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[quote user="Norm48327"] [quote user="Bucyrus"]But the flaw in the prescription of a specific number of handbrakes is that there is no way to control how tightly somebody sets them, or how effective each handbrake will be according to its mechanical condition. [/quote] I've never set a handbrake, but I would think an average person could tighten one securely enough to hold a car. I don't see any 800lb gorillas working on the railroad.[/quote] Norm, When you set a handbrake, it amounts to turning a very “low gear” winch that gradually pulls the mechanical rigging that forces the brake shoes against the wheels.  All of the rigging yields collectively like a spring under the pull of the brake wheel winch. It is not hard to set a handbrake tight enough to do the job. The issue is that there is no indication that tells the trainman when the handbrake is set to its maximum.  When the company tells you to set a handbrake, they do not tell you how tight to set it.  So when a person sets a handbrake, it may not be set as much as it could be to be fully effective.  Or it is possible that the body builders could set a handbrake so tightly that the chain breaks.     The issue of setting handbrakes for train securement is that it requires setting many of them.  Their effect is cumulative.  So if a person setting the handbrakes is inclined to set them in a childlike manner, thirty of them might be entirely insufficient to secure the train.  If a person sets them robustly, ten of them might be sufficient.  That is just the issue of how strongly the setter sets them.  The other half of the equation is that handbrake mechanisms get differing amounts of cleaning and lubrication.  So winding the wheel to a certain torque is only half the story.  Two brakes wound to the same torque could yield vastly different amounts of braking due to the difference in maintenance, cleaning, and lubrication.
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