Putting a Steam Engine in reverse for emergency stop

[contrex]

Interestingly I was reading a report into the overrun at Guildford in 1953 recently where a "converted" motorman tried to reverse his unit in an emergency, probably out of habit from his steam days:



I'm not an expert in this field but I think I'm reading right that he was relying on the electro-pneumatic brake which lost effectiveness when the relays overloaded. Q

Accident at Guildford on 18th September 1953 :: The Railways Archive

Archive of UK railways documents

www.railwaysarchive.co.uk

The report concludes that there was no fault with the EP brake, and that the motorman misjudged his approach and then panicked. He had been a motorman for 7 years but new (as they all were) to the EP brake.

27 Motorman ***** is 50 years old with 35 years’ railway experience, having entered the service in 1918. In 1944 he qualified as a steam locomotive driver after two years as a passed fireman and he was appointed motorman in 1946. Although he has been driving electric trains for over seven years and had received instructions in the new type of equipment he does not seem to have understood fully the working of the combined E.P. and Westinghouse brake. His fear that he would ‘lose the brake’ with the handle in the lap position was quite unfounded and he had an unreasonable mistrust of the Westinghouse part of the equipment, which he admitted he had not tested under service conditions. Thus, when the emergency arose he reverted to an old time locomotive practice and tried to reverse his motors. This practice, although it may at times assist the deceleration of steam trains, generally does little more than trip the overload relays of electric trains and allow them to coast freely.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Correct me please if wrong - but led to believe that "motormen" were encouraged , if not instructed to perform a station stop in service with a Westinghouse application enroute ,as a back up if the EP brake were to fail enroute. (often due to a simple blown fuse) ......certainly carried out on the London Underground not so far back in the day.