Air Brakes as Used by the Calcutta Tramways Co., Ltd.

It is no easy job to under-estimate the importance of brakes on an electric Tram-Car and they should have no less attention than the electrical equipments. In the case of large tramways system, operating partly through congested traffic, as in the case of Calcutta, the maximum speed is more or less fixed. Therefore cars equipped with powerful and quick-acting brakes can be run at higher schedule speeds than those not so equipped. It is a matter of fact that a few years ago the Calcutta Tram-cars had to move on a reduced speed, even when specially competing motor-buses were run over practically the same routes as the tram-cars, because at the time they had no system of rapid braking, and this meant a legitimate loss to the Tramways Co.