414 The Northallerton Accident, 1894 



forward half of the train had been as efficiently braked as the 

 after portion no collision would have taken place. 



An ideal distribution of brake-power would be such that, 

 on shutting off steam and applying the brakes, the train as a 

 whole should come to a standstill in the shortest possible 

 distance, and each individual vehicle making up the train should 

 have its speed reduced at the same rate as every other one, so 

 that there should be neither pull nor push between neighbouring 

 vehicles. The brake distribution in the ordinary carriages of 

 the Scotch express seems to approach this standard sufficiently 

 for practical purposes. It is when we consider the engines 

 that the great defect is apparent. The tender is always 

 fitted with powerful brakes on its wheels; but so are the 

 ordinary coaches, which do not weigh half as much as the 

 loaded tender. Formerly, the engine was entirely wanting in 

 brakes, but gradually they have come to be fitted with them, 

 but the friction surface supplied is quite insignificant when their 

 great mass is considered. We may take the engine of such an 

 express to weigh at least four times one of the ordinary coaches, 

 yet the brake-blocks applied to its wheels are seldom of greater 

 surface than those of the ordinary coaches. The leading 

 wheels are never supplied with brakes at all. 



As the velocity of every portion of the train is the same, 

 the brake friction or retarding power ought to be proportional 

 to the weight of each vehicle. If the pressure per unit of area 

 of rubbing surface is the same in each vehicle, then the area 

 of rubbing surface ought to be in proportion to the weight of 

 the vehicle. This proportionality does not exist in any of our 

 railways, when the ordinary carriages are compared with the 

 locomotives. To the ordinary lay observer there would seem 

 to be no insuperable difficulty in fitting an engine which has 

 four 7 ft. driving wheels and four bogie wheels in front, with 

 four times the brake surface which can be applied to an ordinary 

 six-wheeled carriage. It would be very interesting to know, 

 from the professional side, how it conies that this great difference 

 between the power which the driver has of stopping the train 

 of carriages and that of stopping his engine has been allowed 

 to continue. Had there been no such difference, the East Coast 



