Diesel Fuel

A 40% premium on diesel fuel?! What happened?

A Volkswagen Rabbit which sounded like a farm tractor was never something I found attractive. However, during the oil price gyrations of the 1970s and 1980s, a number of people did choose diesel passenger vehicles because the fuel was 10-20% cheaper and diesel engines were significantly more fuel efficient than those powered by gasoline. 

Elsewhere, the 1970s and 1980s were characterized by the same old domestic North American products, showing little re-engineering or innovation. Tariff barriers often helped ensure they were made in this country or on this continent. They were relatively expensive. Electronics?: a cathode ray tube TV (maybe colour), a stereo for your 'records', a VCR. An audio cassette player in the car!

Welcome to the 2020s! 

Diesel is more of a globally-traded and -priced commodity today. With this blog's favourite Strait facing selective traffic attenuation, Persian Gulf crude oil is not getting to European refineries ... but our refined diesel fuel is. I saw a Sky News (UK) story today with a graph showing that Canada has the largest diesel fuel reserves in the world. I guess 'had' would be more accurate. 

Since 2000, there has been explosive innovation in new products. Twenty years ago, we could not have imagined all the changes which have taken place - both the new products and the changes they have caused in our societies. 

And now, the whole economy of the "globalized world" runs on diesel - from the trucks moving the shipping containers to the docks of China, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan ... up to and including the wide assortment of courier trucks racing up and down our street every single weekday ... and now on weekends.

And the Europeans have perfected clean diesel automobiles! These are not your father's Volkswagens!

With the US military on the move in recent months, 'middle distillates' diesel and jet fuel are in greater demand than usual. 

Farmers are planting - creating the usual seasonal demand on diesel ... and they are not happy about the price changes.

And if your experience and knowledge-based hunch is that the higher diesel fuel demand will continue or increase ... petroleum financial derivatives, or a loaded petroleum tanker slow-steaming or loitering between here and Europe or Asia ... is even more of a sure thing than a White House insider pre-Tweet bet on a prediction market. 

*  *  *

Diesel - How It Began

https://archive.org/details/11650204bsb/page/n4/mode/1up

Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913)

If you were to copy and paste the link above, you could read Rudolf Diesel's original treatise. 

Warning: lots of German ... even more math!

*  *  *

screencap from: Rudolf Diesel, Pioneer of the Age of Power; Nitske & Wilson; 1965; U of Oklahoma Press. archive.org 

*  *  *

screencap from: Diesel, Technology and Society in Industrial Germany; Donald E Thomas Jr; 1987; U of Alabama Press. archive.org

Diesel's patent from the Kaiser. 

M-A-N is the abbreviation of Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg. 

It will appear again below.

*  *  *

from: Iron Horse to Diesel; Paul Snow; 1961; Whitman.

From a childhood storybook, came this image. I love the artist's flying cogwheels. I believe there were two motor explosions in different settings. One was fuelling with ammonia, the other was using a powdered coal/water slurry. 

During my research, I was reminded that General Electric was experimenting with a powdered coal fuel for a diesel-electric prototype in 1990 ... but there was a note that railroads would have to indicate an interest in the technology for the development to continue. 

*  *  *

screencap from: Rudolf Diesel, Pioneer of the Age of Power; Nitske & Wilson; 1965; U of Oklahoma Press. archive.org

*  *  *

The new fields of aviation and diesel power must have set records for the 'short elapsed time' between the invention of a technology, and its application in war-fighting. 

Elsewhere on this blog, you'll find that a recent Rudolf Diesel biographer speculated that his apparent English Channel ferry suicide was a cover orchestrated by the British to spirit him off to Montreal. This was on the evening of 29 September 1913, on the SS Dresden, steaming between Antwerp and Harwich, England. 

Overnight, on 1 January 1915, the Vickers shipyard at Montreal was turned into a high-security facility with a complete change of personnel. The British Admiralty oversaw the building of 10 H-Class submarines by a workforce of 2000 Americans. The biographer's theory is that the multi-lingual, well-travelled Diesel was 'an expert' brought in to apply Diesel's latest technologies there.

Meanwhile ...

from: Die Höllenmaschine Im U-Boot; Kapitän Herbert Sauer; 1928; August Scherl. archive.org

Top: In the oil engine room of a U-boat in front of the main switch and the engine telegraph.

Bottom: In the diving control center, forward port side. High-pressure compressed air distribution system. In the center of it, the base of the central periscope with eyepiece. Central control station with repeater gyrocompass. Top left, engine telegraph. On the right, under the clock, the quick-venting handwheels of the forward ballast tanks.

*  *  *

from: Geology of Petroleum; William Harvey Emmons; 1921; McGraw-Hill.

At one point, Ontario was Canada's premier petroleum producing province.

The tar/bitumen/oil ... sands are the source of the heavy oil which facilitates the production of large quantities of diesel fuel.

*  *  *

The 1930s, United States ...

There was enough interest in diesel engines in the late 1920s and all through the 1930s, that a magazine existed to write about all the different applications in which the technology could be used. The advertisements are particularly good at depicting this potential. 

Notice the United Fruit Company motive power, pulling what looks like sugar cane. There is a good chance this operation was in Cuba. Unlike the many steam locomotives already present on Cuban railways, these light diesels were able to operate with less maintenance. They didn't have the thirst for water of the steam engines. They were also less likely to emit sparks which could set fire to the dried cane as it stood in the fields.

from: Diesel Progress magazine; June 1935; Diesel Engines Inc. archive.org

*  *  *

The gimmicky, art-deco, streamlined trainsets rode like maintenance-of-way speeder trailers but they spurred on many technological changes.

from: Diesel Progress magazine; June 1935; Diesel Engines Inc. archive.org

*  *  *

Coming to German Cinemas in 1942 ...

from: https://archive.org/details/diesel0000illu/mode/1up

The text-heavy side of this November 1942 German leaflet concludes: 

"A man and a fighter triumphed. And with him, his idea, his work, which changed the face of the global economy."

... Probably the 'Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda' did not subscribe to the theory 

that Rudolf Diesel disappeared in order to build Royal Navy submarines in Montreal. 

I've watched parts of this movie - it's on YouTube.

The directing is a little heavy-handed ...

*  *  *

1950 - General Motors Booklet

from: Diesel the Modern Power; Ralph A Richardson; 1950; General Motors. 

from: Diesel the Modern Power; Ralph A Richardson; 1950; General Motors.

from: Diesel the Modern Power; Ralph A Richardson; 1950; General Motors.

To make interpretation a little easier ... the three little rocker arms above the cylinder show you when the valves and the injector are doing something. 

The two-cycle innovation is 'scavenging'. Instead of using a piston cycle just to push the exhaust gases out ... an attached blower clears them and replaces them with fresh air at the same time. Consequently, every 'downward' piston movement is a power stroke. 

These opposed-piston engines were even more efficient ...

Canadian Locomotive Co, CPR DRS-16 Operator's Manual 1957

but, as adapted space-saving marine/submarine engines, 

they were more complicated, too different, and too troublesome in the long run.

*  *  *

From a 1957 Textbook on Petroleum ...

from: Petroleum, Prehistoric to Petrochemicals; GA Purdy; 1957; Copp Clark. 

*  *  *

A Transport Canada Railway Locomotive Document from 2001

(a quarter of a century ago)

This material will not be on the proverbial test. 

Perhaps some readers may be interested in how some of these older units compare.

This publication says this data comes from AAR testing.

IG is Imperial Gallon

MM is millions

NOx and SOx are oxides of nitrogen and sulphur.

HC - hydrocarbons, unburned 'oil'

PM is probably PM 2.5, the nasty little bits of soot that can pass from the lungs into the bloodstream.

from: Diesel Fuel Quality and Locomotive Emissions in Canada; Robert Dunn; 2001; Transport Canada. archive.org

I believe that Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (bsfc) is a way of expressing fuel efficiency. It is more complicated that the 'best' fuel efficiency ... because it factors in cycles of performance under different conditions. The lower bsfc numbers indicate a more efficient engine.

A 'brake dynamometer' attaches to a crankshaft and applies different measured braking (i.e. resistance) forces on it to simulate the various loads under which the engine works.

While the newer units don't seem to offer significantly better efficiency on a 1:1 basis ... the text reminds us that they provide more power per unit and that they burn the fuel with less pollution.

from: Diesel Fuel Quality and Locomotive Emissions in Canada; Robert Dunn; 2001; Transport Canada.

*  *  *

Diesel Engines in Ships

When we get to the use of 'diesel' in large modern ocean ships such as tankers and containerships, there is not one single type of fuel which is burned. Ships carry multiple fuel tanks to allow for cost-effective operation or for low-pollution operation.

Since 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has required that all ships (unless using scrubbers) must carry fuel oil with no more than 0.50% sulphur content (mass/mass). In specific Emission Control Areas (ECA) fuel with no greater than 0.10% sulphur content can be used. Effective March 2027, the Canadian Arctic and Norwegian Sea become ECAs with the 0.10% sulphur regulation becoming effective.

The text below revisits my 1957 petroleum textbook. The unrefined petroleum is still the same today. The processes for refining it are more complex, so I sometimes like to start with the basic explanation of what they did 75 years ago in simpler times. 

The last paragraph is still applicable. The ship owner is not going to allow the ship's engineers to put just any kind of fuel in a marine diesel engine that costs millions of dollars. 

from: Petroleum, Prehistoric to Petrochemicals; GA Purdy; 1957; Copp Clark.

In reading about future 'alternative fuels' to be used instead of diesel fuel for shipping ... e.g. biodiesel, hydrogen, ammonia*, methanol*, LNG*, etc ... I get the impression they all have some characteristic which makes them impractical outside of those ECAs which require low sulphur fuel. (*Currently used in Emission Control Areas.)

For example: fuels may be scarce and expensive; or, they may consist of the smallest molecule which is always escaping and its supercooled liquid form damages the metal it interacts with; or, potentially extremely toxic to the crew if not handled with great care; or, not containing enough energy per unit and/or requiring more specialized handling than diesel oil. 

Exception: On ships designed to carry LNG ... the ship can be designed to use the 'boiled off' vapour exclusively as fuel.

As with the previously-presented locomotive fleet (and our current automobile fleet) ... owners are unlikely to scrap a piece of equipment which has only been in service for 5 years. Tankers and containerships generally have a service life of 20-30 years. The main engine usually works for the whole lifespan of the hull. 

... So if a miracle like cheap solar-powered electric containerships suddenly descended down upon the earth, the ship owners would probably continue to use their old ships, burning their old fuels, until the end of their normal service lives.

*  *  *

Another interesting thing about modern ocean ships such as tankers and containerships ... 

We have all seen that they are 'welded together' in China or South Korea using cheap labour and/or very intensive automation. You should see some of the plate steel cutting/handling/welding automation videos! ...

However, these mass-produced ships are a 'global trade product'. Sure, the steel is made, the 'unfair subsidies' given, and the brute force assembly is done in Asia. However, the complete engines generally come from Europe. The electronic control systems may come from somewhere else, etc. 

*  *  *

A Ship Built in 2025

from: CGTN news website.

Recently completed in China, this Greek-owned tanker will carry 850-900,000 barrels of oil - depending on the oil's density. 

If you can imagine about 115 of these ships fully-loaded ... it would represent the world's petroleum use on a single day.

The Seascout is powered by a MAN B&W 6G60ME-C Mk9.5 engine - a low-speed, six-cylinder, two-stroke marine diesel. It puts out approximately 22,850 horsepower or 17,040 kW. Its engine drives the propeller directly with no transmission between the engine and the prop. It generally operates at 60-85 RPM (range 20-95 RPM), travelling at about 14 knots. 

You may have noticed the 'MAN' (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg) which takes us right back to one of Rudolf Diesel's first engine builders. Just like General Electric, the name endures but the corporate structures have changed over the decades. I believe MAN is now owned by Volkswagen's parent. 

* * *

People may remember that during the first oil crisis, top highway speeds were reduced, to decrease the fuel burned by highway vehicles ... because of the exponential resistance of air as a car's speed increases ...

The Danish shipping line Maersk first came up with the idea of 'slow steaming'. As with the highway speed reduction, the idea was to decrease the exponential resistance of the water at higher speeds to save on fuel costs. They ran a trial involving 110 ships in 2007. Adjustments were required to the ship engines to avoid damaging them by running them at speeds for which they weren't designed. By dropping the speed from 24 knots to 14-18 knots they found they could reduce fuel consumption by 30% or more. 

Obviously, containerships in high demand and operating on a schedule will operate at higher speeds when necessary.

However, for bulk commodities, ship fuel economy is often more important for profitability than speed. This is particularly the case when petroleum is going to remain 'at sea' for a period of time. There, it waits for the shipowner or product consignor to determine that a given market will provide an advantageous price ... and the ship is then instructed to dock and make delivery.

* * *

He was born in a foreign country. He lived and worked in poverty during his first decade of life. He was subsequently deported to another foreign country at the onset of the Franco-Prussian War.

Rudolf Diesel hoped that poorer countries could fuel his simpler engines with whichever plant oils they had in abundance. He hoped people could derive the economic benefits of efficient, modern motor power. 

Diesel never could have imagined how his invention would dominate the world's transportation system over a century later.

'His work changed the face of the global economy.'

end

"To Strike Is No Remedy ...

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.

*  *  *

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'. 

*  *  *

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. 

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.

*  *  *

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. 

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 ...

1. 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.
2. Avoid getting your hands or fingers crushed between the link, the two coupler pockets and the pin.
3. 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.
4. Keep your torso back so it is not crushed between the deadwoods as they approach each other.
5. 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.
6. Become proficient at this act so you can perform it at night, in the rain, by the light of a dim coal oil lantern.

*  *  *

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.

*  *  *

from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; Random House.

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.

*  *  *

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

*  *  *

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.

Ezra Miller Saved Lives

Sixty-four passengers were killed on the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Mud Run station, Kidder Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania at 2002hr on 10 October 1888, when the Seventh Section (powered by two engines) ran into the stopped Sixth Section of an excursion special.

... with those details, once we're done here we can take off and check out the disaster on Wikipedia, Google maps, and other on-line references! But beware, there is more than one Mud Run in Pennsylvania!

By the sounds of it, the train order office was being used as a block signal to maintain the ordered 10 minute spacing between sections. The sunset there at that time of year is 1830hr - so it would have been good and dark in the forest in the valley. As you might expect, there were problems with rules observance pertaining to the train order signal ... the flagman failed to go out the prescribed distance to flag ... and so on ...

But that's not the point of this post, it's this frequently-reproduced photograph ...

from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; Random House.

The engineering of passenger cars in that very early period of railroad technology had resulted in the invention of the Miller Hook system - two decades earlier - which had been invented to help prevent tragedies such as this.

from: Mr Pullman's Elegant Palace Car; Lucius Beebe; 1961; Doubleday & Co.

Above, is a drawing from circa 1870 or so, representing contemporary passenger car architecture or engineering. 

'Architecture' was probably a better description because passenger coaches were generally built like wooden sheds with windows on wheels. Coaches were not engineered to mitigate buff (compressive) forces - particularly during collisions. 

In terms of passenger comfort, it looks as if this car has a link-and-pin coupling system which would 'accordion' the train consist in or out whenever there was a change in train dynamics. For example, when starting or stopping, with a careless engineer, there could be a jolting change in coupler slack, particularly in the second half of the train. 

(I enjoyed standing and working on hay wagons in high school. A hay wagon was coupled to the tractor using a single pin. This link-and-pin passenger train jolt would have been quite an experience, particularly if a passenger was standing at the time.)

The end sill (at floor level) is set at a different level than the coupler. This is normal today. However, this design does not seem to employ a strong metal fabrication which combines the end sill AND the coupler.  

... If strong buff forces from a colliding engine were applied to the back of this car at the end of a stationary train ... you can imagine that the 'wooden shed' would be easily separated from any metal structures attached to the bottom of its wooden floor. 

... The front of the stationary train would have significant inertia, so the 'back wooden shed' and the 'next wooden shed' would become the 'crumple zones' which absorbed the shock of the collision. 

Whether or not the cars interact 'perfectly' like a telescope is not particularly the issue - it is the fact that the wooden passenger compartment is not engineered to protect the people inside.

from: Train Wrecks; Robert C Reed; 1968; Superior Publishing.

Here is a little historical background on the issue of link-and-pin couplers

from: Railroad Album; John O'Connell; 1954; Popular Mechanics.

from: Yonder Comes the Train; Lance Phillips; 1965; AS Barnes & Co.

Above, is a display model of a Miller Hook from above or below. 

You can see the model drawbar is anchored by slot screws.

This is a pretty rough image in the book.

 

The model shows how two couplers would automatically couple.

The worker would avoid the link-and-pin danger associated with standing between the coupling cars. 

They would not have to manually insert the link into the stationary pocket and drop the pin to secure it.

The model also shows how a cut lever would be used to uncouple, 

by pulling one of the hooks toward the side of the car.

*  *  *

from: Cars, Their Construction, Handling & Supervision; Marshall M Kirkman; 1908; World Railway Publishing Co.
Note: The following 'aged paper' images also come from this publication.

The exhaustively-labelled diagram, above, identifies item 319 as a Miller Hook. 

Like early Janney-style couplers this one has 'backward compatibility' ... 

A link can be inserted in the 'knuckle cutaway', and a pin dropped into the hook.

(The diagram shows a standard Janney-style coupler on the other end of the car.)

*  *  *

On breaks, while writing this, I was skimming the minutes of a session of the US Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce from 1892. It dispels any idea that we had link-and-pin, then we changed to Janney-style, and we all lived happily ever after.

In his testimony, the AAR representative indicates that their member railroads have converted 20% of their freight equipment to 'automatic' couplers. The AAR represents something like 2/3 of the US route miles. I assume the rest of the miles were not 'interstate' railroads or these railroads elected to be otherwise outside of the AAR. The AAR says ... Don't legislate, many of our members are doing well with their conversion. 

The switchman-representative of the body which provides benevolent disability insurance to injured switchmen says Lehigh Valley 'hook-and-link' (maybe a European design import) is his preference. Link-and-pin are pretty good if you know what you're doing. Automatic couplers are a mess. There are hundreds of different patent designs of 'knuckle couplers'. You can wreck yourself lining the drawbar up for a coupling. The cut rod can snag on your coat and drag you along. When we have problems with different patents being incompatible, we resort to link-and-pin to couple them. So there! The railroad officials who call the shots 'wouldn't do our job for $100 a minute'.

So, considering all of this in 1892, you can understand why lives were lost between the invention of the Miller Hook (1869), the Janney-type (1868) and their universal adoption on all interchanged railcars. 

Delaying factors included ... the inertia of large companies with massive investments in diverse rolling stock ... the cautious views of their association which doesn't represent all of the railroads anyway ... the conflicting evidence from the workers (including the significant disability and death statistics) ... and the reluctance of legislators to become very unpopular, by dictating a standard which all parties condemn. 

To some extent, some of the parties are looking expectantly to the Master Car Builders to declare a preferred standard for Janney-style couplers.

And, as a reminder, the Mud Run disaster occurred in 1888.

*  *  *

We continue with technical details and illustrations from The Science of Railways (1908) ...

MCB stands for Master Car Builders

Above: I believe this is the Miller Hook as seen from below the car.

Above: I believe this is the Miller Hook as seen from above the car.

*  *  *

In the second paragraph below, 'hool' is hook - it's not some Gaelic or Olde English railroadin' talk.

The upper diagram above shows a 'phantom' pin inserted into the hook (backward compatibility).

The lower diagram above shows a cross-section view.

The coupler/drawbar is the piece protruding at the left, a spring loaded buffer appears above it at the 'sill' (floor) level.

*  *  *

Sometimes, a second reference helps clarify complex diagrams and concepts ...

from: Train Wrecks; Robert C Reed; 1968; Superior Publishing.

There is a small community of us which believes that the flying switches ... made with three-coach consists ... performed by Forneys in suburban commuter service at Dorval, Quebec ... in the late 1950s ... are unique and fascinating. However, Advantage 9, above, is bragging that you can kick coaches all day long if they are fitted with Miller Hooks. Just heave the big bar over to release the hook on the fly.

At the US Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, the switchman-representative of the benevolent insurance organization said that Miller Platforms were a problem with some of the sharper curves in the yard. He stated that an interim joint must be made with link-and-pin in that case.

... He went on to say that passenger cars are switched very gently to avoid damage, including breaking glass ... long before safety glass, we assume ... Add glass to the list of safety features taken for granted today. 

... Considering his freight car specialty (in contrast to passenger car switching) he gives a very thorough description of the 'human experience' of being a switchman. He said that freight cars get very rough treatment. There is great pressure to switch a high volume of cars quickly with hazardous footing ('dirt') in the yards and usually with inadequate resources. He points out the difficulty of operating at night with an oil lantern. And ... he says that freight cars often come together at speeds ... up to 10 to 12 miles per hour (!!). 

*  *  *

Some photos of Miller Hooks/Platforms

I had always wondered what 'that big bar' on the rear platform of some observation and private cars did. 

From my image search in my own books, it turns out that old coach photos often have their couplers cropped away during photo layout editing. Visible couplers in photos are often lost in the dark end-of-car murk, making them unhelpful as crisp illustrations of Miller Hooks. And no one putting a book together is particularly interested in showing a detailed rear view of a plain coach. 

There were no Miller Hooks to be seen in the core fleets of Canada's major railways, as far as I could see - just on the odd imported car. As we've just heard, these imports can be temporarily coupled using link-and-pin technology. 

You can imagine that many American roads in the business of hauling long passenger trains in dense urban corridors would have chosen Miller Hooks and Platforms for their obvious advantages. My guess from my image search is that Canadian passenger equipment probably skipped a generation of technology and went directly from link and pin to a suitable Janney-type. 

From an American perspective, British railways were believed to have been relatively free from coach telescoping in the late 1800s because of their own slack-controlling couplings which featured the familiar buffers to keep the couplings under tension. With the Grand Trunk and the CPR British Empire affinity, one might speculate that rough slack action and coach telescoping risk resulted in quick adoption of the Janney-type.

Given what we'll see below, I checked Van Horne's car at Craigellachie (the photo with his son driving his own last spike) and his car had a link-and-pin coupler pocket.

The clearest surviving photos of Miller Hooks and Platforms I have found are in books showing business and observation cars. Unfortunately, they were not always photographed plumb, but we'll take what we can get.

from: Mr Pullman's Elegant Palace Car; Lucius Beebe; 1961; Doubleday & Co.

An unidentified car in an undated image.

from: Mr Pullman's Elegant Palace Car; Lucius Beebe; 1961; Doubleday & Co.

The car above was used on the Boston & Lowell Railroad in the 1870s.

In this case, it seems the desire for symmetry caused the large telltale lever to be replaced with a handwheel which matched the handbrake handwheel.

from: Mansions on Rails; Lucius Beebe; 1959; Howell-North Press.

Burlington, Number 200, La Rabida, was the private car used by railroad president Charles Elliott Perkins from 1881 to 1901.

This was the nicest photo I could find to illustrate a Miller Hook and Platform.

Abilene, Texas - The Texas & Pacific Railway - Illustrations of Classic Railroad Technology

My virtual vacation in Abilene, Texas continues. Abilene is 1700 miles away from here as the Google drives, and the temperature easily tops 100 degrees F on many days during the summer. While we've only been reaching 88 degrees F here this week, our heat pump is working harder than normal in sympathy with its distant Lennox cousins.

In my previous piece on the Texas & Pacific Railway, I presented what I could find here in the way of photos, maps, published schedules and an employee timetable. This was done to depict some of the history of the railroad which gave birth to the city of Abilene in its first iteration as a railroad shipping centre for cattle.

That piece was atrociously long because I found so much material. This is an attempt to supplement the wordiness of the first piece with illustrations ... and still ... more words to interpret the images.

These images are presented in roughly the same order as the subjects appear in the previous Texas & Pacific piece.

Abilene, Texas - The Texas & Pacific Railway

from: Railroad & Photo Annual; 1953; Trains & Travel; Kalmbach.

Texas & Pacific locomotive 706 was built by Baldwin in 1919. It's Pacific-type - used in passenger service.

*  *  *

Elesco Feedwater Heater

These were often used to maximize efficiency on later Texas & Pacific freight locomotives.

from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company.

from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company.

from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company.

Elesco (and other brands of) feedwater heaters provided greater thermal efficiency - particularly for cold-climate railroads. But there was a lot of equipment needed beyond the heat exchanging tank at the front of the locomotive (13). 

At (8) you'll notice a powerful 2-phase, steam powered pump to run water through the whole system and to force the warmed feedwater into the boiler through the pipe at (11). 

*  *  *

A Conceptual Steam Locomotive Diagram

This diagram represents an 'intermediate' locomotive design ... when considering the full sweep of steam locomotive technology.

from: The Steam Locomotive, Part 1; JW Harding; 1934; International Textbook Company.

Fire and Smoke

Unlike many Texas & Pacific steam locomotives, this engine is burning coal, which sits on 'shakeable' grates, which allow the ashes to fall below for later disposal. 

Air for combustion enters the firebox (a) by coming up through the grates ... and it can also enter through the firebox door at the left. 

A brick arch over (a) causes the combustion gases to swirl, thus ensuring more complete combustion within the firebox. The 'roof' of the firebox is the crown sheet. Covering the crown sheet is a layer of water, with steam above that. 

Bituminous coal burns at 1200-1600 degrees Fahrenheit, so the crown sheet must always be covered by water to avoid metal failure and a boiler explosion.

The hot combustion gases pass through the flue pipes (b) and (i). I'm using simplified terminology throughout this piece.

At the extreme right, the smoke from the flues enters the smokebox, where it is forced out through the stack (c) by the discharge of exhaust steam coming from the piston (q). This force also does a good job of providing a draft for the fire.

Water and Steam

The boiler is a sealed vessel so it can accumulate energy up to a certain limit. As it heats up, and water is boiled into steam, the pressure inside it builds. At a design limit of 200 pounds per square inch, water boils at about 388 degrees Fahrenheit. 

A safety valve system (not shown) is designed to automatically vent excess pressure. When the main safety valve opens, the sound of escaping steam is thunderous and deafening. 

When the engineer opens the throttle lever (d), the throttle valve (e) opens and the resulting movement of steam will (with the correct setting of the reverser - not shown) cause the locomotive to turn its wheels.

Steam ... contrasted with condensed steam or water vapour ... is an invisible gas. It passes from (g) as saturated steam, goes back into the boiler area, and exits at (j) as superheated steam. This whole assembly is called a superheater. It will generally increase the temperature of the resulting dry steam by at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit, but the pressure will remain about the same.

So now our steam has reached a temperature of over 600 degrees Fahrenheit ... or higher if we want to brag about it. This dry superheated steam contains an awful lot of extra energy. This is excellent news because it saves us from repeating the energy-intensive work of taking cold water from the tender ... heating it up to the boiling point ... and adding the latent heat needed to turn it into saturated steam. 

Our superheated steam has tremendous expansive power, so only a small quantity needs to be used in the cylinder to keep a train moving.

It seems counter-intuitive that one superheats the steam, but its pressure stays the same. The explanation for this requires discussion of molecular structure, and how it relates to a substance's vapour pressure/temperature curve. But we're just here for the pictures!

The superheated steam travels down the branch pipe (k) to the cylinder valve (l) which is connected by driving rods and links to the piston inside the cylinder (q)

As the cylinder valve oscillates, it admits steam to one side of the piston, then the other. This provides power for both directions of piston travel. When you add the 'both directions' from the other side of the locomotive, you end up with four, alternating power strokes for every single turn of the driving wheels.

Without a reverser, our engine as shown will only travel forward. A reverser is an important tool of steam economy because it allows the engineer to taper the steam cutoff. 

For example: Steam would be admitted for the full travel of the piston when starting a heavy train. In contrast, if a light passenger train was travelling fast, only a short tick of steam would be needed to maintain momentum. (Short tick is not a legitimate mechanical engineering term.)

Finally, through the helpful work of the cylinder valve (l), the exhaust steam and smokebox smoke is pushed out through the stack (c).

*  *  *

The feedwater heater and the superheater were two of the most important refinements made to improve the fuel efficiency of steam locomotives.

*  *  *

A coat of paint, and it'll be as good as new!

from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books.

Above and below. I have guessed that these photos are from around 1920. An older Union Pacific 2-8-0 type Compound experienced a boiler explosion in Wyoming. 

Above: The engine is rolled over on its right side for shipment. The hole at the front lower-left of the wreck is where the smokestack was. The big pipe you see is the branch pipe which would have carried steam down to the top of the right-side cylinder - the cylinder end of that open pipe is by that person's right hand. Just in front of the intact locomotive, the black perforated plate which appears out of the bottom of the firebox is probably the failed crown sheet. The author commented that most boiler failures were caused by a sudden flow of cold water onto an overheated crown sheet. Being of an older design, we are probably correct in noting that there are no superheater units or large-diameter superheater flues on this engine.

Below: That is the relatively intact running gear of the same locomotive. 

It seems very unlikely that anyone in the cab survived the explosion. An exploding boiler was often propelled hundreds of feet because most of the potential energy of tons of boiler water suddenly flashed into steam. 

In looking for historical boiler references, I found a 'boiler insurance' company's periodical preserved at archive.org . They published monthly listings of all of the railroad and stationary boiler explosions all over the US. Between problems with metallurgy, problems with rivets and staybolts, problems with keeping the crown sheet covered, and lack of preventative maintenance ... boilers were always blowing up all over the place!

from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books.

*  *  *

from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; American Heritage.

A map showing the status of the network at the end of the first major phase of railroad building in the US.

The strategic position of the Texas & Pacific line through Abilene is visible.

 *  *  *

Link and Pin Couplers

from: Yonder Comes the Train; Lance Phillips; 1965; AC Barnes & Co.

With a locomotive tender at our left and a freight car at our right, the brakeman is working to couple the locomotive to a car using the link and pin system. The locomotive pocket can accommodate rolling stock with three different coupler heights. The link was previously inserted into the locomotive pocket and the pin has been dropped to secure it ... so half of the coupling has been done.

The brakeman has signalled the engineer to back up so he can complete the coupling. The engineer must guess about when to stop and the brakeman must be quick and skillful to avoid injury or death if something goes wrong.

Imagine the brakeman coupling under more difficult conditions: Ten cars from the headend  ... at night ... in the rain.

*  *  *

Janney-style Couplers

from: Advertisement; American Association of Railroads; June 1948; Trains.

Apparently, Janney was inspired by the human hand when he came up with this major improvement in safety. The left coupler is 'open' with the knuckle rotating on a heavy pin (seen with an 'A' on its top). 

A brakeman simply opens the knuckle and gets out of the way before the cars come together. With just one coupler open, when the cars come together, the knuckle will close and lock automatically. 

To open a coupler (see the one at the right) a brakeman stands at the car's side, actuates the cut lever (that rod), and the attached pin is lifted, allowing the knuckle to open.

Coupler knuckles are designed to be the weakest link in a train to prevent costly damage to car underframes. If there is bad slack action in a train, the 80 lb knuckle part will break and a brakeman would be assigned the job of replacing it.

*  *  *

Why they were called brakemen ...

from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books.

Upon hearing the whistle signal from the engineer to 'down brakes' ... brakemen from the engine and caboose would run along the roofwalks and turn the brake wheels to set mechanical brakes on each car.

In this undated photo on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, you can see the engine has a link and pin coupling rod lying in the centre of its pointed cowcatcher (pilot). The locomotive was built in 1868. 

The author reports this is a 10-car train - the caboose didn't quite make it into the book. In addition to the two brakeman, the conductor is standing on the roadbed, the fireman is standing in the gangway and the engineer is sitting in the cab with his arm on the window ledge. 

*  *  *

from: The Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads; Lucius Beebe; 1963; Howell-North Books.

This photo was taken on the Central Pacific in the Sierra Nevada in 1865. There are not many photos showing brakemen serving as the primary method of train control. 

When a train was running too fast down a grade, the handbrakes would have little likelihood of bringing the train under control. If a train broke in two, it was up to the brakemen to try to stop the cars separated from the engine.

The train is posed for the photo. You can see a brake wheel rising above the roof of each car. The brake shoes can be seen pressing on the treads of the wheels.

*  *  *

Corporations are often resistant to regulatory changes to improve safety.

from: Statistics of Railways in the United States; 1909; Interstate Commerce Commission.

After the invention of knuckle couplers and automatic train air brakes (a break in the train air line applies the brakes in 'emergency' on every car) it took decades for the railroads to settle on standards and to implement the changes. Other statistics in this book include deaths and injuries and how they occurred.

*  *  *

Breaking the Ice

Refrigerator Cars

from: Right-hand Man in the Cab, article; Howard W Bull; May 1948; Trains, Kalmbach.

This photo shows an intermediate icing station at Roseville, California in the 1940s.

These cars were probably carrying fresh produce from southern California terminals. There, sophisticated mechanical equipment would have been used because every car would need to be loaded with ice. Money would be saved if cars could be loaded as quickly as possible with produce and ice during a peak harvesting rush at a busy terminal.

This location was where a steam helper locomotive (for mountain grades) was added to the train consist, so it was a convenient point to top up cars designated for checking and re-icing. The worker at the right with the fork is 'optimizing' the block of ice to provide an increased ice surface area. 

*  *  *

from: Yonder Comes the Train; Lance Phillips; 1965; AC Barnes & Co.

Gustavus Franklin Swift (1839-1903) was a Massachusetts-born butcher who saw the business potential of changing consumers' meat-buying habits in the eastern US. There, people were accustomed to freshly-butchered local meat. 

Swift developed the idea of locating his business at the meat-packing centre of Chicago and transporting dressed meat by rail. The invention of the refrigerator car came from his efforts to develop the most effective way to provide refrigeration for a journey halfway across the country.

The image above is a depiction of a typical ice refrigerator car. It has ice bunkers at each end, and it is designed so cold air can circulate throughout the car, including under the floor on which the shipment was placed.

You'll also notice that the car features air brakes and Janney-type couplers!

*  *  *

Freight House

from: PE's Bustling Freight, article; no author; photo from: Pacific Electric Magazine; Trains June 1948; Kalmbach.

A mention was made in the previous piece about a freight house - a railroad facility used by the many shippers whose business did not require their own siding. Draft-horse-drawn wagons or trucks would be used for transportation between a shipper's facility and the freight house.

An interesting technique which is shown here is the aligning of multiple 40-foot boxcar doors with a single freight house door. Multiple boxcars could be loaded or unloaded at once. As many of the interior surfaces of boxcars were 'nailable' ... gaps between the boxcars could be spanned safely using metal plates nailed to the door thresholds. 

*  *  *

The Considerations Behind Block Signaling in ABS and CTC

from: The Railroad - What It Is, What It Does; John H Armstrong; 1978; Simmons-Boardman.

At the time of publishing: Medium Speed was 30 mph and Limited Speed was 45 mph.

Telegraphs were first used by railroads in the mid-1800s to make temporary modifications to the paper timetables used by employees ... to deal with unforeseen traffic circumstances on a given day. Since that time, railroads have divided their busiest lines into 'blocks'. Typically, these blocks were several miles in length.

On single track railroads, before electric signals, a key safety feature of train separation rules was that trains must enter sidings ... to clear for opposing or following trains ... respecting a rules-specified time interval. 

Similarly, a train following another from a particular point on the line must wait for a prescribed amount of time before departing. 

... To give you some idea ... depending on the railroad ... this time interval might be 10 or 20 minutes. In the event of a train breakdown, this period of time gave the tailend brakeman time to run back with a flagging kit ... to protect the back of his train. One could argue this was probably the most important reason why cabooses were invented in the first place - to have someone back there, ready to protect the train.

As railroad technology improved, and trains became faster and heavier, it became even more important to ensure trains had adequate warning when it was time to slow down and/or stop. Steel wheels on steel rails are nearly frictionless.

In the previous piece, looking at the Texas & Pacific employee timetable from 1974, I referred to ABS (automatic block signal) and CTC (centralized traffic control) systems. 

The nice, clear diagram above, shows how automatic block signals are used to protect trains. 

Above, at the left side, the signal indications are shown from most restrictive (stop) to least restrictive (clear). 

To the right are shown sample sections of track which are divided into blocks ... each block having its own electrically-isolated track circuit. The track circuits are connected to trackside signals. For very basic protection, a railroad could use just three indications (i.e. green, yellow, red). If a train was stopped, its entire block would be protected because a red signal would prevent a following train (or an opposing train) from entering into its block without proper authority.

For high traffic lines where maximum capacity must be provided along with maximum safety, more signal indications (combinations of more lights of changeable colours on the same signal mast) need to be used.

He was present when the CTC system was implemented at Schreiber, Ontario on the Canadian Pacific Railway and Rolly Martin told me a few times that CTC on single track could safely carry the same traffic load as non-CTC double track.

Imagine a single track line which enables a Dispatcher (Rail Traffic Controller) to use electric switches and signals to remotely control every train's movements ... while train separation is automatically taken care of in all cases by the block signals. 

In setting up a CTC traffic control system, the civil and electrical engineers of the system vendor would work together with the railroad's own professional engineers to plan the optimal placement of signals and the design of the logic to operate the track switches and coloured light signals. 

They'd consider typical train tonnage, train speeds, significant grades on the track profile, typical stopping distances at different points, signal visibility from the locomotive - any variable which should be considered to run trains as safely as possible ... while also running them as close to each other as reasonably possible.

While the Four-Block, Five Indication system at the bottom of the diagram will be more expensive to install, it is designed to maximize the capacity of the railroad line.

*  *  *

from: Popular Mechanics Railroad Album; John O'Connell; 1954; Popular Mechanics.

In doing the research to find Texas & Pacific items, I found this curiosity. It was probably tested near large population centres - where it could be near to rescue locomotives (it has standard couplers). I've included this in case ardent fans of the Texas & Pacific find the reference interesting, or in case they collect mentions of this unusual trainset. 

The locomotive section also includes a mail hook for picking up mailbags 'on the fly' (first door) and a baggage and express section (second larger door).

Early self-propelled railcars had problems with dependably getting from Point A to Point B. Passengers often received a rough, jarring ride at high speed on fast streamlined trainset prototypes. 

At least in this experimental vehicle, they enjoyed rubber-tired comfort!

*  *  *

from: Photo Section, Rail Photo Service; May 1948; Trains, Kalmbach.

In this undated photo, the Sunshine Special is leaving Dallas. 

Of course, this train's history is recorded at Wikipedia. 

It operated south from St Louis, beginning in 1915. 

It is shown as Train 1 and Train 2 (along with its routing and equipment) in the 1916 Official Guide section of my previous piece on the Texas & Pacific.

Abilene, Texas - The Texas & Pacific Railway