. Electric railway journal . ssed Air and Raised byCounterweight as Soon as Car Starts A safety car step, especially designed for interurbanservice, has been in successful operation for some timecn the Piedmont & Northern Railway, Charlotte, N. step is pneumatically operated, but is differentfrom the apparatus in common use in that the step willreturn automatically to its raised position as soon asthe car starts. In addition to this the step cannot belowered until the car is at a standstill. The step operates in the following manner: Whenthe train comes to a complete stop the conductor o
. Electric railway journal . ssed Air and Raised byCounterweight as Soon as Car Starts A safety car step, especially designed for interurbanservice, has been in successful operation for some timecn the Piedmont & Northern Railway, Charlotte, N. step is pneumatically operated, but is differentfrom the apparatus in common use in that the step willreturn automatically to its raised position as soon asthe car starts. In addition to this the step cannot belowered until the car is at a standstill. The step operates in the following manner: Whenthe train comes to a complete stop the conductor orporter on the train presses a foot lever or button, thusapplying the air pressure to an operating cylinderwhich forces the step into the lower or alighting posi-tion. At the same time air is admitted to a smallercylinder which forces a small cam down on top of thecar axle. As long as the car remains at rest the stepis held in the alighting position by the air pressure,but when the axle of the car turns the little cam on. PNEUMATICALLY OPERATED SAFETY STEP IN LOWERED ANDRAISED POSITIONS top of the axle is rolled off. This automatically re-leases the air pressure which holds the step, and thelatter under the influence of a counterweight is carriedback to its upper position where it is housed under thefirst stationary step of the car. The air pressure canalso be released by the conductor by pressing a releaselever in the housing of the trapdoor, and the closingof the trapdoor will accomplish the same purpose. Thenovel feature of the device is that it is not really leftto an employee to put the step up before the trainstarts, as the automatic release on the axle cannot failto take care of the step when the car moves. As thestep is returned to its raised position by a counter-weight, it will not operate if the passenger has hisweight on it. This avoids throwing a passenger who istrying to alight when the step starts to raise. While this step was designed especially for interurbanca
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