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Brake wheels

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  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 3:26 PM

For my general knowledge, vertical brake staffs began to become unusual on house cars in the 1920's. High brake wheels went away in the 1970's along with running boards on the roofs.

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-Kevin

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Living the dream.

  • Member since
    May 2010
  • From: SE. WI.
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Posted by mbinsewi on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 1:31 PM

Tom, and Tom, Laugh  I found this discussion on a Trains thread.  Scroll down to "edblysard's " post.

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/16412.aspx

I wanted too know that too.

Mike

  • Member since
    August 2013
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Posted by ACY Tom on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 1:21 PM

Many cars were still being built with vertical brake staffs in the 1920's, although some end mountings had been introduced much earlier, such as the "tunnel brake" on the PRR's XL boxcars. 

Power brakes of various designs generally came into use around the 'teens and twenties. Most of these had a brake wheel that spun on a horizontal axis. They were called power brake because the internal gears gave better leverage for the strength of a human being. Some designs, such as the early versions of Klasing's gear, involved a crank lever. Another early version of Klasing's gear is replicated on the P2K Mather stock car and boxcar. It had a bevel gear arrangement with a topside brake wheel attached to a power brake housing.

Tom 

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  • From: Northeast OH
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Brake wheels
Posted by tstage on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 1:02 PM

I (or someone else) may have asked this question before but I don't remember: When did handbrake wheels begin moving from the roof top to the vertical ends of a boxcar?  And when were the former eliminated from service?  Thanks.

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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