Air pumps on BSR 7 & 8?

[Anthony Vo]

So I was doing research on the use of vacuum brakes on the various two-footers and found that BSR 7 and 8 had air pumps added sometime in the 1950s at Edaville. I have found pictures on eBay of 8 in the 1950s with the pump mounted in front of the cab, before it was moved lower down in line with the running board. Presently, 7 still has its pump, so I'm curious: what was the purpose or reason for adding the air pump? Did Edaville have a need for the two to have compressed air?

[Gavin Dalessandro]

To answer your question no Edaville didn't need the air pumps as none of the cars had it hooked up but it was more of a personal opinion. After Ellis Atwood died in 1950, the park and railroad was ran for a few years by his wife and her cousin until the operation was leased to George Richardson and F. Nelson Blount. Blount thought that 7 & 8 just didn't look right without pumps as both are much more modern engines compared to 3 & 4 what with walcherts valve gear and electric headlights not to mention road pilots and leading trucks and having some rinky-dink vacuum brakes just didn't agree with the aesthetics of the locomotives
 

[Dante Lakin]

Gavin, do you have a source for them being added for aesthetic reasons? I would've thought it's because air brakes are stronger than vacuum, and the trains 7 and 8 could handle almost necessitated the extra braking force compared to 3 or 4.

Also, if aesthetics were the reason, then it seems awful strange that 8 was regularly outfitted with a box headlight and faux diamond stack, even with air brakes.

[Gavin Dalessandro]

I can't remember off the top of my head exactly who told me but I think it was James Nobilini

[Bill Piche]

I believe the pumps were added more for practical reasons.

Edaville had stripped most of the brakes off of the cars as the freight work gave way to passenger operations. The passenger cars were a mishmash of straight vacuum brakes (B&H cars) and automatic air brakes (the SRRL passenger cars) or built inhouse without brakes, so standardizing the brakes was probably a low priority since they operated in a very insular manner (no "public" road crossings, limited down grades, etc). You also had the issues of kids closing brake valves, pulling emergency valves, turning brake wheels, and so on.

The other thing is that by the time that the air compressors went on, parts for the vacuum and steam cylinder brakes would have been a lot harder to come by. 9" compressors were very available in the 50s as locomotives were being scrapped so the conversions could be done fairly cheap from the standpoint of the physical parts. Plus if you strip the steam brakes out of the Baldwins you have double the parts to fix the brakes on the Monson engines if need be.

I have a feeling that if Blount had lived automatic air brakes would have been installed on all of the cars at some point. There's actually a 6" compressor for a Monson engine stored somewhere in the MNG boxcars. It was it was likely seen as an expense that they could just forego and operate around.