Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 9 (January 1, 1929)

The Braking Apparatus

The Braking Apparatus.

Special four-wheeled brake vans are attached at the rear of all trains ascending the Incline, the number of vans to be attached varying according to the load. When trains descend the Incline the vans are placed at the front end of the trains, next to the engines. The special brake gear consists of four massive upright cantilever arms, pivoted on the floor of the van.

The lower ends, to which are bolted cast iron brake shoes, reach low enough to engage against the centre rail. The upper ends are forked, and work in guides on the sides of gun metal nuts, which, in turn, move in or out from the centre of horizontal shafts (screwed with right and left hand threads), running in suitable bearings. A large hand wheel is keyed to the centre of these screwed shafts, and, according to the direction in which the wheels are revolved, so the cantilever arms press the brake shoes against the centre rail, or move them away from it. So severe is the service demanded of this braking system that a set of blocks rarely lasts more than one trip down the Incline.