Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread

[Wayne Laepple]

I spent some time this afternoon with Waynesburg & Washington 2-6-0 No. 9684 at Waynesburg, Pa. Here's a photo of the Eames Vacuum Brake apparatus in the cab.

[Rick Rowlands]

I documented Wayne documenting the Eames muffler today!

[Wayne Laepple]

My best side!

Here's my photo of the muffler.

[Wayne Laepple]

And one of the entire locomotive.

[Steve Smith]

Wayne, would that be an inspection pit under the tender and rear half of the loco?

[Philip Marshall]

Wow, thank you Wayne (and Rick too). The muffler is of more substantial construction than I'd imagined, hardly the "tin can" it's often likened to. It looks like it might even be a casting!

[Rick Rowlands]

No inspection pit, just a concrete floor. 

[Alan Downey]

Great pictures of the Eames hardware! Thanks Rick and Wayne for gathering the details on the muffler. Considering the scarcity of vacuum brake equipment in the US, its lucky that we have a reference piece. Hopefully the internals aren't too much of a pain to make.

[Wayne Laepple]

The Eames apparatus in the cab appears to be a combination ejector and operating valve in one piece. The muffler body seems to be a fabrication, although the top looks like a casting. I was surprised how large it is, about the size of a gallon paint can.

[Rick Rowlands]

I am working with the Greene County Historical Society on the W&W No.4 now.  I'm currently working on an idea to be able to move the locomotive on compressed air by feeding air directly to the valve chests.  Their Plymouth diesel mechanical is out of service so the only option to get the loco to move is by air.  They like to move it outside during their annual Harvest Festival, but have been unable to do so in a few years.

The W&W coach that is sitting outside under a tarp also needs moved into the building, which is still awaiting the installation of a concrete floor.  Its a little over a 2 hour drive down there from my house so I can only make trips down occasionally.   But they did put up a new steel building for it, so when its finished the two remaining pieces of W&W equipment will be well protected. 

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

Rick, why don't they move the locomotive with a cable and a truck or a winch? A couple of snatch blocks if they can't get a direct pull, put a post at the end of the track in the building to pull it back in. Not a big deal to move something that rolls.
Mike Nix

[John Scott]

The Eames equipment on W&W No. 4 is to US Patent 228743, which can be accessed here: https://www.google.com/patents/US228743 . That equipment is designed for non-automatic continuous vacuum train brakes. I believe it could be adapted for use for the control of automatic continuous vacuum train train brakes on the WW&F.

On W&W No. 4 the vertical lever releases the brake by admitting atmospheric air to the brake pipe. The horizontal lever admits steam to create vacuum to apply the brakes. The push button, below, allows selection as to whether or not driver brakes will apply when the train brakes are applied. The vacuum ejector is contained within the main vertical body of the equipment and it exhausts steam and air through the cab roof.

[John Scott]

A top view, with muffler, of a Sydney steam tram Baldwin motor can be seen here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/NSWGT_Tram_Motor_No._1A_Top_View.jpg .

One of these in action can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnPcduIGdWc .

A web search for < steam_scene_vol5_issue5.pdf > will produce further relevant information.

[Rick Rowlands]

Rick, why don't they move the locomotive with a cable and a truck or a winch? A couple of snatch blocks if they can't get a direct pull, put a post at the end of the track in the building to pull it back in. Not a big deal to move something that rolls.
Mike Nix

I am going for simplicity.  Cables and snatch blocks get to be rather complicated for someone to deal with and involves a lot of farting around to get things set up. My system utilizes an air compressor and one hose coupled into a Chicago fitting on the side of the loco.  With an inline oiler and a ball valve to control flow, just set the Johnson bar the direction you want to go and open the valve.  The inline oiler assures that the cylinders will be lubricated, something that cannot be guaranteed moving it with any other method. 

[Bill Baskerville]

For those interested, The latest NRHS News announces the award of eight NRHS Heritage Grants.  One was:

• $3,000 to the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Railway
Museum, in Alna, Maine, to outfit its equipment with an
1881 automatic vacuum braking system patented by Eames
and originally utilized by its locomotives and cars.

https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/NRHS_News_June_2017.pdf

As it occurs, we should post our progress on their facebook page.

Bill