Yet another one for my Forum friends: What is the proper brakewheel for the following car? http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4476063 and its various sister cars. I have two HO scale models and they have different brakewheels. I have to do some relettering on both of them so I might as well get it right. (One was given to me so I have no idea of its history.)
As usual thank you in advance for any assistance that can be provided.
A RIP track repair may use any available brakewheel on hand. Here's another photo of a similar car, TTPX 804353, showing what looks like a modern eight-spoke wheel:
TTPX804353 by Edmund, on Flickr
Kadee makes a nicely-detailed brakewheel in HO.
https://www.kadee.com/ho-scale-scenery-and-car-parts-c-274_279_298/
Hope that helps, Ed
If you do not have a picture of the actual car, you can go by the builders data, but there is no guarantee it did not receive a different brake gear, or have a field update performed.
.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
In looking at the car that I had previously, the brakewheel scales out to 18" and it looks like the kadee 2045 looks right. Given that these are supposed to be new for the era I model, I will also need to find some Trailer Train Yellow to match. Any suggestions (water based) for that color would be welcomed.
By the way, modelers of the steam era and transition era have a bewildering variety o handbrakes to know about and keep track of (and some have not been commercially available, or have not been for years). The days when Athearn basically put the same hand wheels on just about everything and none of us cared or knew better are over. Freight car historian Gene Green calls brake hand wheel modeling and accuracy "the next detail frontier."
It takes a 64 page article in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia #10 to even scratch the surface of the hand wheel varieties, and that is just 1920s to 1950s! And back then they were often so proprietary in design that they were NOT always interchangable by shop repair forces (square versus round center mounting holes for example). The AAR did issue standards after a while and approved two standardized designs in 1959. Basically the 8 spoked, cupped dish type as in Ed's photo above became standard then.
Not perhaps OT to your posting but the fact that we are even discussing brake hand wheels is interesting.
Dave Nelson
dknelsonBy the way, modelers of the steam era and transition era have a bewildering variety o handbrakes to know about and keep track of
So true... I have about a dozen different varieties in my detail bin.
I doubt anyone will ever notice the variety of different hand brake wheels on my freight car fleet.
Nor is it ever goign to be possible to find a photo of every single car number you are modeling to get the exact type of brake wheel used. Best you might be able to say is that there is documentation saying that some series containing the car numbe ryou are modeling were delivered in a certain year and came with a specific type of roof, ends, doors, and brake wheel. If later in life, the brake wheel was changed - good luck having proof of that, unless you have specific pictures. ANd unless your only aim is to build a small handful of contest quality cars... trying to outfit an operating layout's worth of cars while worrying about the specific type of brake wheel is a losing proposition.
I do know a whole series of hopper cars I have are all supposed to have lever hand brakes instead of wheels, but the models of those numbers I have all came with them that way, no need to swap out detail parts. But on others with wheels - as long as it was a type that is era appropriate, I'm good.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I clicked on the link of the original post and said, "Wow, those are HUGE brakewheels! I wonder why the car needs four of them . . ."
(it was a hard night on top of a rugged day)
John
I found a package of the 2045s that I had on hand. I installed them and found I liked the result. Now all I have to do is get the needed paint.
FRRYKidNow all I have to do is get the needed paint.
Sometimes a replaced brakewheel will remain in red oxide or shop primer. Often the car repair shop (RIP track) will not have the time nor the proper color to worry about matching the paint on the rest of the car.
AEX_8062 by Edmund, on Flickr
Personally, I like having the variety of the appearance of a car that has been shopped. Mis-matched doors, grab irons, cut levers and roof walks add interest and variety.
Spritz your new #2045 with a little Dullcote and you're good to go.
Good Luck, Ed
Unless the car is brand new out of the shop, the paint on the wheel gets worn/flakes off real fast. It won't be a perfect and shiny match.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any