Brake gear

[ge_rik]

As I'm plodding away replacing all the LGB style couplings on my stock, I've started adding cosmetic brake gear to some wagons to relieve the tedium. Some of the ex-LGB wagons have representations of vacuum braking systems so I've removed the cylinders and all but two of the brake blocks and then added a representation of a manual system. Tried a couple of techniques using brass or plastic. Clearly, the brass will be more robust, but the plastic is a bit easier to manufacture.

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Not very pretty but once painted and the wagon is up the right way, I might be able to get away with it...

Rik

[philipy]

I think both versions look fine and will be even better when painted/weathered. After all you don't want them to be the focus of attention and if anyone complains, just ask them to do better!

[Peter Butler]

Looks fine to me too, I must admit to not including such detail on my stock using excuses such as.... too far away to notice, lots of other distractions, etc... however, it might well become a winter project.

[GTB]

Not very pretty but once painted and the wagon is up the right way, I might be able to get away with it...

Looks fine to me and will look even better once painted and weathered to match the rest of the underframe.

Not convinced though that building brake gear is any less tedious than building couplers.

That cracked side sill needs welding up before the wagon in the first photo goes back into traffic. HM's Board of Trade will not be amused........ (Sorry, my inner safety professional resurfaced momentarily..... )

Regards,
Graeme

[ge_rik]

Not convinced though that building brake gear is any less tedious than building couplers.

No not really, just a bit different and so a bit less repetitive. These things are all relative.

That cracked side sill needs welding up before the wagon in the first photo goes back into traffic. HM's Board of Trade will not be amused........ (Sorry, my inner safety professional resurfaced momentarily..... )

It wasn't until I did the brake gear that I noticed how badly this wagon had been constructed. My defence is that I bought it secondhand - the previous owner had bashed it by doing a cut an shut from two LGB wagon chassis. It's staying in the workshop a bit longer to plug this and various other gaps (which are actually even worse than this)

Rik

[Busted Bricks]

Hmm, something to cut on the fiber laser perhaps? Can't see them costing much if made from mild steel. Then they could be painted or left to rust if people prefer that.

[tom_tom_go]

If you can produce a brake gear set for a wagon for under £10 I would buy it.

[IanC]

Another inspiring and thought provoking thread Rik. I have some wagons that lack any form of brake gear and it is something I have thought about attending to. It's making a passable representation of the brake shoes that has deterred me up to now.

[ge_rik]

Another inspiring and thought provoking thread Rik. I have some wagons that lack any form of brake gear and it is something I have thought about attending to. It's making a passable representation of the brake shoes that has deterred me up to now.

Hi Ian
My ex LGB wagons have brake shoes moulded on; two per wheel; so I remove all but two on one side. This gives me six shoes I can use on other wagons though the plastic is hard to glue as it's resistant to normal plastic solvents. Cambrian do some reasonably priced plastic mouldings which might be adaptable to other models than those intended.
http://cambrianmodels.co.uk/16bogies.html

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Rik

[ge_rik]

Hmm, something to cut on the fiber laser perhaps? Can't see them costing much if made from mild steel. Then they could be painted or left to rust if people prefer that.

Interesting idea. If the levers and linkages could be made adjustable in length somehow then they could be used on wagons with differing wheelbases.

Rik

[Busted Bricks]

I think it would be hard to make something adjustable that still looks good. It would need to be an optional add-on from rolling stock kit manufacturers to make sure it fits properly.

[IanC]

Rik,

Thanks for the Cambrian link. Looking at your pictures again, shouldn't the cross shaft be extended all the way across the underframe to a second lever on the other side? My recollection of wagon brakes is a lever on both sides, even if the brakes are only on one side. However Rule one applies, and some brakes are better than none.

[ge_rik]

Rik,

Thanks for the Cambrian link. Looking at your pictures again, shouldn't the cross shaft be extended all the way across the underframe to a second lever on the other side? My recollection of wagon brakes is a lever on both sides, even if the brakes are only on one side. However Rule one applies, and some brakes are better than none.

Hi Ian
I based these (loosely (my watchword)) on the W&L wagons and went down to Llanfair station yesterday to see if I could get some more photos for the archive. There was only one wagon in the yard - their Peate private owner open. Sod's Law dictated that the brake gear and the lever was on the opposite side and so I coudn't photograph it. I think the levers and the blocks were only on one side on their other wagons as well - but happy to be corrected.
Rik

[ge_rik]

A couple of my 'archive' pictures from previous W&L galas. Interestingly, the W&L levers don't lead to a central V hanger. Not clear from these pictures whether the gear extends to the other side.

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Rik

[Andrew]

I looked into this recently (tragic, really...) and found that the handle-on-each-side thing was adopted as standard on SG lines after 1920-something, presumably to aid shunters and reduce the need for them to make a dangerous dive between buffers to apply brakes. I don't suppose that applied to independent NG lines, most of which would have acquired all the wagons they were every going to by then anyway.

I've been looking at old photos, peering at underframes of Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog wagons to work out what's going on there. Those only had a handle on one side - where there were only two brake shoes they seem to have been on the opposite side of the wagon to the lever. Some of my recent builds have gained some very rudimentary approximations of brake gear - I like to know they're there but don't think I'd spot it if they weren't! I'll try to sort some photos later, although I think they'll make anyone who knows anything about the real thing wince!

Yours look fantastic to me Rik, although I'm amazed you consider making brake gear a way to relieve tedium - I think it's my least-favourite bit of a build!

Cheers,

Andrew.

[ge_rik]

......I'm amazed you consider making brake gear a way to relieve tedium - I think it's my least-favourite bit of a build!

All things are relative, I suppose. It was tedious because it was repetitive. I think I have a low boredom threshold..... I like starting new jobs, but get fed up finishing off the previous one(s) - so my wife tells me ....

Rik

[GTB]

Interestingly, the W&L levers don't lead to a central V hanger. Not clear from these pictures whether the gear extends to the other side.

UK std. gauge wagon brakes were primitive enough, but UK ng wagons (with the exception of the Irish ng lines), if they even had a brake fitted, were about the same level of technology as a horse cart. The double sided lever brake used on UK std gauge wagons had a cross shaft and some form of clutch or cam, so that either brake handle could operate all the brake shoes.

The W&L wagons seem to have the common ng arrangement of a lever, pivoted in a simple plummer block on the side sill and operating a single brake block. IP Engineering sell white metal castings for this arrangement.

The other GWR ng lines had similar arrangements. At least some W&L stock appears to have duplicate levers and blocks fitted on both sides, but not interconnected in any way.


In this part of the world, the govt. railways fitted some form of continuous automatic brake to all rollingstock from the 1880s. Hand operated brakes were just used for parking wagons in yards, so more than one hand lever was a waste of money.

VR practice tended towards the handbrake operating the auto brake shoes through a slotted linkage, either with a lever, or a geared brake wheel on bogie vehicles, so the TVT follows suit.

Although our industrial systems, such as timber trams, had brakes just as primitive as any UK ng line. The Qld. sugar trams now run very long and heavy trains, but still don't fit any form of brakes on the cane bins. They've gone high tech and use dedicated brake wagons at the rear of the train that are remotely controlled from the loco.

It occurs to me that the PLR has more in common with ng railways on the other side of the Irish sea than just the gauge......

Regards,
Graeme

[ge_rik]

The double sided lever brake used on UK std gauge wagons had a cross shaft and some form of clutch or cam, so that either brake handle could operate all the brake shoes.

Although there were no W&L wagons with brake gear available for photography, there was one wagon in the workshop - of unknown origin. It appears to have this form of double sided brake with a cam.

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Rik
PS - Much too complicated for the PLR .....