dummy Westinghouse pump?

[Keith S]

I've ordered some detail parts for my locomotive, including some "running boards", which I think will look very good. They come with or without a "Westinghouse pump". I find that the pump detail itself makes the engine look very good, but I have noticed that they really only appear on British narrow-gauge engines in the post-preservation era. Am I correct in this observation? I would like to keep my train looking ambiguous in terms of what era it is actually meant to represent. I've also deliberately kept the level of detail low, because it's a freelance model and I would like to just keep it looking kind of generic, to avoid the slippery slope of actual prototype modeling. I'm doing some detailing so that the train looks "real", but avoiding too much detail in order to deliberately blur the "where" and "when", if you know what I mean.

[MDLR]

As far as I can remember, the only loco fitted with one in the "Heritage" era was Russell....................

[Keith S]

I've seen pictures of "Duncan" on the TLR in which it has a vacuum pipe coming from the smokebox, and more current pictures where it does not, but instead a great big westinghouse pump on a bracket. I assumed that most railways used vacuum and have only changed to air recently. I'm just trying to make up my mind whether a Westinghouse pump would be out-of -place on a model steam engine meant to look like it was operating in Britain in the early 20th century.

[laalratty]

As far as I can remember, the only loco fitted with one in the "Heritage" era was Russell....................

And every other loco in the North Wales Narrow gauge fleet, or should have been. Gowrie certainly had one.
Basically, you fit a Westinghouse Air pump if the loco is working with air braked stock. Air braking bits are more readily obtainable then vacuum bits these days, hence so many preserved NG lines going for air braking. The 3 foot gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale also used air brakes (nominally....) and were fitted with air pumps.

[Keith S]

The 3 foot gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale also used air brakes (nominally....) and were fitted with air pumps.

Ah. This is helpful. I guess I should have worded my question more succinctly. What I meant to ask was "Did British narrow gauge engines tend to have Westinghouse pumps between 1900 and 1935 or so?"


I think I'll leave it off. Other than prototype issues, the fact that none of my rolling stock has brake shoes, including the engine, makes it kind of silly to have brake pumps on the running boards. I tried making brake shoes for my van, and it was tedious. I'm not doing it for the whole train!

[MDLR]

I think the only NG lines using vacuum brakes do so under "grandfather rights". More modern lines were required to fit continuous air brakes and some older lines are converting, hence the arrival of air pumps on some TR locos.

[Keith S]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll leave the pump off. Like a magpie, I am attracted by small shiny bits and if I don't exercise discretion my locomotive will wind up labouring under its own weight in non-functioning brass details.

[IrishPeter]

British railways tended to favour the Smith non-automatic vacuum brake in the 1870s.  This sucked the brake 'on' rather than 'off.' Now get your minds out of the gutter. The non-automatic brake was rather a suicidal way of doing it as the Armagh disaster proved because if the pipe was holed, or disconnected, the brakes leaked off.  However, when the BOT got the Lock, Block and Brake Act through in 1889, most railways were in a position where the cheapest thing for them to do was to convert from non-automatic to automatic vacuum brakes - essential a plumbing job that included the addition of a small ejector to overcome leakage, in addition to the large one used to blow the brakes off.

A few lines with more than the usual amount of smarts opted for air from the start.  The two I am most familiar with are the NER and the GER.  Air brake was a little more expensive in initial cost than vacuum, but it has a lower draw on the boiler, and can be lighter as some systems use only one pump.  Since about 1970 air brakes have been the norm for mainline stock, and the Safety Elves are now pushing for it on narrow gauge lines. IIRC, the Festiniog is vacuum, but the Welsh Highland is air brake which must occasionally result in the air turning blue when remarshaling the sets unless a proportion of the Nogger stock is dual braked.

When the vacuum brakes were re-installed on the Isle of Man Railway in the 1990s they discovered that they reduced output to rail by about 15% - or one carriage - dropping the unassisted load for a Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T from 7 to 6 carriages or, to put it another way from 100 to 85 tons.  Of course, from 1927 to about 1990 the Isle of Man Railway was vacuum fitted, but usually ran with the pin out so they had that extra bit of power for traction.  Maitland or Kissack handling 8/9 unassisted up Nunnery bank on a wet day was a real knicker gripper as if she lost her feet there was nothing for it but to back down and try again, or get a shove from one of the Donegal Railcars!  The CDRJC cars had a reasonable amount of 'grunt' in first gear, but once you changed up, they became useless for banking. The loco shortages 1978/79/80 led to some interesting stuff happening in TT week.

British Railways standardized on vacuum in the 1950s, then went whoops in the late 1960s and standardized on air brake.  CIE used vacuum quite a bit longer.  I remember travelling from Dublinf to Limerick to Waterford in vacuum-braked; steam heated BREL Mk2b and Cravens stock as late as 1999.

Peter in AZ

[Keith S]

When you say the vacuum brakes reduced the output to rail by 15% Peter, do you mean that this is how much steam the locomotive uses to drive the ejectors? That sounds like a lot! Storing compressed air for air brakes must use a lot less steam.

[TonyW]

IIRC, the Festiniog is vacuum, but the Welsh Highland is air brake which must occasionally result in the air turning blue when remarshaling the sets unless a proportion of the Nogger stock is dual braked.

All Festiniog and Welsh Highland stock is vacuum-braked only. There is no dual-brake stock.

The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway uses air brakes.

I'd agree that about 15% of the steam generated is used to keep the brakes off. At the FR this was very noticeable when double-heading as only one loco would create the vacuum. Water and fuel consumption on the "non braking" loco was considerably reduced.

[IrishPeter]

When you say the vacuum brakes reduced the output to rail by 15% Peter, do you mean that this is how much steam the locomotive uses to drive the ejectors? That sounds like a lot! Storing compressed air for air brakes must use a lot less steam.

Yes, about 15% of the boiler output goes to the ejectors.  On the Isle of Man, this is not too much of a problem with Nos, 4, 10, 12, 13, and 15, but No.8 Fenella can struggle to lift 6 carriages and keep the brakes off.  She has a 2'10" diameter boiler compared to the 3'3" of 4-6 & 10-13 so although her nominal tractive effort is the same, the actual amount of steam available to sustain it just isn't there.  She also has worn valve facings, and chances are that they are beyond being skimmed again, but even before the wear set in, she had trouble with six. No.1 Sutherland, when she was in service 1998-2003, was similarly short winded and her valves are in better nick than No.8's.

That fact alone explains a lot about IMR loco allocations in the 1950s.  The surviving small boiler locomotives - 1, 3, 8, & 14 - tended to stay on the flatter and less tightly curved Peel and Ramsey lines.  5 & 6 also tended to stay on the Peel/Ramsey service as their smaller fireboxes meant they are a bit less free steaming than the later locomotives 10-13 and 16 which spent most of their time on the Port Erin line.  By 1955, 2 and 7 had been dismantled; 4 & 9 were at the back of the carriage shed, and you only used 15 if you absolutely positively had to for snow clearance.  The roughest 2-4-0T was usually used as station pilot at Douglas as it waited to go into the works.  In the late 1950s this was quite frequently No.1 Sutherland.  Later No.13, which was equally disputable by this stage, performed the office.

Tony W - for some reason I thought the WHR was air - probably assumed it was because NWNGR was, the WHHR is, and most recent projects have had the hammer dropped on them by the Inspectors to use blow brakes not suck!  I haven't been that way on since the late 80s before the reconstruction of the WHR began in earnest.  I must go for a looksee when I am over again.

Peter in AZ

[TonyW]

Tony W - for some reason I thought the WHR was air - probably assumed it was because NWNGR was, the WHHR is, and most recent projects have had the hammer dropped on them by the Inspectors to use blow brakes not suck!  I haven't been that way on since the late 80s before the reconstruction of the WHR began in earnest.  I must go for a looksee when I am over again.

I may be wrong, but my memory tells me that there was some investigation done in the mid-1990s by the FR concerning conversion of all stock to air braking, but it came to nothing. The important phrase there is "all stock" as a mixture just would not have worked. This was before the WHR rebuild started in earnest and before any new WHR stock had been built. With the number of carriages and locos now in operation, any future conversion exercise will surely be astronomically expensive.

During my first visit to Switzerland a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rhaetian Railways metre-gauge trains use vacuum brakes.

[GTB]

The brake system on your stock really depends on the geographical and historical setting for your line.

A common carrier would be more likely to have continuous brakes of some sort, but industrial and mining lines would be less likely to have them. Also, Mountain lines would be more likely to have continuous brakes than a prairie/savannah line.

Vacuum brakes usually means there was a British trained engineer around early in a lines history.

There are always exceptions of course. The Maine 2 footers started with handbrakes, went to vacuum brakes and finally converted to air brakes around the time of the Kaiser's war....

Here in Oz with it's mixture of US and British practice, the VR ng lines used Westinghouse, as that was what the broad gauge used and they needed automatic brakes when faced with ruling grades of 1:30 and 2 chain curves. The privately owned Powelltown Tramway near Melbourne was a common carrier over part of it's line, but always relied on just the loco. brakes.

The first Garratts used vacuum brakes because that was what the parent TGR used and like the VR ng lines, the NE Dundas Tram ran in mountain country.

The Innisfail Tram up in banana bender country would be expected to have used Westinghouse like it's parent QR, but like other 2' gauge cane trams, it relied on just engine brakes.

Even today, Queensland 2' gauge cane bins are unbraked and loose coupled. The remaining cane lines still manage to run up to 1000 tonne trains on 2' gauge though. One lead diesel, a mid train diesel and a brake wagon bringing up the rear, all controlled from the lead loco. with Locotrol......

If you are still looking for extra detail to add to your Billy, one thing I find very noticeable on them is the lack of the external throttle valve on the dome and the external steam and exhaust lines.

Graeme

[IrishPeter]

In the UK, if you were common carrier then you were required to have automatic continuous brake on your passenger stock by the 1889 Act. A couple of lines had a chitty from the BOT which excused them. The Talylynn was retained the privilege until the 1990s, and the other was the Ballycastle which had no continuous brake until the NCC took it over in 1924.

Just as on the Standard Gauge, a few lines used air brakes. T'Owd Ratty was one, and the NWNGR was the other that comes to mine quickly, but there were others. Otherwise vacuum was the norm.

Goods stock was almost universally unbraked with the exception of a couple of the Irish lines. Most Tralee and Dingle and Castlederg and Victoria Bridge stock was fitted, and to add to the fun, the C&VB used air brakes which were fitted 1886-7 after an accident on the steep bank down into Victoria Bridge cause by the Smith non-automatic vacuum brakes originally fitted!

Peter in AZ

[Keith S]

Well thanks for all the info men, I've got lots to think about now. I feel like if I want to go down the "detail" route, Brandbright is going to get an order for about ten pairs of hosebags, and I'll have to somehow make brake-shoes for my wagons.

[TonyW]

... Brandbright is going to get an order for about ten pairs of hosebags ...

Which are vacuum bags, so you won't need a Westinghouse pump. I don't know of anybody who makes air brake pipes.

[Keith S]

Perfect! An ejector exhaust line running from cab to smokebox is a lot easier and less expensive than a pump anyway.

[TonyW]

Perfect! An ejector exhaust line running from cab to smokebox is a lot easier and less expensive than a pump anyway.

That sounds like a good plan!

[GTB]

I don't know of anybody who makes air brake pipes.

I've not seen a UK supplier, but I get mine from Ozark Miniatures in the US. The pipe cocks and pipe coupling heads are whitemetal, with black flexible tubing for the hose.

Trackside Details in the US also do the fittings in lost wax brass, but don't supply suitable tubing.

Graeme

[GTB]

. and I'll have to somehow make brake-shoes for my wagons.

Andel have fairly recently released 3D printed ABS plastic brake parts that might do the job.

Graeme