I'm watchin a a review of the Rapido B36. with the brake chain. Fortunately I know it's not a break chain. But there is alot of slack in it. I have no real world railroad experience. Does the slack go away to activate the brake.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddyDoes the slack go away to activate the brake.
Yes. These long hand brake chains seem to be a common design on some GEs and many of the Alcos.
DnH_5020-brakes-set by Edmund, on Flickr
Some later locomotives are equipped with power-assist hand brake gear.
Unfortunately, model chain leaves a lot to be desired when trying to replicate the real thing. The model chain in your photo looks more like anchor chain, but there are always compromises.
[edit]
Here are a couple of better examples: (note the EMD trucks)
Brake-Off by Edmund, on Flickr
Above, handbrake released; below, handbrake applied:
Brake-set by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
That Rapido chain looks to me like the links are to big for a brake chain.
Edit: ok I see this was mentioned above.
We have the same problem with modelling the brake chains on freight and passenger cars, too...
The finest chain I've been able to find is 40 links/inch, at least twice as big as what might look realistic. I think that it's acceptable only because we know that there should be chain there, and the tendency is to accept it, even though it's grossly oversize.
Wayne
All the model chain that I have seen has round links. The appearance can be improved by squeezing each link into an oval shape.
Mark Vinski