Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-20
AT 30 MILES AN HOUR.
A Pre.Arranged Collision Of Freight Cars
With Westinghouse Buffers Attached, |
and the Remarkable Result. |

A Pre- Arranged Collision of Freight Cars
With Westinghouse Buffers Attached,
and the Remarkable Result.
Reference has previously been made in
these columns to the Westinghouse friction
buffer, the exclusive manufacture Of which
is in the hands of the Union Switch and
Signal Company, of Swissvale. An officer
of that company yesterday gave the follow
ing interesting statement to a reporter for
this paper:
The essential feature of this device is, that
friction is developed between interlocking sets
of thin plates, and is brought into play as an
aid to the regular draft springs. in receiving
and absorbing the momentum due to shocks
which occur SO frequently in the ordinary pro-
cess OF shifting and making up freight trains,
and which are of daily occurrence on the road,
when trains are stopped and started, or are
running over undulating grades.
On last Wednesday, at the Pennsylvania
Railroad car shops at Altoona, very i'm
portant test was made to determine the effect
OF these buffers when applied to freight cars.
as well as the relative endurance of the buffers
and the freight cars themselves. Two Penn
sylvania Railroad gondola cars had been fitted
with friction buffers for the purpose of this
test The cars were old and weak, and it was
intended that the test should be SO severe as to
make them unfit for further service. The tests
were conducted as follows: The two cars were
set on piece Of straight track and the brakes
on one firmly set; an engine hauled the other
back and then gave it shot down the track. SO
that it came into collision with the standing
car Fourteen such tests were made. In the
M
hve miles per hour; in the successive tests,
up to and including the eleventh, the speed was
gradually increased, until, in the eleventh test.
it reached 25 miles per hour. In the twelfth
the blocking back of one Of the buffers was
smashed by the conclusion, and one of the car
trucks broke loose from its fastenings, and
stripped the body bolster. This was due to the
momentum of the heavy truck, and the sudden
stoppage of the car body. On the fourteenth
test, speed of 80 miles per hour was reached,
with the result that one center sill on the
moving car was cracked, near the body bolster.
and both center sills of the fixed car were
cracked at the same place; the drawhead of
the fixed car was also broken in the shank; the
holsters under both cars were partially stripped
from their positions. The buffers, however,
remained intact and uninjured. The two cars
were so badly used up as to be unfit for further
service. while the buffers will be transferred to
other cars, and continued in service.
The fact that two such old cars could be run
together at speed of 80 miles an hour with
out utterly demolishing them has conclusively
proven the efficiency of the buffers to absorb
momentum without serious shock to the
structure. These buffers will theoretically.
take up momentum six and one-balf times as
great as can be absorbed by an ordinary draft
rigging when in perfect condition; but, in fact
owing to the average loose condition of the
draft gear of most ordinary cars, these friction
buffers will absorb and take up from II to Is
times the momentum which ordinary draft rig
ging will take care of.
The test was considered great success, as it
demonstrated conclusively not only the ca
pacity of this new friction buffer to absorb
momentem, but the great strength of con-
struction of the buffer and its attachment to
the car body.
The Union Switch and Signal Company has
made preparations to manufacture these fric-
tion buffers in large quantities to meet the ex-
pected demand for them.
The size and weight of freight cars. and the
average weight of their lading, has increased
so enormously in recent years that it is doubt
full whether the old style of draft gear can be
made strong enough to successfully resist the
wear and tear of service, unless the capacity of
the draft rigging is supplemented and in
creased by some such device as this new fric-
tion buffer.