We move customers from A to B, sometimes we do it via 'C'!
Joined: Mar 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 1,555 Location: London
Re: S stock DM coupler handedness « Reply #15 on Oct 29, 2009, 10:23pm »
Just really quickly, as I am knackered after spending two days racing between Neasden, Derby, and Nuneaton for various different 'S' related tasks - We coupled car 5117 to car 21100 on Wednesday morning on 29 road in Neasden. The two trains coupled and uncoupled without any issues whatsoever.
Is this cable solely for comms, or does it carry the control signals to release the brakes on the unit 'under tow'? Or is that done solely with pneumatic signalling on the coupler face?
It is solely for Comm's. We can couple 'S' to 'S' both mechanically and pneumatically depending on the defect we are pushing out for. In all honesty though there are not many defects that will require an 'S' to be pushed out. Even a mainline burst on the front unit isn't an immobilising failure on an 'S' as you can drive the train from the leading cab with this type of defect.
That's good to know, but that doesn't quite the answer the question of how an assisting unit would release the brakes on the leading unit if the same could not be accomplished from either cab of the leading unit - or is the S stock brake release mechanism designed in such a way that this is unlikely/impossible?
We move customers from A to B, sometimes we do it via 'C'!
Joined: Mar 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 1,555 Location: London
Re: S stock DM coupler handedness « Reply #17 on Oct 30, 2009, 12:58am »
It all depends what the defect is that requires an assisting train to be utilised. An assisting 'S' can mechanically couple to another 'S' and then throw air accross and apply/release the brakes accordingly from the healthy train but you would not want to do that if the defective 'S' had a burst of some sort. That said, you will not need to couple to another 'S' for any form of burst.
That's good to know, but that doesn't quite the answer the question of how an assisting unit would release the brakes on the leading unit if the same could not be accomplished from either cab of the leading unit - or is the S stock brake release mechanism designed in such a way that this is unlikely/impossible?
You don't neccessarily have to control the brakes on the train with the defect - as long as you couple up the good train first, you can release all the brakes on the defective train and use the good train to provide the sole braking for both trains. This is current procedure for certain defects on D stocks, though it does of course leave the driver in the leading cab with no proper emergency brake.
Mind you, we are talking absolute worst case scenario here and I don't recall such a situation ever occurring in the 5 years I've been driving.....
![[Home]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author![[avatar]](http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j172/p1314/prjbav.jpg)
Logged![[avatar]](http://premium1.uploadit.org/TheOneKEA/Avatar/avatar_roundtwo_100x100.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[msn]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/msn.gif)
![[homepage]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif)
![[avatar]](http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b139/nige333/WestHamLogo.jpg)
