Quote:
Originally Posted by steam for ever
Back to topic, I believe westinghouse brake syestems are much better and they should not have mucked it up.
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Hmm, every train I've ever driven had Westinghouse brakes - and they all stopped where I wanted them to. What exactly did they
muck up ?
Quote:
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Remember when the voyagers had trouble stopping?
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Indeed I do. And I know the reason as well. Here are the
FACTS...
Under low adhesion conditions drivers are told to use less brake (and apply it earlier), in order to prevent wheelslide - this is true for all trains, even steam ones.
When the Voyagers were first introduced the Train Operating Company (I'm deliberately not naming them) didn't appreciate that the Voyagers brakes are so efficient, that on the first few notches of brake controller it only uses a few of the available axles to brake with. When you move the controller further it brings more brakes into operation.
As you can imagine, when the train is sliding on a slippery rail you want as many axles to be braking as possible. So what the driver should have done is use a higher brake step so that all the brakes were working, and left it to the WSP (Wheel Slide Protection - which is similar to ABS in cars) to deal with the slide.
The effect of this was that the train didn't behave in the way that the driver had predicted, and it hit the stops. This was all at low speed.
So the reason was failure of the operating company to appreciate how the technology differed from previous trains, followed by its failure to implement an appropriate new Company Driving Policy.
The enquiry found that the brakes were working properly and not to be at fault.
This information is not priviledged, it was in all the papers and therefore available to anyone with enough railway/technical curiousity to look for it.