So... why didn't they tie the brakes into the couplers or the buffers? If the train is stretched, the brakes are loose. When the couplers compress, have them push on the brakes. Simple, automatic.
which rendered the brakemen's cabins for the most part redundant. "Redundant" means someone or something (air brakes) else is already doing the work; "obsolete" means the job no longer needs to be done. The braking still need to be done.
Damnit I saw this and instantly thought "cute tiny train that can deliver small cute loads" but I am now disappointed in the Germans once inefficient mechanical engineering.
Surprisingly, you didn't mention with single word the second and decisive reason for those break sheds: 200 years of thievery! There were entire gangs, or families busy for generations long with stilling the goods from trains. Thieves were boarding the carriages on stations, water stops or on slopes and curves where trains were going slower. Goods were dropped from the train and picked by another or by perpetrators walking back home along the track. Sometimes there was a time needed to force the locks, break few planks lose to get in or disassemble expensive parts of transported cars, tractors or military equipment. This solution was solving two problems at once: guarding transported goods (where thieves couldn't see is there anybody inside or not) and breaking.
I've been wondering if these kriegsloks that were built during the war received red paint on the undercarriage and if other dampfloks had the red painted over
Great info! My old Marklin HO set I got in 1956 had a car with that cabin on it. I wonder about it being from the US and familiar with cabooses, the little cabin was odd to me, but as a kid it was cool. 😊
Con la nascita della DR nel 1921 queste cabine avevano anche un senso politico e sociale: posti di lavoro. Fu tacito compito della DR assorbire quanti più reduci possibile smobilitati e disoccupati. Inoltre si dovette procedere al riordino e classificazione di lovomotive ( a vapore) e vagoni confluite nella DR dalle ferrovie bavaresi, prussiane, Baden Wüttenberg.
The compressed air brake which replaced the brake men was the Kunze-Knorr-Bremse manufactured by the company Knorr Bremse. The company used to have a holiday home for employees (or possibly their children, not sure) in Glashof, a part of the small city of St. Blasien in the Black Forest, Germany. While disused the building still had a sign Ferienheim Knorr-Bremse over the entrance until at least the 1990 or so. This is slightly ironical as St. Blasien itself has no rail connection. One was promised in the 90s - the 1890s, that is - by the Grand Duke of Baden but never built. I guess it was the fresh air then as opposed to Berlin where Knorr Bremse was headquartered at the time. Btw, great blender modeling! Are your .blend files available?
Because they crammed jews into them and with enough force they could fit 6 million of them in there thus turning a log carriage into mass transportation. Unfortunately after the 1940’s they had to stop
Thank you very much for this information. I wanted to know this for a very long time. How I came to know that German log carrying wagons havetiny cabins at one end: My grandfather worked in TELCO (currently Tata Motors) in the 50s and 60s, and they had collaboration with Mercedes Benz at that time. He was sent to Mercedes Benz headquarters in Germany for advanced training. When he went their he was interested in the small extremely detailed scale models of railway wagons and locomotives. He got a brochure (essentially a small book) of Trix Express showcasing their hoping to buy a set after he comes back to India (but he didn't buy). I got hold of that book when I was about 7 or 8 years old and treasured it till I was about 20. Over time I forgot everything about it. Since few days back I started reminicing about it and very conveniently I came across your video.
Not until 1937 were roofwalk-height brake wheels removed from interchanged freight cars when rebuilt. One big advantage, besides safety, was the increased capacity achieved by making freight cars two feet higher! The RR's are always thinking about maximizing earnings.
People have mentioned the States in comparison, but what was then the busiest railroad in the USA, the Pennsylvania, equipped many freight locomotive tenders with a "head-end brakeman's cabin," a feature often called "the doghouse." Although they were steel, I can't imagine many less-comfortable places to ride a coal-fired steam-powered freight train than the top of the water tank.
@@alexhajnal107 Oh, that's right. Perhaps it was because a narrow gauge engine cab is smaller than that of a standard gauge loco? With so many tunnels, the narrow gauge engines had to be particularly narrow.
@@pacificostudios I doubt lack of space in the cab was a consideration since the brakemen wouldn't normally be there on any railroad. I think it was due to the weather being harsher in the Rockies that led the D&RGW to adopt them. Hyce went into detail on it in _Why is there a HOUSE on the TENDER? - D&RGW K-37 491_
@@alexhajnal107 - Since I wasn't around in the days of steam, and I've only worked on historic electric (streetcar) equipment, I just Googled "where did the head-end brakeman ride a train?" As I suspected, the answer was the locomotive cab. Remember that many states in the steam era required two and even three brakemen on a train, along with the conductor, engineer, and fireman. Pennsylvania R.R., in particular, operated in many states with "full crew laws," so adding a "doghouse" to a freight engine made a lot of sense. The rear brakie rode in the cabin car (Pennsy-speak for "caboose"). Having the head-end brakie in the cabin car defeated the purpose of having a head-end man. I guess that adding a second cabin car behind the tender of a loco was deemed an extravagance, since cabin cars were expensive to buy and maintain. Of course, the replacement of hand brakes with air brakes operated by the engineer greatly reduced the need to have men standing on roofwalks turning brake wheels. Still, having a rear brakeman riding with the conductor in the caboose, along with a head end brakeman meant the brakemen had a lot shorter walk when switching a long train. Furthermore, before handheld radios, extra brakemen could relay hand signals between the conductor on one end of a train and the engineer on the other end. Back to the narrow gauge, the first source I found confirmed my suspicions. The reasons Colorado narrow gauge lines installed doghouses were that the cabs were too small for three men to work around each other--especially the hard-shoveling fireman--and the weather was too cold for the brakeman to ride without shelter. www.mylargescale.com/threads/what-did-the-head-end-brakeman-in-the-doghouse-do.18037/ Remember that the old narrow gauge freight trains were much shorter than standard gauge drags by the 1920s. Also, the steep grades and frail construction of narrow gauge freight cars militated against putting too much tractive effort on the drawbar.
@alexhajnal107 - Also, the "doghouse" didn't need a stove like a caboose because it had a steam heating coil. Moreover, at least on the western narrow gauge lines, a steam heating system was often installed in the water tank to keep the boiler water from freezing up. So those doghouses must have been a lot more comfortable on a winter day than we might otherwise imagine. As for the PRR, many mainline tracks had "track pans" from which engines scooped up the water as the train passed over them, usually overflowing out of the vent pipe. My guess is that the brakie often had to close the windows in a hurry to keep from getting drenched by all the spray when his train took on water that way. Reportedly, getting drenched during the winter while passing over track pans could be fatal to a rail-riding hobo.
Dear Author, I'm sorry. But you haven't fully answered your own question. Round buffers do tend to slip off on an uneven path. The reason for this is that for two curved surfaces, when their axes are shifted, a force arises that tends to increase this displacement. If one of the surfaces is flat, then such a force has a constant value, which does not lead to an increase in shear
Keep these videos coming ! ❤ I’m from the UK and love German railways history and have lots of pre ww2 locomotives. Your videos really help explain questions I’ve often had when looking at my models, so really appreciate your work,
