Escort car
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When service or Güterzugbegleitwagen , brakeman`s cars , freight luggage trolley or English caboose , Brake Van and Guard's Van special be railway cars denotes the (single) a goods or official train are appended. They serve as a place to stay for the train crew. While driving, the train can be monitored from the car .
There are and were different types of escort cars. The best known are probably the so-called caboose of the American railways. They could be found at the end of every freight train until the end of the 1980s. They have now been replaced by an electronic control device , the end-of-train device . In Europe, on the other hand, the escort cars mostly ran behind the locomotive. This made the maneuvering much easier , as the escort cars were stationed at certain stations and had to return there. Once a freight train was put together, the locomotive picked up an accompanying car from special sidings and sat in front of the train. At the end of the journey, the locomotive took the van with it when it was uncoupled and parked it on the appropriate sidings. Thus it was immediately available for a return service.
Germany
Up until the 1970s, freight trains in Germany were regularly accompanied by personnel. In addition to the train driver, he was also the pack master and shunter for shunting in stations on the way. Before the introduction of the continuous air brake, the car was also a lounge for the brakemen , who could warm up and eat there during their stays. The traditional generic name of the accompanying car was Pwg ( baggage car for freight trains ).
Former baggage vehicles from passenger trains were sometimes used for this task. In Germany, Prussia developed the first special freight train baggage cars from 1885. They had a raised seat for the driver to watch the train. Access was via an initially open, later closed platform with doors on both sides. From 1902 they were manufactured according to sample sheet IIc 13. In Saxony, freight train escort cars were procured from 1889, while the design was adopted from the normal baggage cars, they were just equipped more simply. A total of 350 cars have been procured in 30 years. In 1891, freight train escort cars were also built in Bavaria. Here the service compartment could only be reached via the packing room. This had rotating instead of sliding doors. In the same year, sidecars were also built in Württemberg, also here in the style of baggage cars for passenger trains. The wagons had vertical planking and a stage at each end. The smaller provincial railways were mostly based on the Prussian model. The regional railway types continued to be built after the First World War, after the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn only the Pwg Pr 14.
The most common type of car in Germany was the Pwg Pr 14 (Prussian design), 9,752 of which were built from 1913 to 1925. In addition to a workstation and an observation dome, which took up about a third of the length of the roof, this wagon had a loading space that allowed up to four tons of general cargo to be carried and that could be loaded via sliding doors on both sides. The car with a length of 8.5 meters had a service weight of 10.8 tons and a top speed of 65 km / h. The wagons were in operation until the end of the 1960s, most recently only on branch lines, and today some of them have been preserved on museum railways. Leig units were also formed with Pwg ; a bellows was installed so that the entire cargo space was accessible to the staff.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn needed escort cars that could run up to 100 km / h. After two prototypes (Pwgs-35), the types Pwgs-38 (35 pieces) and Pwgs-41 (687 pieces) were created in steel construction between 1938 and 1942, which were derived from baggage cars for passenger trains. Roof pulpits of various designs were only partially available.
In 1944 and 1945, 4,700 war-type Pwgs-44 cars were built based on the Gmhs Bremen boxcar. The car had no observation dome and was only distinguishable from freight cars because of its additional windows and doors. The cars did not have an alternator and always ran directly behind the locomotive.
In the 1950s, the DB purchased its last type of freight train escort car, the Pwghs-54, based on the Gms-54 boxcar. The structure consisted of profiles and laminated wood panels. The facility consisted of parts of the conversion car program.
The DR procured from 1956 new two-axle support vehicle with a smooth steel box, roof structure and sliding doors. The cars, originally classified as Pwgs 88, were later used as baggage cars in passenger trains. For this purpose, the wagons known as "tin cans" were renamed Daa 93-26 and given addresses according to passenger wagon standards. However, they no longer received transitional facilities.
To save the Caboose, DB built 735 Tender of class 50 in cab tender to. Behind the coal box, a driver's cab with a writing surface and a folding seat was installed, which was accessible through doors on both sides. The coal supply was reduced. Freight trains hauled by diesel or electric locomotives mostly carried the train crew in the second driver's cab.
From the 1950s, the number of escort cars decreased rapidly. In 1957 the DB had 6045 cars, five years later there were only 2824 cars. In 1971 there were 1495 cars.
Accompanying cars remained in use on narrow-gauge routes with trolleys . Here, in addition to the workplace for the train driver, they were a storage place for the coupling rods . Older baggage carts were often used, for example in Saxony , and therefore also ran in pure freight trains.
Pwg Hannover 121370 (Pwg Pr 14, built in 1923) in the Braunschweig locomotive park
Pwg Berlin 3360 (Pwg Pr 14) at the Dresden Steam Locomotive Festival
Pwgs (vehicle show 150 years of German railways in Bochum-Dahlhausen)
Mügeln station (near Oschatz), parked rolling and freight train luggage wagons, March 1982
Individual types
| Different types of Pwg | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sample sheet | DR sketch |
First year of construction | number | Use up | Roof pulpit | Abortion | LüP [mm] |
Box length [mm] |
Wheel base [mm] |
Remarks |
| IIa 13 | Pwg Pr 12 | 1912 | about 1200 | 1972 | x | 8500 | 7200 | 4700 | ||
| IIa 13a | Pwg Pr 14 | 1913 | approx. 7000 | 1972 | x | 8500 | 7200 | 4700 | ||
| Sheet 62 | Pwg Bay 13/21 | 1913 | approx. 430 | 1971 | x | 8500 | 7200 | 5000/4700 | ||
| Fwgä 7.01 | Pwgs 38 | 1938 | 35 | 1983 | x | 10,300 | 9000 | 6000 | Steel construction | |
| Fwgä 8.01.101 | Pwgs 41 | 1941 | 700 | 1995 | 10,300 | 9000 | 6000 | Simplified version of the Pwgs 38, steel construction | ||
| KFwgä 11.01.1–4 | (K) Pwgs 44 | 1943 | approx 4500 | 1973 | 10,000 | 8700 | 7000 | Based on the G-Wagen Bremen | ||
| 560 | Pwg 09 | 1943 | approx. 350 | 1965 | Bay window | 8375 | 7315 | 4039 | Mounted on a USATC car chassis, two open platforms | |
| Fwgä 552.01.000.0 | Pwghs 54 | 1957 | 1200 | 1995 | x | 11,140 | 9340 | 5840 | DB type based on Gms 54 | |
| 36.001-01.001 / 002 | Pwg (s) 88 | 1956 | approx. 480 | 1994 | x | 8940 | 7700 | 4850 | DR design, steel construction | |
- ↑ For many Prussian building types, due to changes in the interiors, doors, toilets, etc. and due to new editions of the sample sheets, several sketch sheets were set up. The sketch sheet that is valid for most cars is given here.
Austria
The ÖBB has taken over numerous escort cars of various types from the predecessor railways, mainly the types Pwgs-41 and Pwgs-44 from the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
Two -axle luggage wagons of the Diho type were also created during the conversion program for the frame wagons. After their use in passenger trains, they were partially adapted for freight trains and referred to as Dghos. Bay windows allowed the train crew to observe the train; the hold was accessible via sliding doors. Some cars still exist today for shunting and work trains or have been converted into generator cars for museum trains. Some cars have been equipped with headlights for pushed side drives.
At the ÖBB train driver's cabs were also installed in steam locomotive tenders; here the 52 series tub tenders were affected.
Dgb 17742 of the KKSt.B.
Dgh 50 81 937 5 532-1 of the ÖBB
ÖBB generator car converted from Diho 67319
Switzerland
In Switzerland there are no longer any actual service coaches because all freight trains run unaccompanied.
From 1957 onwards, the SBB built a total of 385 pieces of the two-axle Db service vehicle, called "Sputnik" by the railway workers in reference to the observation function, in several series on the bases of broken-down passenger cars. The BLS also built six Sputnik for its own needs. Because of the short wheelbase of only 5 meters (length 9.24 m) and the low weight (10 t), the train crew was literally shaken when driving fast in the lounge and at the observation post. The car was equipped with furnishings from discarded passenger cars. In the little house that was placed on a carriage frame, they found a toilet cubicle without flushing but with a water bucket, a double wooden bench from the third class and a gas stove with a stove pipe. The gas bottles were on one of the platforms in a box that the train crew could also use as a seat in the fresh air. The car always ran at the end of the train. With the dismantling of the escort of freight trains, the stock was reduced and the use ended in the early 1990s. Sputnik wagons were also adapted for other purposes, for example as coupling wagons for the transfer of individual EW IIIs with central buffer couplings.
The converted passenger cars for the rolling road are also known as escort cars and they are also marked as Db. In contrast to the freight train escort wagons, but for safety reasons they are to be lined up behind the locomotive, since a voice connection via UIC cable is only possible at this point .
United States
function
In the USA, as in Europe, support cars also serve as a lounge and supply room for the escort staff on the freight train and as a warehouse for tools and spare parts, e.g. B. Bearing shells for overheated axle bearings on the freight wagons while driving.
Since train protection on many railway lines in the USA was exclusively based on the timetable, the escort car also served as a signalman's workplace . This monitored the speed of its own train using its clock, the number of kilometers on the route and the timetable and, if necessary, threw flares with a defined burning time as temporary stop signals to the next train from the train that was still moving into the track. If the own train came to a stop, the Signalman also had to run towards the next train. In order to ensure the visibility of the flares in any case and to shorten the time required to run towards each other, the escort car in the USA had to be lined up at the end of the train, unlike its European counterpart.
The passing and overtaking stations were also often unoccupied, especially in the western United States, and had locally operated points. For this reason, personnel were required both at the Zugspitze and at the end of the train in order to clear the main track as quickly as possible and thus be able to comply with the safety-relevant timetable without waiting too long.
Designations
The English term caboose is probably based on the Dutch-Scandinavian word for galley , the kitchen or the lounge or crate on sailing ships, "kabhuis". Over the French "cambose" or "kombuis" Afrikaans , the expression for the weather protection shed on board and on the deck of a sailor for the timbered weather protection on a flat wagon may have prevailed. In addition to the official "cabin car", numerous nicknames were and are in use, including "waycar", "dog house", "brain car", "conductor's car", "shanty" and "cabin" ("cab"). Only in the west of the USA did the “caboose”, which is often used today, gain acceptance.
history
In the beginning, the brakemen often drove on the open freight car. The conductor Nat Williams of the Auburn & Syracus Line ( New York ) is told that in 1840 he set up an empty carriage with a box as a chair and a barrel as a desk. Before the invention of the pneumatic brake, a (correspondingly heavy) car at the end of the train had to take over the braking, or each car was braked individually by the brakeman or several brakes passing through.
The conductor T. B. Watson of the Chicago and North Western Railway is reported to have used a defective freight car with a broken roof to control the train - standing on a stack of cargo or sitting and looking through a hole in the roof. Later, cupolas or pilot cabins were set up as superstructures on wooden freight cars used as brakemans . The end of the train lights were attached to the last brakeman's car; this vehicle literally formed the end of the train.
In order to improve the view, cantilevered balloon windows or a cantilevered structure were later attached to some brakeman's cars . Since larger freight wagons prevented an overview from the roof and there was also the problem of tunnel dimensions, the central roof structure was replaced on some lines from 1923 (Akron, Canton & Youngstown) by side window bay windows. For short distances, wagons with additional open wagon space were (and are) used to transport loads.
Staying in the initially two-axle wagons was not without danger, especially during braking maneuvers and on uneven tracks. Coal stoves were bolted to the floor, the fire doors had a double latch, and the heating plate had rims to hold pans and pans on the stove. Initially little more than a wooden crate, seating and lounging options were soon added, as well as a desk and cooking facility, as well as heating and a toilet. Electric lighting (from 1954, Southern Pacific), heating, pneumatic train brakes, refrigerator and radio or telephone were added later.
With the brakeman's cars of later times, great importance was attached to occupational safety. Handrails inside extended the entire length of the car, rounded corners reduced injuries. Outer stairs and generous handrails on platforms and stairs made maneuvering easier.
USA today: Replacement by EOTD
With the introduction of the continuous pneumatic braking system in the USA from 1970/80, the Caboose was increasingly reduced to purely residential, warehouse, workshop and office functions. An EOTD ( End Of Train Device ) or FRED ( Flashing Rear-End Device ) technically takes over the control of the braking system at the end of the train, the conductor and driver are accommodated on the locomotive. The axle bearings are now partially monitored automatically from the track , the time-consuming maneuvering of the brakeman's car and around 18,000 dollars (CF-1000) acquisition costs are eliminated, and fewer staff are required for two-man operation.
The EOTD or FRED, also called SBU ( Sense and Brake Unit ) in Canada , makes one or two workstations per train superfluous, which led to the acronym Fucking Rear End Detector . The corresponding HOT device (HOT = Head of Train) is often called Wilma - in reference to the cartoon series Flintstones . The first FRED was introduced by the Florida East Coast Railway in 1973 .
A data connection to the HOT console of the locomotive makes it possible to carry out mandatory brake tests in one-man operation, just like the caboose before, it takes on lighting tasks. In today's devices, the battery required for this was replaced by a compressed air generator. A two-way radio link enables the driver to release the brake from the end of the train if necessary. The well-known radio frequencies of the EOTD and some track bed sensors are often used by rail enthusiasts in North America for observation and as a warning when taking photos.
While around 34,000 brakeman's cars were still on the road in the USA in 1925, they have become rare today. Today, as in the past, brakeman's cars are mostly painted in eye-catching colors or in the colors of the train company, mostly only support cars for special trains, branch lines with many switches and in station and construction site operations. They are still in regular use in small companies.
While numerous wagons can be found in museums and parks, others have been converted into a tourist office, snack bar or motel ("Caboose Motel"). The Illinois Railway Museum alone has 19 copies and the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California 17. They are still in regular use on the Mexican Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico on the route between Chihuahua and Los Mochis.
US and FFA military trains in Berlin traffic
For US military transports between Berlin (West) and US bases in Germany, three so-called escort cars with a roof pulpit and side observation windows were built in 1964 by the Waggonfabrik Gebrüder Credé in Kassel and attached to the end of the transport trains carried out by the United States Army Transportation Corps in Berlin- Lichterfelde West attached. Join the cars were as private cars as genus Pwghs by the German Federal Railways and Helmstedt home. After the Railway Transportation Office in Lichterfelde West was closed in 1993, a car was parked in Münster until the end of 1999 before it was acquired by the Alliierte in Berlin eV association in Berlin-Tegel . Another car was in 1994 in the US Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis near Newport News in Virginia brought (USA), the third was in 1994 at station Helmstedt issued and has been in 2016 as a loan from the zone boundary Museum in South Korea Station Dorasan in the demilitarized zone .
Two identical escort cars were also used by the French Armed Forces (FFA) in Berlin traffic. Today they are in the holdings of the German Steam Locomotive and Model Railway Museum in Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg .
Great Britain
The wagons known as brake van or guard's wagon were used on freight trains. The only brakes on these trains were on the locomotive and the brakeman's car; the speed was limited to around 25 mph (approx. 40 km / h). The wagons were equipped with additional ballast. In addition to the normal braking service, there was often a low, steady braking load to reduce damage to locking or loose clutches.
Older brakeman's cars in Great Britain often have handrails on both sides and running boards over the entire length as well as sifting bays on the sides, similar to the later American caboose designs, but built smaller.
Brake cars on passenger trains had the same tasks, but apart from the service compartment, they also have goods or passenger compartments. A lockable luggage compartment and storage space for the galley were not unusual either. Outwardly, apart from the arrangement of windows and doors, they resemble ordinary passenger cars.
The brakeman's cars were more common in Great Britain until around 1970/80, today they are rarely found on freight trains. Conductors, if they are in use, ride in the second, rear cab of the locomotive.
Australia
Company cars ( brake van or guard's wagon ) in Australia have (or have had) the option of transporting goods and mail in addition to the service compartment. In addition to the spacious goods compartment with large loading doors, there is often also a passenger compartment in order to be able to transport travelers with their luggage (including live cargo).
India
In India , brakeman's cars are still frequently used, even on passenger trains. In addition to the service compartment with two seats and a desk, there is a small toilet, one or more kennels for dogs to be transported, for which the conductor is jointly responsible, signal lamps for emergencies, first aid kits and a stretcher. In addition to the pneumatic brake, a mechanical brake is mandatory.
Different colored flags and lamps are used as signaling equipment, and recently, due to the length of the train, radio signals are also used. On some routes, the income from the stations - collected by train - is kept in the brakeman's car.
In freight trains, a wagon open on both sides is used as the brakeman's wagon, which has a toilet as essential equipment. Interior lighting is optional.
literature
- Paul Scheller: Loyal companion in every freight train back then . In: railway magazine . No. 8 , 2014, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 6-15 .
- David Lustig: End-of-train devices keep on evolving in back. In: Trains. 66 (8), August 2006, ISSN 0041-0934 , p. 18.
Web links
- LMS brake van (English)
- GWR brake van ( Memento from March 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Bluebell railway brake van (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Aw Lingen: Pwg Pr 14 ( Memento from February 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Pwg Pr 14 (built in 1923) and other surviving escort cars in the Braunschweig locomotive park ( Memento from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Aw Lingen: Pwgs-44 ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Pwghs 54 of the Bremerhaven – Bederkesa Museum Railroad ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 54 kB)
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: freight train baggage car built in 1956 of the Magdeburg Railway Friends ), larger image
- ↑ Transfer trolley on the siding
- ↑ Hans Schneeberger: The decline and rebirth of the "Sputnik". In: Swiss Railway Review. 9/1992, pp. 386-397.
- ^ Railway Transportation Office (RTO) Lichterfelde West at guardbattalion.de, accessed on June 4, 2019
- ↑ https://www.helmstedter-nachrichten.de/helmstedt/article152376440/Helmstedter-Militaerwaggon-haben-gut-behuetet-in-Suedkorea.html
- ↑ http://www.bahnalltag.de/waggons/page-0024.html Picture of an FFA escort car
- ↑ Express trains for the Allies in: Eisenbahnstadt Berlin (Eisenbahn Journal Special 2, 2015), p. 38.
- ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/34148515@N03/13782143505