Boxcar Hand Brake Wheel

[willy6]

Before the invention of "air brakes" the boxcar hand brake wheel was mounted on top of the boxcar and the wheel was horizontal so the brakeman could turn it to stop the car/train. Then after air brakes were introduced, the hand wheel went to the upper end of the boxcar mounted vertically and required a climb on a ladder to operate, then the hand brake wheel was move to the bottm of the car so no climbing was involved.I never understood why after the use of air brakes was the hand wheel mounted on top of the end of the car, why wasn't it just mounted at the bottom to begin with?

[tstage]

willy6,

I'm glad you brought this subject up. I'd like to know the answer to that myself.

Along the same lines. When coupling box cars together, is the hand brake supposed to be at/face the front end or the back end of the car ? Or does it matter? I don't think I've ever heard anyone address it. Maybe it's one of those things you're already supposed to know. Oh, well. If you don't ask; you won't know...

Tom

[ndbprr]

Because that's where it was before air brakes. Plus the invention of air brakes weren't the sophisticated remotely operable ones we have today and steam engines don't have dynamic braking. Up through the 40's and possibly longer it still required a brakeman to walk the roofs to set retainers manually before going down hills. Since he was already up there that's where the brake wheels stayed. That is also the reason I think first gerenation hood diesels were run long hood first. Up until then the engineer was used to a big long black object in front of him blocking his peripheral vision (Read the boiler of a steam engine). To me it was only natural to make a hood type diesel emulate what everybody was already used to. Hence - Long hood forward until somebody had the idea to say wait a minute we can see better looking the other way.

[willy6]

The long nose foward deal, I do know a little about that.Southern railroad ran long hood fwd for safety and it was in the union rules. the idea was if the loco got involved in a collsion the engineer was protected by that long hood. as the Southern railroad became the NS it too ran long hood fwd, and then the advent of low nose locomotives camme about the short nose fwd became the standard.

[egmurphy]

Great answer Alco GE.

Let me offer just one more point, since the original post implied that the brake wheel was moved down to avoid climbing. Wasn't it that once roofwalks were outlawed (due to safety considerations) it no longer made sense to have the brake wheel up top, since you could no longer access it from a roofwalk? I suppose it could be construed as the same reason, but just a slight difference in reasoning.

Regards

Ed

[cefinkjr]

Actually, the brake wheel could not be accessed from the roof walk (without lying down on your stomach) after it was moved to a gear box mounted on the end of the car. Even before that, the preferred (safer) practice was to stand on the small platform between the roof walk and the ladders and turn the "stem winder" brake wheel from there.

As to whether the brake wheel should be at the front or rear of a freight car, "front" and "rear" have no meaning for a freight car. As pointed out in an earlier post, cars turned frequently on wyes and, less frequently, by moving through a loop or balloon track but were NEVER turned simply to orient the brake wheel. One reason for purposely turning a freight car was that some cars -- notably automobile cars with end doors -- could only be loaded or unloaded through the end doors from one end. I don't recall ever seeing a picture or plans for a box car with end doors at both ends.

I said above that "front" and "back" have no meaning for a freight car. But "A" and "B" ends do. The "B" end is the end on which the brake wheel (or ratchet lever) is found and the "A" end is the other end. The "A" or "B" end of the car would be used in reporting some fault; e.g., brake shoes sticking on outer axle of truck on the "B" end.

[tstage]

Thanks, Alco GE and cefinkjr! I always enjoy learning - even if it meams being corrected. [:)]

Tom

[Mark300]

QUOTE: Originally posted by willy6

Before the invention of "air brakes" the boxcar hand brake wheel was mounted on top of the boxcar and the wheel was horizontal so the brakeman could turn it to stop the car/train. Then after air brakes were introduced, the hand wheel went to the upper end of the boxcar mounted vertically and required a climb on a ladder to operate, then the hand brake wheel was move to the bottm of the car so no climbing was involved.I never understood why after the use of air brakes was the hand wheel mounted on top of the end of the car, why wasn't it just mounted at the bottom to begin with?

Something railroads have always been concerned about after they set a car out....or some problem occurs with a car......'Safety !' and to a lesser extent; Security.

Several generations of RR workers in my family; brakemen, engineers, firemen and so forth talked about stuff like this when I was a wee kid.

Try movin' a car by hand.....very tricky...did it myself 30 or so years ago as a young man....having a locomotive with air is good (and it's the preferred method) but if you have to, you can climb up and (if you know the right procedure) undo the brakes...let the car coast and use a lot of muscle to turn the brake wheels back down (and set a lever [I think]). 'JUST DON'T GET CAUGHT cause it's railroad property and they make it hard to monkey with the cars and if you get busted.....'

Today most cars are accessed via the ladder from the ground if they have to be worked manually so that you can put your entire weight on the wheel. If you have to work on several cars.....it's then easier to walk the boards than climb down. Having all of the gear beneath the under carraige presents some very major safety problems if a car rolls or is rolling manually.

Now about all those amazing stories concerning accidents, lost limbs and lives back at the turn of the last century (19th to 20th).....lot of blood sweat n' tears as well as form, function and failures went into the design of railroad equipment before & since the 1920's, 30's, with USRA standards and so forth.

Now we're into modeling on this forum but I bet if you asked this question over in the Trains or Classictrains forums you'd get some real good stories and explanations.

HTH

Mark

[dehusman]

The brakewheel was on top so the trainmen could walk along the tops of the cars to set the brakes. After air brakes, they still stayed on the top so the brakemen could walk along an set the retainers and so in manual humpyards the brakemen could ride the cars down the hump and see where the cars were going and set the handbrakes to slow the cars . With the advent of automatic retarders the brakemen on the hump were no longer needed and there was no reason to ride the cars, safety considerations made walking on the tops of cars obsolete, so there was no reason to have the brakewheels on the tops of the cars.

There is no difference on which way a car is "pointing", B end leading or B end trailing, and there is no attention paid to which end is the B end.

Dave H.

[Ibflattop]

They were moved from the tops of cars to the bottoms of cars for safety reasons... Kevin

[Anonymous]

I've got this half remembered so the timing is going to approximate. Someone with more accurate information will tune it up. Federal regulation passed in '67 said ladders were to be cut and brake wheels were to be moved by '71 for cars that were in mainline/exchange use. I think there was an extension or two with '77 being final. Covered hopper retain their walkways but for different reasons.

[Bikerdad]

QUOTE: There is no difference on which way a car is "pointing", B end leading or B end trailing, and there is no attention paid to which end is the B end.

Ahhh, the wonders of Search. I've been wondering about this. Should I neatly line all my cars up with the brakewheels all on the leading or trailing end, or not worry about it. Nice to know that the railroads didn't worry about such concerns on freight cars.

What about passenger cars? Did they have facing practices or requirements, aside form the obvious like the California Zephyr's last car?

[Anonymous]

Memory sometimes becomes foggy with years and with misinformation. One post above suggested brake wheels came off the roof when roof walks were banned. Really, now! Roofwalks (actually running boards) starting coming off of freight cars in the mid 60s. Brake wheels had been moved from the roof to the ends of cars 15 to 20 years prior to that. Any pictures I've seen taken in the late forties and later show the brake wheels on the ends of cars. In the late 60s and early 70s the brake wheel was lowered from near the roof to the place where they can be seen on present day equipment.

[rghammill]

I know this is from a very long time ago, but due to the lack of factual information in the responses, I thought it would be helpful to add some clarification.

Handbrakes were originally used because that was the only way to brake the car, and more importantly make sure it doesn't move when it's not attached to a train. While they were used to brake and slow a moving train, that was not necessary once air brakes were invented.

They were horizontal (that is, the brake wheel was above the roof of the car in a horizontal position) because that was mechanically the easiest way to design it. The wheel simply turned the shaft, which was attached to a chain that wound around the bottom of the shaft to set the brakes (aka "stemwinder"). This arrangement was necessary before air brakes (rather than something you'd set from the ground) since the brakemen had to be able to manually set the brakes while the cares were in motion. The most convenient and safest place for that was from the roof.

After the advent of air brakes, the handbrakes weren't generally needed for slowing the train, although it could and was still done. But airbrakes only work when there is air in the reservoir. The brakes are set by releasing air from the brake valve, which is pressurized through the train line from the locomotive. This also refills the reservoir and emergency reservoir. When a drop in pressure is detected at the brake vavle, then the valve releases air from the reservoir to the brake cylinder which sets the brake.

Naturally, when a car is set off by itself, it's no longer attached to a train. Without the train line pressurization, the reservoirs slowly leak and the brakes would eventually release. The handbrake mechanically sets the brake.

The handbrake itself was gradually moved from the horizontal hand brake, to the vertical handbrake on the car end. This was due to three reasons. The first was for safety. Horizontal handbrakes used a ratched and pawl mechanism. When tightening the handbrake, the pawl would catch the teeth in a gear, preventing it from spinning back to release. To release the brakes you just opened the pawl, and the wheel would spin, usually very quickly. If the pawl didn't catch properly, the same thing would happen. Brakemen frequently used a large rod (similar to an axe or shovel handle) that they would stick into the brakewheel for leverage in turning the wheel. If the pawl failed to catch, the stick would often break an arm, ribs, or even through the brakeman off the moving train. 

Turning the brakewheel also required a lot of strength (thus the use of the stick as a lever). To address both safety concerns and the difficulty of setting the brake, geared handbreak systems were developed. Early designs used the same horizontal handbrake, but their designs were open to the elements. They also didn't resolve accidents due to clearance issues with a carman on top of the car. Vertical handbrakes with the mechanism much more protected from the elements and situated with the handbrake itself solved these issues.

Another factor that likely came into play is a major advantage of the vertical handbrake. Clearance. The horizontal handbrake protruded above the top of the car by about 8"-10". While that may not seem like a lot, when you're talking about cubic feet inside a car, a few inches in any direction makes a big difference. The 1923 ARA Proposed-Standard box car (basically the PRR X-29) had an inside height 8'7-3/8". The 1932 ARA Standard had an inside height of 9'4", 1937 AAR Standard 10'0", the Modified 1937 AAR Standard, and 1947 AAR Standard had a 10'6" inside height. All of these are in similar increments to allow for larger cars. In 1935 the AAR required that all cars built new or rebuilt in 1937 or later had to use vertical handbrakes. The 1937 AAR Standard box car was the first standard car to not include specifications for the horizontal handbrake, and probably gained a good portion of its increase in height due to that exclusion.

 

Randy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cv_acr]

Bikerdad

What about passenger cars? Did they have facing practices or requirements, aside form the obvious like the California Zephyr's last car? 

Depends on the railway, and in some cases possibly even the specific train.

For example - simplest case: an all-coach day train.

Older cars had vestibules (entrance) at both ends, so direction didn't matter. (Note: the seats can be reversed)

Later lightweight cars often had the vestibule at one end only, and depending on the railroad, they might set up the train with all the cars facing the same way so the vestibules are consistently to the front (or rear), or they might face every other car the opposite way to set up the vestibules in pairs.

Trains with sleeping cars usually had them all arranged the same way so that the rooms and hallways were consistently to the same side(s).

[ACY Tom]

Having worked on passenger cars with vestibules at one end only, I can attest that boarding and some other activities are made easier by having all cars face the same way because that gives you a door at each location where cars are coupled.  On Amfleet II's, it also ensures that no passenger has to walk more than 1/2 of a carlength to find a water fountain or restroom. When we had supervisors and yard crews who understood this, car inspectors said the consistency also made inspections easier because the underfloor brake equipment was aligned consistently from car to car. Nevertheless, these simple and obvious efficiencies were often ignored by other yard employees whose only interest was in getting the train put together as quickly as possible, in the fewest moves. On single vestibule cars, the B end is (almost?) invariably the vestibule end. On Superliners, a right turn at the top of the stairs will take you to the B end.

I have seen consist books that went into great detail about the proper way to assemble a passenger train, with specific instructions as to the direction of travel for each car in each individual train. PRR consist books were particularly specific about these things. I'm not sure how particular other railroads may have been, or how often these instructions were considered mere guidelines to be violated at will. I suspect it varied from railroad to railroad.

Tom

P.S. I acknowledge that the discussion has drifted away from boxcar hand brake wheels. 

[wjstix]

I have an old (c.1940) railroad book that shows several cars being 'humped' in a yard, each one with a man riding them with one hand on the brakewheel. This was before automated retarders became standard for humpyards. If the wheel was lower, you couldn't see over the top of the car to see where you were going.

Early air brakes had upright brakestaffs with the brakewheel horizontal, but generally lower than before. The brakeman wouldn't turn the brakewheel standing on top, he would have one foot on the end ladder and one on the platform.

Later when automated "one hand" brakewheels came along, which no longer required using a brakestaff, they were made with the brakewheel vertical. 

A brakeman could walk the car roofs and set the brakes even on vertical brakewheels simply by going a few steps down the end ladder. That was quicker than climbing up from the ground, setting the brake, climbing down to the ground, going to the next car etc.

Once roofwalks were banned, you couldn't do that, so the brakewheel was moved lower down to be more easily accessed from the ground.

[Anonymous]

A side note on current prototype practices,  I was in Palmer, Ma a few months ago and the short line crew was setting out some cars in the freight yard.  I noticed the brakeman/switchman/conductor(guy on the ground) was using a boat hook to set brake wheels.  I asked him about it being a curious person and found that it was his companies policy to not step between cars, so you have to use a boat hook or similar implement to set the brakes.

[jeffhergert]

BMMECNYC

A side note on current prototype practices,  I was in Palmer, Ma a few months ago and the short line crew was setting out some cars in the freight yard.  I noticed the brakeman/switchman/conductor(guy on the ground) was using a boat hook to set brake wheels.  I asked him about it being a curious person and found that it was his companies policy to not step between cars, so you have to use a boat hook or similar implement to set the brakes.

 

Railroad Brake Sticks are all the rage on the company I work for, and a few other class ones, too.  That is, if one is available you are expected to use it.  They even have them in locked cases at locations in the field where trains are often tied down.   

http://www.rrtoolsnsolutions.com/miscProducts/BrakeStick.asp

They allow a person to set/release wheel type brakes without having to climb on the car.  It's against rules to apply/release most hand brakes (manually by hand) from the ground.  

Jeff

[BRAKIE]

jeffhergert

Railroad Brake Sticks are all the rage on the company I work for, and a few other class ones, too. That is, if one is available you are expected to use it. They even have them in locked cases at locations in the field where trains are often tied down.

And if conductor Jones decides not to return the stick then there is a empty box for the next conductor that needs the stick or what happens if a cut is standing on the track between the box and the conductor that needs the stick? I have wondered about that.

I've seen the NS local crew use them while switching Transco here and talking to the brakeman he said those sticks are more trouble then their worth but,the current safety rules mandates there use.

[jeffhergert]

I've seen a few of those empty boxes.  They have also been putting them in vans and they also have issued them to conductors.  If a condr is issued one, he must use it all the time.  I've had a few condrs say they were skeptical at first, but over time now like them most of the time. 

I asked about them when I was a conductor and they were just coming on the market.  I was in engine service by the time they started to show up here and there.  Even though I'll probably never have to use one, I still have to periodically watch the "How-to" video on them.

Jeff 

[DAVID PARSON]

I saw an article, which had great detail all about flat cars, with photos all around with scale builders drawings.  In two of the excellent photos, they showed the ends of a car with perfectly painted A and B within circles... the symbols were very clear. Which makes it all clear as mud.

Dave

[NHTX]

    I wonder if this is sign of the times?  I've seen cars stenciled with an A or B near their number because they were semi-permanently coupled and considered one car, with the same number on each car body.

[7j43k]

Multi-platform cars "always" have those letters.  If there are 5 platforms, one end platform will be an A, the other end platform (the hand brake end) will be a B, and the intermediate ones will be C, D, E (in some order I don't know).  The main reason for these letters is for maintenance purposes, so people can specify which "car" they're talking about.

It's a very similar concept to the A and B end of a single car.  Either way, the B "end" is the end with the brake wheel.

There are a few two-platform cars with a brake wheel on both cars, usually the outside end of the set.  They will be painted orange, to warn operators that there are two semi-independent brake systems on the one "car".  I expect those cars, too, have an A on one and a B on the other.  In this case, probably decided by a coin toss.

Again, the big reason for all this A and B stuff is to help people describe where a problem is on a car:  "The B-end truck has a bearing problem."  Saves looking at one truck, don't it.

Ed

[doctorwayne]

willy6

Before the invention of "air brakes" the boxcar hand brake wheel was mounted on top of the boxcar and the wheel was horizontal so the brakeman could turn it to stop the car/train. Then after air brakes were introduced, the hand wheel went to the upper end of the boxcar mounted vertically and required a climb on a ladder to operate, then the hand brake wheel was move to the bottm of the car so no climbing was involved.I never understood why after the use of air brakes was the hand wheel mounted on top of the end of the car, why wasn't it just mounted at the bottom to begin with?

 

Air brakes date to 1869, but didn't become mandatory on interchange equipment until January 1st, 1898. 
The brakewheels generally remained horizontal until "power" (geared handbrake mechanisms) came into general use.  Some of the horizontal handbrake wheels were the "power" type, too, but I can't find any date for when the handbrake actuating mechanism went from the car's roof to its end.  The horizontal ones could still be seen well into the early '50s at least.

 

willy6

...I never understood why after the use of air brakes was the hand wheel mounted on top of the end of the car, why wasn't it just mounted at the bottom to begin with?

 

Probably because when the engineer whistled to have brakes set/retainers turned-up on a moving train, the brakemen used the rooftop running boards to access the handbrakes.

 

Not all of the horizontal brakewheels were operated from a platform on the car's B-end, either, as some roads eschewed brake platforms (probably as a cost-saving measure) and simply put the handbrake wheel on a taller shaft, so it could be operated by a man standing on the car's roof.  The Fowler boxcars of the NC&StL are one example of that type, but I've seen photos of others.

 

DOH!!  I hadn't noticed the date on the original post, but since I've already typed my reply, I'll post it, even though I'm apparently re-answering some of the earlier questions.

 

Wayne