8 
Continuous Railway Breaks. [January, 
The following particulars relative to these breaks are taken 
from the Appendix to the Report of the Royal Commission, 
and may therefore be considered as describing those forms 
of each which are most perfect of their class : — - 
i. The Chain Break . — The latest improvement in this form 
of break is that known as Clark and Webb’s continuous 
break. A chain — or, in the newest form, a steel rope — runs 
the entire length of the train, underneath the carriages, 
terminating in the guard’s van, by means of which the 
breaks are applied to the wheels of every carriage. In the 
experiments made for the Royal Commissioners with this 
break, the train was divided into sections of four or five 
carriages, which were placed in the following order with 
reference to the break-vans : — First, there were four car- 
riages together, then a break-van. From this van the 
breaks of the first four carriages were worked, and also 
those of the four carriages following the van. The re- 
maining five carriages were under the control of the van at 
the tail of the train. Each carriage was provided with its 
own length of chain and couplings. The chain passed over 
seven pulleys fixed under the framings of the carriage, and 
under one pulley carried by levers which were in connection 
with tension-rods attached to the break-blocks. When the 
chain throughout a section was coupled up, one end of it 
was made fast to the end of the extreme carriage of the 
seCtion, and the other was led to a chain barrel hung under 
the framing of the guard’s van at the other end of the 
section, close to the centre axle of the van. On the chain 
barrel, and also on the van axle, there were friCtion-wheels, 
and by releasing a weighted lever in the van the friCtion- 
wheels were brought into contact, and, if the van was in 
motion, the chain barrel was made to rotate. By this 
means the chain throughout the section to which the barrel 
belonged was tightened, the pulley carried by levers under 
each carriage already mentioned was raised by the chain, 
and the breaks were applied to the wheels. The van from 
which the breaks of a section, both in front of it and behind 
it, were actuated, had two chain barrels set in motion by 
the release of one weighted lever. To release the breaks 
the guard in each van had to put back the lever into its 
normal position, and secure it with a catch, at the same 
time surrounding and releasing the breaks by a weighted 
lever arranged for the purpose. In order to place the con- 
tinuous breaks of the whole train at the command of the 
driver, a cord was passed over the roof of the carriages to 
the engine. This enabled the driver to release the catch 
