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I would like to pass along a few facts about train brakes . . . When an emergency application is made the cars in the front begin to break before the ones in the rear. The air pressure wave travels backwards through the system at something just under the speed of sound, so in a long coal train the cars in the front can be in emergency before the cars in the rear have begun to slow. This comes from John Armstrongs book, The Railroad - What it is and What it Does. Therefore, I agree with 'j' that an emergency brake application would be almost instantaneous in a passenger train. I agree with the comment that I wouldn't want to ride in a passenger train with power behind the passenger cars. The push-pull would make for an unpleasant ride. The surge or cars causes the train to buckle. This is just like a jack-knife tractor trailer accident. Cars slow at equal rates after they are in emergency because this is dictated by the friction between the wheel and the rail and is independent of the car weight. 'Telescoping' is a slightly different failure and probably more deadly and can be minimized by strengthening the cars. The idea of placing the auto racks in front of the coaches would probably require more switching. I have been wondering if it would be practical to put a special car at the end of passenger trains which would be able to cause an emergency brake application from the rear toward the front instead of from the front to the rear. There would have to be special brake equipment in this car and the signal would have to be relayed from the engineer to this car before any braking begins. This could be done electronically but could it be made reliable? If it could, the train would not go into compression when the brakes come on but the train would go into tension instead. This would eliminate derailments due to buckling. Let me know if you think this is possible or if I have forgotten something about how the brakes work. - Ed
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