Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1911 — NEW SAFETY DEVICE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW SAFETY DEVICE

ENGLISH RAILROAD HYDRAULIC BUFFER STOPS. Designed to Put End to Collisions Between Running Trains and Platform Dead Ends at the - Terminal Stations.. .

The number of collisions between running trains and platform dead ends

at terminal star tions in England has resulted in the utilization of hydraulic buffer stops as a means of preventing damage to rolling stock and possible fatal injuries

to passengers and train crews. The installation of hydraulic buffers in the London terminal passenger station of the London & Southwestern Railroad is shown in the illustration: The operation of the buffers is simple. pair of cast-iron cylinders is mounted upon simple concrete foundations in line .with the buffers of the rolling stock, and from them piston rods carrying buffer heads on the outer ends project to a distance of«-7 ft. The cylinders are’ completely filled water, which passe through channels fronr behind the pistons to the front as they are forced home. The arrangement of the vtrater passages is such that when, the pistons are first forced back a pressure is set up behind them opposing the movement. As the speed is checked and the stroke of the pistons made, smaller passages for the water are provided, with the result that a constant resistance is afforded and the train brought to a standstill without shock or recoil. The water displaced when the piston rods are forced home leaves the cylinders at the forward ends through relief valves. The buffers are automatically reset by means of a constant supply of water connected up to the front part of the cylinders at a pressure of about 35 lb? per square inch. This pressure, acting on the piston rods, immediately forces them out again as soon as the train backs away.—Popular Mechanics. ~