11-21-2009, 02:37 PM
Gary S Wrote:Steamtrains Wrote:I think the brake wheels were placed up high so the brakeman, who was walking the length of the train on the roof walks, didn't have to climb all the way down to set the brakes - just a few steps down, set the brakes, and a little walk up the ladder and go on to the next car....
That makes sense, but why did he have to walk the roof in the first place? Why couldn't he just walk on the ground? With low brake wheels?
Before diesels, there were no dynamic brakes. The brakemen had to set the brakes by hand to use as retarders when the train was going down hill, go through the process again to release the brakes when the train got off the hill. They used a head end brakeman and a tail end brakeman. The head end brakeman would start at the locomotive and set brakes moving back while the rear end brakeman would start at the caboose heading forward, and they would meet in the middle. The brakes needed to be set and released while the train was in motion. Dynamic brakes on the new diesels eliminated the need to set brakes as retarders on down grades and release them off the hill, so the roof walks became obsolete. I think the roof walks were eliminated as a safety measure, and all new equipment had the brake wheels mounted lower. The only equipment that still uses roof walks today are covered hoppers because of the need to open hatches for loading. Ice bunker reefers also needed roof walks to allow for icing the loads, but they were being phased out in favor of mechanical reefers during the transition and were pretty much gone by 1972.