EXPERIMENTS ON BREAKS FOR RAILWAY TRAINS. 77 



break power habitually supplied to trains is in most cases insufficient ; and 

 their Lordships enumerate thirteen accidents from collision occurring in 1858, 

 the character of which they consider would have been materially modified, if 

 notaltogethr prevented, by an increased retarding power under the command 

 of the guards of the trains. 



Upon this subject the most important communication hitherto made has 

 been the Report prepared by Colonel Yolland for the Railway Department of 

 the Board of Trade, and containing a large number of experiments with heavy 

 trains at high velocities. The breaks with which Colonel Yolland experi- 

 mented were those which, as improvements on the common hand break, have 

 hitherto commanded most success. These were the steam-break of Mr. 

 McConnel, the continuous break of Mr. Fay, the continuous self-acting break 

 of Mr. Newall, and the self-acting buffer-break of M. Guerin. The general 

 conclusions to which Colonel Yolland was led by his experiments, resulted 

 in the recommendation of the break of Mr. Newall ; and for heavy traffic, a 

 provisional recommendation of the break of M. Guerin. 



From a misunderstanding caused by this Report of Colonel Yolland, arose 

 the necessity for some further experiments on the similar breaks of Mr. Fay 

 and Mr. Newall ; and these I was called upon to arrange and carry out by 

 the Directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. I propose to lay 

 before the Association a brief abstract of these experiments, with some 

 remarks upon the conclusions to which they give rise. 



It will not be necessary here to describe minutely the details of the con- 

 struction of these breaks. They consist essentially of a series of break-blocks 

 acting upon every wheel of the carriages of the whole train or some part of 

 the train, the break-blocks being suspended as flaps, or placed on slide bars 

 beneath each carriage, as in the ordinary arrangement of the guard vans. 

 But whereas it would be both expensive and inefficient to work these breaks 

 with a guard or breaksman to each carriage, both Mr. Fay's and Mr. Newali's 

 patents provide for a continuous shaft, carried the whole length of the train, 

 beneath the framing and with suitable jointed couplings between each pair 

 of carriages, so that they may be undisturbed by the rocking motion of the 

 train or the action of the buffers. In this way the whole of the breaks may 

 be worked by a single person at either end of the train, communicating his 

 power to each break through the agency of the continuous shaft. 



Again, there have been applied, in the first instance by Mr. Newall, and 

 subsequently by Mr. Fay, powerful springs beneath each carriage, connected 

 with the arms of the rocking shaft, by means of which the breaks are made 

 to act instantaneously throughout the train, on the release of a catch or dis- 

 engaging coupling in the guard's van. The value of this provision for the 

 immediate and simultaneous action of the whole of the breaks, in cases where 

 an obstruction is perceived upon the line, will be at once evident. It is one 

 of the most important features of these breaks. 



In carrying out the views of the Directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 Railway Company, it was arranged, in order to test the relative efficiency of 

 these breaks, to have a series of experiments upon the Oldham incline of 1 

 in 27. On this gradient a train of carriages, fitted with Mr. Newali's self- 

 acting slide breaks, and a similar train fitted with Mr. Fay's continuous flap 

 breaks, were started in turn, and after having passed over a measured distance 

 by the action of their own gravity, the breaks were applied and the distance 

 along the incline in which the trains were respectively brought up was care- 

 fully°ascertained as a measure of the retarding force of each. The trains 

 employed consisted of three weighted carriages each, and having been placed 

 upon the incline, they were started by removing a stop. Having then 



