Hi everyone!
I'm building an HO rail truck and I got curious about how they functioned. I found a thread which showed several views of various cab interiors. They all seem to have to have a control lever which looks very much like a locomotive throttle, but they also have the gas pedals still in place. The throttle lever mechanism has copper lines leading in and out suggesting some sort of hydraulic operation (or maybe air?).
Here is a link to a typical cab view. There are others on the thread as well:
http://www.trainweb.org/rradventures/2010/2010-05-09_Colorado-RR-Museum-IMG_4905.htm
So, what is the lever for? (I suspect its not draft beer!)
Thanks
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Gidday Dave, I would suggest that the "throttle lever" is actually the air brake lever, and that the gas pedal, the aluminium pedal with the deck tread on the floor, is still carries out its original function. The left hand floor pedal is the clutch pedal.
I couldn't find the Stourbridge Lion video I was looking for in Elliotts Trackside Diner (mutter,mutter, search function, mutter), but found this one of his instead.
http://cs.trains.com/ctr/f/3/p/198628/2173739.aspx#2173739
At 5.30 and 9.30 you will see some inside the cab shots.
hon30critter(I suspect its not draft beer!)
If it was make mine a Speights please.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I agree with the bear that the "throttle lever" is actually the air brake lever. Those are air lines going into it.
I think the large lever that looks like a loco throttle or Johnson bar is the parking brake, kind of important on a mountain RR. The button on top is used to unlock the brake lever?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks Bear and Mike! Sorry for the slow response.
Makes perfect sense since I doubt that normal automobile brake systems would have had the umph to stop the much heavier rail buses/trucks.
I will model the lever with some fine wire and a small blob of solder, or maybe use a slightly flattened steam engine hand rail standoff with a wire lever. Oh how I love scratch building!!
That also means I have to find a place to mount an air tank (I will assume the compressor is under the hood). I have had some success making air tanks using small copper or brass tubes with solder and carefully filling the ends so that they look like the rounded ends of an air tank. Concave ends are much, much easier to model. The last convex ends I tried to make ended up in the garbage. Serves me for not paying attention to the amount of heat I was applying! Just as soon as I had the right shape on the rounded end all the solder pooped out the bottom of the tube and left a mess on the tube that wasn't worth the time to file off.
Gidday Dave , not sure how exact you want to be but this maybe a good reference???
http://quickpicbooks.homestead.com/files/busgoose5book.htm
Hi Bear!
Thanks again!
I have to admit that I am not too much of a detail freak. I do like visible details and I do plan on modelling the brake valve in my rail truck but once the cab roof is on I think you will have to pick it up off the track and use a magnifying glass to see the interior of the cab.
That presents a liability problem because if you were to pick up a delicate piece of my rolling stock without permission and instruction on how to handle it safely I would have to hurt you!. A couple of weeks ago my 23 year old son picked up the body of my latest critter and promptly dropped it. It took me 45 minutes to fix the damage! ARRRGHH!!! NO - I didn't hurt him!
I will use the reference you provided for colours etc. but I won't buy the book. Thanks very much.
Can you tell that I am a paranoid SOB (Son Of a Beautiful woman)?
hon30critter It took me 45 minutes to fix the damage! ARRRGHH!!!
Gidday Dave, initially i thought a case of severe detrimental mayhem had taken place, but........
hon30critterNO - I didn't hurt him!
..........I have to take off hat off to you, not sure if i could have showed such decorum and restraint.
Anyhow looking at these plans, I can't see the air tank so you may not have to model it. Good luck with the chain drive though!!
http://img.xooimage.com/files41/d/4/f/rgs_goose-5-9632ca.jpg
Bear!
Thanks for the graphics. The rail truck I am modelling is strictly for freight, and it is a fair bit smaller than the goose.
As far as the chain drive, what I don't know won't hurt me.
You have saved me from modelling the air tank, thank goodness. As I mentioned earlier I had been trying to make a couple of small tanks using 1/4" brass tube with solder to form the rounded ends. To put it politely, it didn't quite work as I had hoped. Frustrating because I have done it before without problems.
You have been a great help! I thank you for spending the time and lending your knowledge to my project, as well as others of course.
You got a lot of good responses, but I also suggest with future questions you could just phone the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. They're very helpful.
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
Sean:
It never occurred to me to just pick up the phone and call.
Better still, I would like to visit them!
Dave,
Isn't yours gonna be an international call? (thinking you're Canadian, but maybe I'm thinking of someone else?)
But there are also others where the call won't be cheap. Then there's the ease of posting a pic and asking the question from there, although I realize you can do that with your phone probably. Sometimes the internet really does work best for questions, depending on one's circumstances.
It's also the case that having questions on the internet makes them easily searchable and more useful in the future than giving one person the answer.
This is not to say that the staff at CRRM isn't very happy to take calls. They're great at it. Just wanted to say that's not as easy an option for some as with others and depends on the visual content of the question.
Hi Mike
Yes I am Canadian. The phone call would cost a bit.
I personally prefer to use the forum for such questions because, as has been the case here, it gives the opportunity for several people to share their knowledge. If I had come up with a blank on the forum, phoning the museum could provide the answers.