Is there such a thing as an online, concise “instruction manual” for the controls of pre-PCC, vintage streetcars (controller, air-brake lever, etc.)? If so, can someone point me to it? Thanks!

The "bible" covering the entire spectrum of electric railway engineering and maintenance, from roadway on up is covered in a book entitled Electric Railway Handbook, authored by Albert S. Richey and William C. Greenough. It is a McGraw-Hill book of over 800 pages with a full index at the back. The section on controllers starts on page 331 of the 1915 edition.

I'm not sure how many editions were published. The 1915 edition is available on-line at Google books and you can download that edition. The 1924 edition is not downloadable from what I gather. The downside to the 1915 version is that it won't address the advances in the electric railway technology that occurred starting around 1915 such as the lightweight car especially the Birney car, lightweight-high speed motors, the all steel streetcars, etc.

The Former Association of Railway Museums (ARM) recently merged with the Tourist Railroad Association (TRAIN) to form the new Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums (ATRRM) did reprint the "Richey book" as it is commonly called but I'm not sure whether the reprint was the 1915 edition or the 1924 one.

There are other books available, some reprints in the form of handbooks for motormen that address various aspects of streetcar construction, propulsion systems, operations, etc. But these are somewhat perfunctory and do not cover the entire "A to Z" of railway operations like the Richey book does.

Thanks!

The ATRM reprint was the 1924 edition.

Hathi Trust has the 1924 edition available (four separate scanned copies) here:

http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001612556

You can read page-by-page or search onlkine. I did not check further than the first copy, but a link was provided to download the whole book as a .pdf file, which is what I would recommend.

The Electric Railway Handbook was reprinted by IRM "on the occasion of the 1978 ARM convention at Union, Illinois." As I recall, this was a J.D. Johnson project. Johnson owned a printing company.

My copy states "Second Edition", and the 1924 copyright plate is reproduced,

In the 1978 reprint of the second edition Jim included the motor curves from the first edition. It was reprinted again in 1989 by ARM through Julie's efforts, but I do not think the '89 edition has the extra motor curves. Seashore was selling the '89 reprint for ARM. It was popular among the transit consultants and sold well and may no longer be available. The second edition was a popular book when it was first published and it may not be hard to find used original copies out there.

If you care to look on Abebooks.com 31 bookshops offer it as a reprint or original.
Kind regards
Jos Koopmans

Many thanks to all of you for your very helpful responses to my question. The “Electric Railway Handbook” is an excellent resource, especially as it’s available online from the link provided by overmod. Of course that will take some time to digest, but for now, may I post one more query for the time being (perhaps answered in ERH when I can find it)? What’s the functional difference between series and parallel motor connections, or why are the former used for lower speeds and then the latter for higher speeds? (I do understand the difference between series and parallel connections themselves.) Again, my thanks for your kind help and I hope I'm not being overbearing.

I was thinking, as the discussion turned to the Electric Railway handbook, that what you really wanted was some extremely basic discussion. Mention of a Youtube video kind'a confirmed that. I'm not sure that there is such a video out there, and I'm not sure that one would be a good idea...

To answer your question... The way series wound DC motors speed is varied is by varying the voltage applied. There are two basic ways to do this, and early streetcars used both. The simplest is to put resistance in the motor circuit, to "waste" voltage. The common early K type control (and many other control equipments) do this to give a variety of "acceleration" points. The problem with this is twofold, the resistance is wasteful of electricity, turning it into useless heat, and that heat will eventually burn out the resistance grids. Therefore common practice is to only stay in each acceleration point for several seconds, just long enough for the car to reach the speed it would run on that voltage, then the next point is taken, removing a portion of the resistance from the circuit and allowing the car to go faster. This is all well and good, but that means you ultimately have to accelerate to full speed, or shut off and coast, then start the whole process over again.

Recognizing the need for an intermediate speed, series / parallel circuits were used. These are 100% efficient; rather than wasting electricity, the voltage is simply divided between the motors. The typical streetcar starts with two pair of motors in series, with resistance in the circuit as before. When one has gone through all the acceleration points, one is in "full series" (a misnomer, more about that later) and the car is running half speed, and can run at that speed all day with no ill effects. The next point on the controller "makes transition" (to all the motors wired in parallel) and puts the resistance back in the circuit, giving acceleration points again until "full parallel" is reached, and the car is at top speed.

I say "full series" is a misnomer because it is really series-parallel. It is possible to wire all four motors in series, yielding a very slow running speed. While not common on streetcars, some interurban locomotives had this feature; the Illinois Terminal motors come to mind.

Don't forget the addition of resistance in the fields to reduce CEMF at the high ends....

dave

This is known in the electric railway lexicon as a field shunt or sometimes "tapping the field." A field shunt reduces voltage to the motor fields (which produces the motor's magnetic field surrounding the armature) thus reducing CEMF and allowing the armature to rotate faster albeit without as much torque or power. For starting and the lower speeds, you want power. After the streetcar or interurban gets going, you don't need as much power but you do want speed.

Thanks!

Nobody has mentioned brake valves yet, probably because there are lots of different ones out there with different features.

Here's an on-line archive (in Australia) which has lots of Westinghouse air brake manuals, including some motorman's (or driver's in English parlance) valves.

http://www.cotma.net.au/library/westinghouse/air_systems/westinghouse-air-systems.html

A very simple (early) valve, the M-18 (the top view on page 2 shows the various positions):

http://www.cotma.net.au/library/westinghouse/air_systems/WH%20T3508=8%20%20Brake%20Valve%20type%20M18%20-%201912.pdf

A more advanced "safety car" valve, the M-28, for a one-man car - the door control is integrated so the brakes have to be applied to open the door:

http://www.cotma.net.au/library/westinghouse/air_systems/SCDC%20S3507-6%20%20Motorman%27s%20Valve%20Type%20M28.pdf

Finally, a "self-lapping" valve, which is much more sensitive.
http://www.cotma.net.au/library/westinghouse/air_systems/WH%20Compressed%20Air%20Brakes%20for%20Tramways%201934%20-%20DP27a.pdf

I'll let someone with a lot more operating and teaching experience describe how they are used, it requires considerable practice to actually use them.

IIRC, "field tap" is the older system, and is indeed leads tapped onto the field windings to allow only part of the winding to be used, thereby producing a weaker field, also known as a "short field."

"Field shunts" are resistance put in series with the field windings to have the same effect, supposedly better because the entire winding is used.

I'm not aware of too many traditional streetcars that used either; it seems more common on high speed interurban cars, but of course, anything is possible. The net effect is one or two additional running points above full parallel.

What about this book? It seems that it is more of an operational guide.

https://archive.org/details/motormanhisdutie00gutmiala

Thoughts?

Again, I thank all of you very much for the wealth of information and resources you've offered. This board is such a gathering of knowledgeable, experienced members, and I appreciate all of you so much for being so willing to share your expertise.

Old Pueblo Trolley and Nick T. Spark created A modern operation guide with basic insights into how the car operates. It is called "Running Point" and I have found it on Amazon although you might be able to find used copies on eBay occasionally. I was a contributing editor but I have no financial interest in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Point-Pro ... 495&sr=1-3