Vertical brake cars in interchange

[Anonymous]

I have some boxcar models with vertical brake staffs. Is it correct to include cars with this kind of brake in trains of the 40s and 50s? Were these cars banned from interchange at some time?

[orsonroy]

Vertical brake staffs were never banned from interchange, and they did last well into the 1950s. In fact, a few cars made it to the early 1970s!

There's really no rhyme or reason behind later-period brake staff-equipped cars. Most cars built with K brakes had vertical brake staffs, but there were exceptions. When cars were rebuilt with AB brakes in the 1940s, they mostly got conventional brakewheel gear (Ajax or Miner, that sort of thing), but not always. Tichy makes a great plastic kit of a NYC/P&LE rebuild car that retained it's original brake staff. There were many examples of steel cars (rebuilds) that retained the vertical staff, but fewer examples of wood or composite cars with modern brakewheel gear.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this information. I model in O-Scale and recently purchased a couple of very nice Atlas cars with vertical brake staffs (I wasn't aware of this detail until they arrived). That set me to thnking about the differences between K and AB brake schedules and about how long the earlier equipment lasted in service (clearly not beyond the mandated end of roof-walks, in any event).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this information. I model in O-Scale and recently purchased a couple of very nice Atlas cars with vertical brake staffs (I wasn't aware of this detail until they arrived). That set me to thnking about the differences between K and AB brake schedules and about how long the earlier equipment lasted in service (clearly not beyond the mandated end of roof-walks, in any event).