Blind Drivers and Slip Coaches?

Port Townsend, today. A fellow by the name of John Wooden once said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts!” And that is never so true as it is about the railroading hobby. Keep an open mind and you can learn something new on a regular basis!

What in the heck are "blind drivers" and "slip coaches?"

Well, a few months ago I did a piece about the CNR 2514, wherein I mentioned I had seen a Santa Fe Type – 2-10-2 - CNR 4304 - in town. The joke being one of sending her out to Prince Rupert to straighten curves. In regards to that article, a fellow sent me an email asking if that series of locomotives had “blind drivers.” At first I thought I was being baited into a joke.

But as I have come to learn, the purpose of “blind drivers” or flangeless wheels sets, is to reduce stresses on track curvature, and is found on some long wheelbase steam locomotives. Since the weight of the engine keeps the wheels on the tracks, the flange can be eliminated on certain wheel sets without affecting adhesion.

The practice of “blind drivers" seems to be common on narrow gauge locomotives, as discussed in great detail here. I’m not sure how prevalent the practice was on bigger locomotives; perhaps you can share this by clicking on the “Comment” below.



As to the subject of “slip coaches;” apparently it was not uncommon in Great Britain. In fact the technique was used for more than 100 years, dating back to 1858. The technique must have been quite safe to be used for so many years. The last “slip coach” operation was performed in 1960!

Simply put, passenger coaches were uncoupled from moving passenger trains churning along at 50 to 60 miles per hour. Hopefully the passenger car would be stopped within the bounds of the station where upon passengers would disembark, allowing the main consist to press on with its tight schedule!

Working a slip was quite a skilled job. The slip guard (trainman) had only the mechanical hand brake with which to stop. There were special precautions against the possibility of collision after slipping from the main train. If at any time the trainman felt the maneuver maybe dangerous, he had but to flag the engineer to stop.

A switch engine stood by to correct “over or under slipping” or to pick up cars slipped on middle tracks of three or more passages. And it was incumbent upon passengers to know exactly what car they were in before they got “slipped!”

I found a detailed narrative of the “slip coach” technique. In fact, an entire book was written on the subject, which must be interesting reading.

Slip coaches were used on the Great Western, LM&S, L&NE, Furness, and even in France.