Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1915 — STOPS TRAIN AT ONCE [ARTICLE]

STOPS TRAIN AT ONCE

DEVICE SEEMS TO END POSSIBILITY OF COLLISIONS. Most Thorough Tests Are Said to Have Demonstrated Value of the Invention Beyond ’ All Possibility of Doubt.

At last a device has been invented and successfully tested which appears to solve the problem of preventing railroad collisions. This device goes to the root of the matter, acting automatically with,the proper setting of train signals and relieving the locomotive engineer of all responsibility. Whenever the safety of the train and its human freight depends on a sudden stop, this device insures, without human intervention, the closing of the throttle and the setting of the airbrakes. The most drastic tests covering a period of more than a year on 107 miles of double track equipped with 90 locomotives, made a triumphant showing in which there was not one failure of the device to operate. The device and its operation are thus described in a recent issue of the Railway Age Gazette:

The apparatus is electro-mechanical, so called. A ramp fixed on the ties, 22 inches outside of the track rail, engages a member depending from the engine. The ramps are fixed in the rear of each automatic block signal a sufficient distance to allow room in which to stop fast trains. The ramp, when not electrified, causes an application of the air-brakes; when electrified, it energizes an electro-magnet on the engine which prevents the operation of the brake applying apparatus. There is no visual or audible signal, and no speed recorder; neither is the operation of the apparatus affected in any way by the speed of the train; though these additional features have been worked out, so that they could be readily applied. Each ramp is 180 feet long with a short insulated section in the middle, making virtually two contact pieces. The outgoing end'of the ramp is kept constantly electrified, so that an engine moving backward, ad- in switching operations, would never be stopped. The ramps are made of 35pound standard T-iron. The contact member on the locomotive consists of a shoe fastened to the bottom of a vertically movable piston working against a strong spring, the whole being supported on the back end of the crosshead guides. The piston is raised three inches when it engages the ramp, the ramp being three inches higher in the center than at the point near the end where the shoe strikes it. The movement of the piston opens a valve, allowing air pressure from the air-brake train line to enter a small air cylinder in the cab of the locomotive. This pressure forces a piston upward; and this piston operates a crank controlled by an electric lock. The lock, mounted on an axle, revolves if its magnet is deenergized, but does not revolve if the magnet is energized. Revolving, an arm attached to it operates a threeported valve, allowing air pressure from the train line to enter the operating cylinder. This opens the engineman's air-brake valve, giving a service application of the brakes, and closes the throttle. The electric lock is operated by a current from the roadside battery conveyed through a wire extending from the shoe upward through a pipe to the box in the locomotive cab which Contains the lock. Thus the absence of the electric current at a ramp, from any cause, will result in the application of the airbrakes. There is train line pressure in all pipes, and a failure of pipes or their connection also causes a stop. *