Railroad Accidents; Their Causes and the Means of Preventing Them (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 Excerpt: ...it with all its weight upon the rail. This improvement, which is also a simplification, presents many advantages; the shoe produces great friction upon the rail, whilst with the common brake, the pressure is exerted upon the tire of the wheels, which slide over the rails, and are therefore very rapidly worn; the shoe is made of the proper thickness, to guard against the flange of the wheel riding over the rail, and thus throwing the car or engine off the track. To free the brake, the train should be backed a little. The design of this shoe brake is old; Mr. Laignel having taken out a patent for it on the twenty-eighth of February, 1841, CHAPTER XVI. IRREGULARITY IN THE RUNNING OF TRAINS. Admitting, for a time, the accidents which frequently happen to trains and locomotives running out of time, without being properly signalized, we must explain how it happens, that the times of arrival and departure are not strictly adhered to. The causes of delay are of four kinds: --1st. The want of exactness in the times of starting, stopping, and arriving; this is remedied by a revision of the calculations, and suiting the time to the exigencies of the traffic; this cause need only exist at the commencement of the working of the road. 2d. Want of power in the locomotive, when the train is too heavily loaded, when the pressure of steam has not been well kept up, or when the rails have become slippery from rains, frost, or thick fogs; the wheels have not then a sufficient hold on the rails, and the engine moves slowly. The general remedy for this evil is very simple, we must merely make the maximum load equal to the minimum power of the engine; or in other words, find out the load the engine can draw under the most unfavorable circumstances; in winter, in a storm, on the he..