Great Documentaries's video: Westinghouse - Chapter 6 - First Air Brake Trial

[ Whistle blowing ] (NARRATOR) With the air brake, the engineer could control all of the brakes on a train from the cab. This would allow for longer trains carrying more people and more goods. (REIS) The United States was really moving westward, and industrialization was taking place. They had the need to move a lot more freight and people. With the Westinghouse air brakes, the trains can become longer and heavier. (NARRATOR) At that time, George was traveling the country soliciting orders for his railway devices and had many opportunities to present his thoughts on air brakes to railway officials. He said that none of those approached appeared to have faith in the idea. George Westinghouse was so sure that he would be successful with the Westinghouse air brakes that he invested all his money, and also his good friend Ralph Baggaley invested money, and he built a full set of brakes for a locomotive and four cars. (NARRATOR) The first air-brake apparatus was shown in a Pittsburgh machine shop in 1868. It then came time to install it on a full-size train to test it in a real-world demonstration. Railroad officials were invited, and the first air- brake trial became legendary. (REIS) And they all boarded the four passenger cars. George Westinghouse was riding in the locomotive that morning with the engineer, Dan Tate. This trial was to go to Steubenville, Ohio, and return - total of 80 miles. (NARRATOR) Upon emerging from the tunnel, they came face-to-face with two horses and a wagon standing on the tracks. (REIS) The horses kind of panicked. A wheel got stuck. The wagon overturned. The horses fell down. The drayman fell down. And Dan Tate applied the Westinghouse air brakes for the very first time. And they skidded up the track. And George Westinghouse, they say, was very, very concerned as they skidded up the track. And, fortunately, they stopped four feet short of running over that wagon and those two horses and the drayman. Now, they say everyone in the back got knocked to the floor. They got banged into each other. They got jostled quite a bit. The highest level superintendent of the Steubenville and Panhandle Railroad put his arms in the air, and he said, "Gentlemen, we've just seen the greatest demonstration of this Westinghouse air-brake system we're ever going to see. I think we should just back her up to Grant's Hill and call it a day." (NARRATOR) The future of railroading was set in motion over the next several months as more tests were conducted around the country. Railway officials were impressed, resulting in immediate orders of air-brake equipment. Westinghouse air brakes suddenly began appearing on passenger trains around the country. (SKRABEC) I mean, a lot of people in those days, people like Charles Dickens and so forth, had phobias about train travel in those days, 'cause the death rate was so high. You know, the air brake took that phobia away. (NARRATOR) The Westinghouse Air-Brake Company was chartered on September 28, 1869. The new company began churning out parts with an initial workforce of about 100 men. Over the next decade, George Westinghouse made numerous improvements to the air brake, and by 1877, most American railroads had their passenger trains outfitted with them. It was declared by one writer that no railroad claims to be first class that does not employ Westinghouse air brakes. Even with this success, another major hurdle remained - the freight-train industry. It was said that the freight industry was the slowest to adopt the air brakes because railroad companies did not want to invest the money to protect the lives of their cheap labor force. Brakemen were paid $1.50 a day and received nothing if they were maimed or killed. It cost about $50 to install air brakes on a train car. (REIS) A piece of documentation I came across said, in one particular year, there were 5,000 brakemen killed or injured in the United States that year. So it was an extremely dangerous job. One of the most dangerous jobs there ever was. (NARRATOR) This was considered the age when railroad companies could buy senators. The railroad business was profitable, and they intended to keep it that way. (SKRABEC) The air brake offered nothing to them profit-wise. The hand-brake system seemed to be fine. You know, you lose a few Irishmen. Didn't seem to upset them at all. (REIS) Pennsylvania Railroad had a very good reputation and some of them did not. And it was documented that, in those days, some of the railroads, if a brakeman got killed, they felt no more obligation than to move the body to the side of the track. (SKRABEC) They balked at it and, just like a lot of companies do today, they had to be dragged in there by the government. They did everything they could to slow that process down.