue with this topic in the future.
Below is the correct name and link to the archive.org document I have found so interesting.
One could analyze it for years ... but I probably won't go that far.
Automatic couplers and power brakes
US Congress, Senate, Committee on Interstate Commerce
https://archive.org/details/automaticcouple00commgoog/page/n7/mode/1up
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As you'll notice, the data below (Page 6 of testimony) has been compiled by Lorenzo Coffin.
The Master Car Builders origin and elaboration below is interesting. The term appears in the Science of Railways (circa 1900 - a decade after this testimony) as an entire 400+ page volume is dedicated to standard car design based on the standards of the Master Car Builders.
It was funny to discover that MCB is a term of solemn significance in railroad history. In the 1980s, I was privileged to visit a local 'dream' layout - lots of brass steam locomotives, etc. The owner was referred to with appropriate awe because he had completed the necessary peer-reviewed exercises to be formally recognized (I presume in HO) as a 'Master Car Builder'.
All the different types of Janney couplers will be illustrated in a future post.
In testimony, railroad officials generally pointed out that air brakes were not practical to use with 50-car trains unless there were Janney-type couplers because of the significant slack action created by long consists of link and pin. Their opinions for Janney-type implementation ran the gamut from continued laissez-faire to immediate federal regulation.
A problem I had not considered was the 'supply chain' issue and the need to avoid rushing out and buying just any Janney-style couplers. The railroads wanted and needed good quality, durable Janney-style couplers (estimated conversion cost per car: close to $100 in 1890 dollars) and the skilled labour to complete the changeover in a reasonable period ... of YEARS. There were more than one million freight cars in service in the US in 1890.
Another problem involved our poor brakemen again. Testimony stated that it was significantly more dangerous for a less-experienced brakeman to step in between two freight cars when one car had the usual non-standardized link and pin appliance, and the other had a non-standardized Janney-type. This more dangerous condition would persist for years during the conversion period. (In old photos, you'll notice that early Janneys often had a notch in the knuckle. The link would go into that notch and the pin was dropped down the hole in the knuckle to secure it.)
One of the officials was asked if he knew about the state of affairs concerning brakes and couplers in Canada and he had no idea.
