Passenger / Goods Brake

[Raul_Duke]

Apologies if this has been asked before, I did look but couldn't see anything.

I was watching something on YouTube the other night and it made mention of lock hauled rolling stock having the brakes switched from freight to passenger and vice versa.

I was wondering what the difference between the two settings was?

Also, it said that only a certain percentage of rolling stock in the train had to be switched over and the rest could be left as they were, so again, I was wondering why that was?

Apologies if this is a daft question!

 

[AndrewE]

As I understand it the passenger setting makes the brakes react rapidly to an application, so a buckeye-coupled passenger train brakes as one unit. The goods setting gives a slower brake application so it initially stretches the looser couplings tight and avoids snatches that cause coupling (and cargo) breakages. Maybe it also slows the onset of braking backwards along the train too...
Don't know if it releases quicker, I think that the double pipe system (and Electro-pneumatic brakes) were invented to deal with that.

Someone with detailed knowledge will be along soon...

 

[ilkestonian]

Not sure if I've misunderstood your post, but I believe locos, not rolling stock, had (have?) a changeover switch which should be set to either freight or passenger in order to provide the most effective braking depending on the type of load.

I've no idea how the settings vary, hopefully a driver will be along soon to give a fuller answer.

 

[AndrewE]

Not sure if I've misunderstood your post, but I believe locos, not rolling stock, had (have?) a changeover switch which should be set to either freight or passenger in order to provide the most effective braking depending on the type of load.

I've no idea how the settings vary, hopefully a driver will be along soon to give a fuller answer.

You definitely see passenger/goods changeover levers on the solebars of wagons.

Google reveals that rmweb has a recent discussion:

The Passenger/Goods changeover adjusts both the application and release timings on the distributor, Passenger timings being faster than Goods in both application and release. Some freight vehicles have in any case had Passenger settings built-in and no ability to alter them - original Freightliner vehicles and Cartics being examples while some British freight stock has had changeover levers (mainly ferry vans I believe).


The situation used to be that the Goods setting was used on freight trains with a maximum speed of 60mph while the Passenger setting was used on all other trains.

 

[Eng274]

The changeover switch between passenger and goods alters the flow rate of air in the automatic air brake pipe. when the driver demands braking effort with the handle, the brake pipe pressure drops at a lower rate in 'goods' than it does in 'passenger'. Part of the brake system maintenance is to check the propagation of brakes by timing how long it goes from running to full service brake pipe pressure. This would be most obvious in a class 66 or other modern loco which has an air flow rate gauge in the cab.

Some high speed passenger stock which works in push-pull/top and tail is capable of dropping the brake pipe from both ends of the train to allow better brake application timings, but the brake pipe can only be recharged from the leading vehicle.

 

[Jamesb1974]

Deleted

 

[Flying_Turtle]

Regarding the locos I may be a specific locomotive feature but when it gets to wagons there is a whole world there!
Regarding the loaded/unloaded switch, on some wagons is manual, on others is automatic and on carriages is automatic. I can assure you that with a loaded passenger train one can do very impressive station entrances !
Regarding the passenger/goods mode... Some wagons have the feed pipe so that they can be incorporated in passenger train but I believe that's it... no switches to operate.