It is believed that in most cases these incidents are inadvertent, but whatever the reason the resulting damage is costly, not only requiring wheel re placement but also sometimes causing substantial delays in shipment of goods being carried by the disabled cars. The railroad personnel may release the brakes at the ends of adjacent cars, and for some unaccountable reason fail to walk to the opposite ends of these lengthy cars and release the brakes at those opposite ends. The problem has apparently been exacerbated by the increasingly widespread use of multi-platform articulated railcars which have the manually set braking systems placed at opposite ends of the full car length, which may be five or six platforms in length and extend for a linear distance of three hundred feet or more. The cumulative annual cost of this type of repair is considerable and has been a worrisome problem in the railroad industry. ![]() The wheel damage is not repairable, and the cars so affected must be taken into the shop for wheel replacement, a not inexpensive procedure. This causes extreme wear on the railhead and very rapid development of flats on the wheels. This type of brake system is fitted with a release handle which disengages the ratchet device so that the release of chain tension causes the brake shoes out of engagement with the car wheels.Įxperience has shown that it is not unusual that one or more of the mechanically set handbrakes in a string of railroad cars on occasion have failed to have been released, with the unfortunate consequence that when the railroad cars are moved from their stopped position the still engaged brakes have caused the wheels with which they are engaged to remain locked and to be dragged along the railhead rather than to rotate. When the car is stopped, the brake is set by manually rotating a handbrake wheel which pulls on an endless chain arrangement rotating a ratchet controlled drum to move the brake shoes inward toward and against the car wheels. These manually applied brakes include brake shoes positioned to engage the railroad car wheels which seat on the rail heads. Mechanical railroad car handbrakes are used when railroad cars are standing still to prevent the cars from rolling from the desired location. Railroad cars use manually mechanically set brakes to lock the wheels of railroad car trucks when the cars are standing still, as for example in a marshalling yard or on a siding. ![]() This invention relates to handbrakes for railroad cars, and more particularly relates to a hydraulic system for the release of a handbrake located remotely from the point where brake release actuation is effected. Setting of the manually operated brakes is carried out as though the brake release system did not exist, namely, each brake mechanism must be individually operated to set its associated brake. ![]() The brake release system is operative from either end of the railroad car, and does not include any provision for resetting the brakes. When the release handles are actuated and released, return springs disposed about the cylinders piston rods automatically return the release handles and pistons at both ends to their non-actuated positions. ![]() Brake releasing actuation at one handbrake unit pressurizes the hydraulic system so that the cylinder affixed to the brake unit at the opposite end of the car is also actuated to operate the release handle and release the brake at that end. The system utilizes the standard type handbrake, but has affixed to each of the handbrake units a hydraulic cylinder, with interconnecting hydraulic lines between hydraulic cylinders located at opposite ends of the railcar. A manually operated railroad car handbrake release system in which the release of the handbrake at one end of a car automatically causes release of the brakes at the opposite end of the same car.
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