Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-16
EXAMINATION OF BRAKES.
Inspector BradsIrayv's Report Upon
Those of the TcnIeytown Line.

Mr.. ]. w. Chappell of Tenleytown COM
planned to the District Commissioners sew
eral weeks ago that in his opinion the cars
of the Georgetown and Tenleytown Rail-
road Company were not equipped with
proper brakes. In this connection he called
the attention of the Commissioners to an
accident on the road the latter part of last
November, when, he stated, one of the COM
panys cars in running down 32d street be-
came unmanageablean and dashed into build
ing. The Commissioners directed that the
matter be investigated, and they have for
warded the following report made to them
by Inspector l.. p. Bradshaw of the engi-
neering department:
In SO far as the schedule of operation
now in effect upon this road is in question,
1t is confined to five cars, running on time
table of which the following is a copy:
Leave Bethesda Park 615 am. and every
half hour thereafter until 11:45 pm; leave
West c. c. $50 q. m. and every fifteen min
utes until 10 pm, and every half hour
thereafter until II m; leave 32d and NJ
streets am. and every fifteen minutes
until 10 p. M. and every half hour thereaf-
ter until l. M
AS respects the number of cars in use, II
is believed that five are ample for the
traffic demands CT the road while the run
ming interval, as above indicated, fulhlls
the requirements of public convenience as
contemplated by the charter in respect of
suburban roads. These cars are electric
motors, heated and lighted. and though the
bodies are the original of the first equip
ment OF the road and show some evidences
of wear, the trucks and electric gear are
modern patterns the trucks of Peckham.
the electric gear of WESTINGHOUSE and C.
e. 1000 manufactures. having replaced the
old in the summer of '96. The brake equip
ment | found to be both substantial and
efficient in response to application and as
hand brakes, / believe not readily to be
improved upon, while ii was demonstrated
to be possible, by the counteraction of the
motors, to bring one of these motor cars
with trailer attached to a stop on the
hill north of the power house, practically
per cent grade, with the brakes thrown
off.
These facts, taken with the facts that
the company requires a daily report of the
condition of each car before going out on
its run, and that immediate examination
by competent employees disclosed the
brakes OF the car, the subject Of this acct
dent, TO be intact, but securely locked
force me to believe that the accident was
not due to any defect or impairment of the
brake mechanism or failure of the brakes
to perform their function under proper con-
diuons, but rather TO the failure to get
traction, primarily the result of sudden
rain, supernduced by want of present sand
supply in the emergency, causing the
wheels of the car. at the time having got
ten underway down this steep grade to
slide, and rendering brake action futile In
diVerting its function to a locking instead
of a checking device of revolving wheels
1t is rot believed that a brake of any de-
scription, however efficient of operation
could have averted the accident under the
circumstances, and to provide for the emer-
gency of sudden rain and promote traction
the better to insure efficient brake action.
L recommend that these cars be compelled
to carry sand boxes filled with a ready
complement of sand