a short while until we will be using it— in fact, a great many of our passenger equipment cars are already fitted for it. So we mustn't wait till we have to use it -to learn what it is through costly experience but get ready for it.

"Now, here at the shops we get air pressure from the shop supply which is hardly ever above 90 pounds; that isn't enough. The steam is piped into the car and I can use it to operate our air pump, but that won't make more than 90 pounds of air. So I have cut off the shop supply of air that was direct to my main reservoir in the car, and have piped it to the air inlets and receiving valves of my pump. It flows through the air cylinder of the pump and on into the main reservoir and brake system in the car, running up to the regular shop pressure.

"Now," said the instructor, "if I want more pressure, all I have to do is to open the pump throttle, and you will see the main drum pressure go soaring sky-high."

Some of the boys couldn't see how. The steam was 90 pounds and the air was at about the same pressure; but the instructor said he could pump up about 180 pounds and they didn't believe him until he opened up the pump throttle and the main drum gauge hand went up to 130 pounds; then the high-pressure top of the governor stopped the pump.

"That is compounding the air pressure," said the instructor. "It's a good point for you to remember how it's done. If a pump receives air already compressed, it can pump it up to as high a figure as the pressure that the pump can compress free air, added to the pressure the pump now receives at its air inlets."

Then he gave a thorough explanation of the high-speed brake, and as it has been written up by different air-brake men already, in the Magazine, I will not repeat it. He made sure that every one present understood it correctly, and then he said:

"So much importance is attached to the principle of the extremely high brake power developed at an emergency application that at least two other almost equally desirable features of the highspeed brake are nearly unnoticed. I can set the brake, with 110 pounds train line pressure, as tight as we can set it at service application, that is, apply it until the brake cylinder gauge shows about 60 pounds, as any further increase of cylinder pressure would simply be blown off by the automatic reducing valve, then release and lap the brake valve right quick

so as not to recharge any; repeat this operation twice again, thus making three full applications and releases, and the auxiliary reservoir gauge will still have 70 pounds pressure your maximum pressure with the present quick-action brake."

And he proved it to us on the instruction rack.

"You will all perceive what a gain in brake operation that means," he said. "A friend of mine was on that '3 A' train that was wrecked, and he told me this morning that just a few seconds, as it seemed to him, before the wreck, the engineer had made a sudden brake application-apparently full-on-and probably considering that he was falsely alarmed, the engineer had released his brakes immediately and begun using steam, and in a few seconds, as my friend says, he slammed her into emergency-and then the stars fell.

"Now he had used the best part of his brake power and released without giving it time to do anything; then, before his auxiliaries had time to recharge he was called upon to make a quick stop-and his speed not reduced to any extent. You see from the tests we have just made that an engineer can make several service applications and still have plenty of reserve brake power to fall back on, with the high-speed brake.

"Another thing," continued the instructor, "when the brakes are fully applied at either service or emergency the cars having long piston travel will have as great a final brake power as those with short, and they will have to do their work. On the other hand, if some one carelessly leaves a hand brake wound up enough on a passenger car to shorten the piston travel so as to hold too high a cylinder pressure, the danger of sliding the wheels on that car is largely eliminated because the reducing valve will blow off the overplus of pressure.

"And that recalls," said he, "that the 3 A' people are running through trains jointly with our road, and that new through train that we put on not long ago was braking very nicely on our road, but as soon as the '3 A' got hold of it they commenced sliding and flattening wheels. It was a disgrace to hear our fine train come pounding into one of our terminals. Well, we put up a Crosby indicator in a closet of one of our cars and started it going about ten miles before our train reached Southport and when it got back it showed that while we were carrying 70

pounds train line pressure with our cars braked up to the limit, they were carrying 90 pounds train line. We measured the levers on their coaches then and found that the '3 A' folks had decreased their leverage to suit the high cylinder pressure without notifying us."

Somebody asked what caused the '3 A' people to change their train-line pressure, and the instructor replied:

"Well, there is no valid reason for it. It's a bad thing. Cars must interchange on the different railroads and there must be a standard train-line pressure carried everywhere, and that has been accepted as 70 pounds, or else 110 pounds with the regular high-speed equipment. For one thing, the '3 A' people wanted to reduce or shorten their leverage, which can only be done by either increasing the sizes of cylinders and auxiliaries, or increasing the train-line pressure. They concluded the latter was cheaper. And another thing: When their cars were run over our road they wouldn't have much brake power from our 70 pounds; couldn't slide a ‘3 A' wheel if you should try; and wouldn't wear out their brake shoes.

"We put high-speed reducing valves on our passenger cars running over the 3 A,' and haven't had any more trouble with flat wheels on that train; so there's another gain to the credit of high-speed equipment," said the instructor.

"And," he continued, "the second great help in service braking with the high speed equipment is that an engineer may now make regular two-application station stops without any fear of 'running by' on account of releasing too soon or weakening his brake power. It gives him more confidence in himself and in his brake. Now," he said in conclusion, "I want to warn you fellows about a few things: They are going to give us the high-speed brake and we want it put on right. That includes the engine truck brake. I know that a lot of you are prejudiced against a truck brake, but that's all it is-prejudice. We have no record of a properly put-up truck brake ever doing any harm. And as for good, remember that the weight upon the engine truck frequently equals, and often exceeds, the weight of a large-capacity car. And in a passenger train it would be considerable per cent. of the entire weight of train and engine.

"Sometimes the mistake is made, in putting on the high-speed apparatus, of not removing the old 10x12-inch equalizing reservoir and substituting the larger size-12x14 inches. It makes all the difference in the world, for if you use the old, small reservoir, you will often get quick-action in the service notch with the high pressure. The new, large reservoir is also standard, now, for all engine equipment." WILL W. WOOD.

A railway train-the fast express-
Had killed a section hand.
The damage suit was tried,

McGinnis on the stand.

He swore the whistle did not blow
Until the train had passed
Over the body of poor Mike,

Who then had breathed his last. "McGinnis, you," the lawyer said, "Admit the whistle blew After the train had struck the man. Tell me, is this not true?"

"Yis, sor," McGinnis quick replied, "Then," asked the lawyer, "why Was sounded any warning note After the train went by?"

Amid the stillness that prevailed, McGinnis answered back: "I preshume that the whistle wor

For the nixt mon on the thrack."

Then everybody present smiled;
"That's all," the lawyer said,
And there's no need for me to tell
Just how the verdict read.

-Henry A. Jeffries.

Dialogue No. 26-Train Handling. Student. In making an application of the brake what should the first reduction be?

Instructor. The reduction should be such that all triple pistons will move and admit sufficient air to the brake cylinders to move the pistons out sufficient to at least cover the leakage grooves. The reduction necessary to accomplish this varies somewhat with different lengths of trains. A 5-pound reduction is sufficient with any passenger train; also, a freight train of 40 cars or less, but should be 7 or 8 pounds on larger trains.

Student. Is there any rule governing the amount of reduction after the first? Instructor. No, the circumstance must govern that.

Student. We had 40 cars, all air, down the mountain last night, and the engineer did not handle the brake as I think it should have been handled. With your permission I will relate how he did it, and then I would like to know if he did right.

Instructor. - Certainly, go ahead, I should like to hear about it.

Student. You understand I am not telling this to get anyone into trouble. All I am looking for is information.

Instructor. I am sure I understand your motive.

Student. As I said, to start with, we had 40 cars, all air. The brakes held good, but there was a bad leak in the train line, or several small leaks, which reduced the train-line pressure sufficiently to cause the brakes to apply when the handle of the brake valve was moved to lap position. Soon after pitching over the hill he made a 7 or 8-pound reduction, I could not see exactly, but it was less than 10 pounds. This with the leak caused the brakes to soon be applied so hard that the train slowed down very quickly, and when running quite slowly, say somewhere between 7 and 10 miles per hour, he released. The retaining power was such that there was sufficient time to fully recharge the auxiliary reservoirs before the speed had increased sufficient to make it necessary to again apply the brakes. He made about the same reduction in making the second application as when making the first, but instead of

leaving the handle of the brake valve in lap position, as soon as the trainline service exhaust stopped blowing he moved it onto the bridge between lap and running position, and the brakes did not apply harder, due to train-line leakage, as they did before, and the train run a long ways at about the same speed, but finally gradually increased. He soon made another reduction and again moved the handle on the bridge as before. The speed reduced somewhat but after awhile gradually increased again; other reductions were made and the handle placed on the bridge with the same result, so that when we reached the foot of the hill the pressure registered by the black pointer was only about 30 pounds.

Instructor. I presume you know his object in placing the handle of the brake valve on the bridge instead of leaving it on lap?

Student. I do not know, but expect it was done to admit air to the train line so as to supply the leakage and prevent the pressure from being further reduced and, therefore, the brakes from applying harder.

Instructor. That evidently was the object, but as this case has demonstrated, it is a dangerous practice. It is possible to feed air into the train line sufficient to just supply the leakage and not raise the pressure above that in the auxiliary reservoirs so as to cause the triple piston to be moved to release position, but it is a delicate operation, and should not be attempted. With train-line leakage sufficient to cause brakes to apply when the handle of the brake valve is moved to lap position, the leakage should be permitted to make the reduction, and when the train has slowed down sufficient to give time to fully recharge the auxiliary reservoirs, release and recharge as soon as possible. Such a train will require frequent applications, but it is very much safer to make them than to attempt to supply air to the train line and keep the brakes applied.

Student. I understand that it is best to keep the auxiliary reservoirs as nearly fully charged as possible all the time when controlling the speed descending a grade.

Instructor. If the auxiliary reservoirs are fully charged, then the engineer has

done all he can to obtain conditions so that full power of the brakes may be obtained, and this condition of things is very essential when controlling the speed of a train down a heavy grade, therefore, the brakes should not be released until the speed of a train has been reduced sufficiently to give time to fully recharge before it is again necessary to apply them to control the speed. It is very important then to have sufficient "retarding power." I mean by "retarding power" the braking force applied to a train during the time of recharging auxiliary reservoirs, when controlling the speed down a grade. The safe control of a train depends largely on this "retarding power" being sufficient to hold the speed of the train in check for one to two minutes, that is, it should not be necessary to apply the brakes again to control the speed of train, when handle of engineer's brake valve is moved to release position, for at least one minute. This should give sufficient time for recharging auxiliary reservoirs to 70 pounds pressure, when trainline pressure has not been reduced below 55 pounds, and when a greater reduction is necessary to control the speed it should not be controlled by air brakes. tarding power" is obtained by retarding the escape of brake cylinder pressure and retaining a portion of it. It is accomplished by cutting in (turning up the handle of) pressure retaining valves. the use of all the valves are not sufficient, additional "retarding power" may be obtained by applying hand brakes lightly, beginning at head-end of train. Great care should be taken not to apply them too hard, causing wheels to heat or slide. The amount of "retarding power" necessary depends on the grade and weight of train. It is always better to have a little too much than not enough, and to apply a large number of hand brakes lightly than a few hard. Trainmen can always ascertain if the "retarding power" applied is sufficient, by watching the speed closely when air escapes from the exhaust port of the pressure retaining valves, or by consulting the engineer; when in doubt always consult him.

"Re

When

If it should appear necessary to release any of the hand brakes applied for additional "retarding power," great care should be taken not to release too many, so that it will be necessary to apply them again, for this tends to deceive the engi

neer.

It should never be necessary to cut out (turn down handle of) pressure retain

ing valves when descending a heavy grade. It is better for the engineer to use a little steam, and pull the train for a short distance, when the speed does not increase after a slowdown has been made. When a stop has been made and train can not be started by using steam, pressure retaining valves may be cut out, beginning at the rear end, but care should be taken not to cut out any more than is necessary to allow the train to be started, and when started they should be immediately cut in again.

Student. What should an engineer do, when descending a grade and 15 pounds reduction does not slow the train down sufficiently, to permit the brakes to be released so as to recharge the auxiliary reservoirs?

Instructor. I believe that he should call for hand brakes and make further reductions. When the trainmen feel that they have enough hand brakes applied to control the speed they should signal the engineer to release the air brakes. In such a case as this I believe that the speed should then be controlled by hand brakes, and the air brakes should not be applied except to assist in making a stop.

Student.-What do you think about the practice of applying hand brakes on a few non-air-brake cars on the rear end of a train, to assist the air brakes in controlling the speed down a grade?

Instructor.-I do not consider it good practice, for severe shocks are likely to occur which may cause damage.

Student. I went out with Jake, who runs the engine that helps passenger trains, one night last week and we had quite a little trouble on account of the air, or rather on account of Sam Brook, the engineer on the engine next to the train, and Jake not agreeing on how to cut out the head engine so that the rear one could do the braking. When we started out Jake was doing the braking from the head engine. At West Brimfield our pump stopped; we tried to start it again but it would not go, so Jake told Sam that his pump had stalled and that he could not do the braking, and asked him to cut in his brake valve and do the braking from the rear engine. Sam says, "You will have to close the cut-out cock on the head-end of my engine." "No I won't," says Jake, "I will just close the cut-out cock under the brake valve on my engine, and it will be all right." "I guess not, you can't do the braking that way. The cock must be closed on the head-end of my engine," replied Sam. About that