1885•Transactions of the American Society of Civil EngineersRequires access
Power Brakes for Freight Trains
William P. Shinn
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Abstract
In my paper on “The Increased Efficiency of Railways for the Transportation of Freight,” read before the Society December 20th, 1882, I stated that among the improvements wanted was “a good train brake for freight trains, as nearly automatic as possible in its action. Such a brake, combined with automatic block signals, would make a rear collision absolutely indefensible and almost impossible.” The subject of power brakes for freight trains has received far more attention from inventors than it has from the managers of our railway systems. The records of the Patent Office show over six hundred patents for brakes applicable to railway engines and cars, and there are some ten or twelve parties claiming to have complete systems of freight-car brakes, while at this time the number of freight cars equipped with power brakes is not probably in excess of four per cent.