What type of brake system would a car built in 1900 have?

[hon30critter]

Hi folks,

Some of you may know that I'm scratchbuilding an oddball rotary snow plough, and I'm wondering what type(s) of brake system it might have used. The plough was built in 1900 in Goderich, Ontario.

Also, were air systems in use at that time? I have used an Accurail early freight car kit as a base, and it has an air brake system. Would that be correct for 1900?

Here is the plough:

Thanks,

Dave

[doctorwayne]

Well Dave, George Westinghouse patented his straight air brake  in 1869, then in 1887, introduced the type-H triple valve.

In 1906, WABCO debuted the type-K triple valve brake system, followed by, in 1908, the type-L triple valve for passenger cars, which featured a graduated release function.

Since the plow would be pushed by a locomotive, I wonder if it would be simply fitted with manual brakes, applied with a brakewheel when not in use.

I don't, however, have any drawings or photos to show what the various components looked like.

At the steel plant where I worked, most of the in-plant rolling stock - ingot buggies, torpedo cars, slag pots, material gondolas, etc., had no brakes, other than those on the locomotives.
A diesel pushing 30-or-so loaded ingot buggies simply applied the brakes on the loco, then kept them applied until the slack ran out.

I do have a lot of freight cars with various K-type brakes, though, most of them acquired through Tichy.

Wayne

[hon30critter]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for that information. I have another look at the PSC catalogue to see if I can get an idea of what the parts would have looked like.

Next question: Would the snow plough have had it's own air resevoir or would it be fed by the locomotive? In other words, would there have been an air pump operating from the plough's steam pressure?

I want to add a bunch of detail to this plough but I'm pretty clueless as to what is appropriate. I just spent some time studying Precision Scale's catalogue diagrams for early locomotives, and I ordered a few more parts for the steam engine. If people start laughing at what I put on the plough then I'll know I missed the mark.

Cheers!!

Dave

Edit:

I think I'm just going to go with the manual brake setup.

[doctorwayne]

Here are some TRAIN MINIATURE underbodies that originally had cast-on AB-type brakes, but I've re-fitted them with Tichy split K-types.  I generally add mainly the basic brake rigging, and only occasionally bother with the piping, as most of it's only visible if I have frequent roll-overs during operations...

Here's an ordinary K-type brake...

...with no piping at all....

and another one with some basic piping...

This one's way too modern for your plough, but it's one of the few where I bothered to include most of the necessary piping....

The car is a scratchbuild, and as you can see, the piping isn't visable at all...

Wayne

 

[wrench567]

  Dave.

  I got a look at a single track plow when it was parked by my old MR club. It only had a hand brake on the rear truck and no air brake system. Inside was a large air tank and a control panel with valves to actuate the wings and the mid car flanger. The wings had tie back chains to keep them against the car body but the flanger had leaked out it's air and was in the down position resting on the rails. What was striking was there were 2 coal stoves. One caboose size just behind the operators position and a very large one by the air tank. The one by the air tank was about three feet around and about four feet tall. I guess they wanted to keep the air from freezing while bucking snow.

   I know this doesn't help your project along. I think they would not have air brakes on snow fighting equipment just for the freezing environment.

      Pete.

[dehusman]

hon30critter

Next question: Would the snow plough have had it's own air resevoir

Yes. 

  or would it be fed by the locomotive?

Yes.

In other words, would there have been an air pump operating from the plough's steam pressure?

Probably not.

There would be a brake system much like any other car with an air reservoir, brake valve and brake cylinder that would be supplied with air from the train line.

[dehusman]

hon30critter

Here is the plough:

You know this plow has air brakes because you can see the K type brake cylinder under the sliding door.  Tichy sells a nice K style brake equipment set in plastic.

[wjstix]

FWIW when the plow was built wouldn't be as important as what year/period you're modelling. Regulations and technology re air brakes changed over time, so a car in 1900 would have a different brake system than the same car would have in say 1940.

[doctorwayne]

dehusman

You know this plow has air brakes because you can see the K type brake cylinder under the sliding door.

Good observation, Dave.

dehusman

Tichy sells a nice K style brake equipment set in plastic.

Here's a LINK to Tichy's catalogue.

I'm currently working on some models of the TH&B's 1913 hopper cars, some of which had split-K brakes, and some which were later changed to the more modern AB brake system.
I have 5 with the AB system...

and 7 with the split-K type...

There's not really much to be seen on an all-black hopper car, but I am doing some of the basic piping, and almost none of the brake gear rigging.

Here's one of the in-progress cars...

I also re-worked an Athearn rotary snowplow for a contest on my "home" forum, and based on nothing more than assumptions, outfitted both the plow and its tender with at least some basic brake gear...

Here's the finished version, with brake gear sorta semi-visible...

Projects like these tend to suck me into going a little beyond the usual details.

Wayne

[hon30critter]

dehusman

You know this plow has air brakes because you can see the K type brake cylinder under the sliding door.  Tichy sells a nice K style brake equipment set in plastic.

Hi David H.

Your powers of observation are far better than mine! The answer was staring me in the face the whole time.

Thanks, Dave

[hon30critter]

wjstix

FWIW when the plow was built wouldn't be as important as what year/period you're modelling. Regulations and technology re air brakes changed over time, so a car in 1900 would have a different brake system than the same car would have in say 1940.

Hi Stix,

That is a very good point.

I'm not sure how long the plough stayed in use. It was first tried by Canadian Pacific "with great success", but I believe that early on it suffered a catastrophic failure of one of the engine frames and was never put back into service.

I'm going to treat it as a novelty item on my late 50s era layout. It will get run just for the fun of it. That's the same reason I'm building it - just for fun.

Thanks for your input.

Dave

[hon30critter]

wrench567

I got a look at a single track plow when it was parked by my old MR club. It only had a hand brake on the rear truck and no air brake system. Inside was a large air tank and a control panel with valves to actuate the wings and the mid car flanger.

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your information. Every bit helps.

I hadn't thought about including a stove inside the unit. I figured that the steam engine would have provided all the heat necessary.

The plough did not have wings like a Russell plough or a flanger so it wouldn't have had air for that purpose, and as was suggested the air for the brakes would have been supplied by the pusher locomotive.

Cheers!!

Dave

 

[hon30critter]

For those who haven't seen the main thread for the construction of the snow plough, here it is:

https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/291158.aspx

Dave