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I can tell you from my own personal experience as a steam locomotive engineer that, oh yes, there definitely is a way to brake using the reverser (A.K.A. Johnson Bar). I used to be an engineer on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie, which is a steam powered 3-foot narrow guage railroad at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Most of our engines didn't have any braking system at all, though one had a steam brake. We were forbidden from using that steam brake. Air brakes were non-existance on all of our equipment. To do any braking at all, we would first open up the cylinder cocks and then bring the reverser all the way back. Then we'd nudge the throttle just barely enough to get a whisp of steam to the cylinders. It didn't take much pressure to send those drivers spinning backwards. And no that doesn't cause a derailment. Atleast we never experienced that. And we kids did some serious goofing around on that railroad. But you definitely want to back off that throttle right now and throw the reverser in the corner (all the way forward) if you had spent to much steam and caused the drivers to slip backwards. The locomotive shakes and lurches quite violently and the wheels will spin out of control at extremely high speed with just a little too much throttle when the reverser is all the way forward or back. If that happens, throttle off!! In fact, you need to practice throttle modulation rather than constantly pulling back on the throttle when braking this way. Soft nudges on the throttle is all you need. Nudge it open, then close the throttle immediately. Repeat if necessary. You feel the deceleration by the seat of your pants. Notice what the wheels are doing; listen to the stack talk. There are four chugs per revolution of the driving wheels. That chug-chug-chug-chug will speed up and get louder if your drivers are slipping in either direction. It doesn't take much to slow the train, but it does take time. Allow enough time to utilize your braking power. The CP&LE has friction bearings, so we'd just bring 'er to a stop and would not need to set any brakes. We had no grades on our little loop of track. Once however, we had a little throttle leakage problem on one of our bigger engines. We discovered this when the train kept moving on us as passengers were trying to board or detrain. With the reverser centered, some steam was escaping from the leaky throttle to the valve chest, just slightly more so on one side than the other, causing the engine to start moving slowly. So we'd move the reverse back and forth, trying to control the movement. That was frustrating! Finally that engine was taken out of service. <br /> <br />-Jon B., UP conductor, Proviso to Clinton, IA
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