I have several Accurail HO USRA 2 bay hoppers. I was curious about the lack of a brake wheel on them. Kinda unusual! What type of system do they represent? Must not have been very common as these models are the only cars I’ve seen like that. Thanks, Roger Huber
Is it the 55-tonners? They should come with a brake wheel and rod. The rod is usually taped to the assembly instructions.
Tom
Lot of mine have the Miner brake ‘wheels’, it’s a small lever flat against the car end, it;s molded on and doesn;t look like much. On the real thing the arm lifts out to ratchet the brakes down.
–Randy
I’m talking about the Accurail 2500 series USRA 2 bay rib side hoppers. They DO NOT come with any brake wheels. There is some sort of lever arrangement on the end where most hoppers have the round brake wheel & gearbox. I went to their website and looked at every car and the instructions. None showed wheels. The new Accurail 2 bay offset side cars have brake wheels. Other 2 bay USRA cars like Athearn, Bachmann & MTH have wheels. I was just wondering about what brand these cars used. Roger Huber
Hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it. Have several of the 2500 series and just hadn’t noticed. However, look closely at the step on the end of the car where the brake parts are attached. The rod mentioned above is molded on, passing through the step, just to its right is a molded on handle , hanging next to the rod. I believe this is a handle they would lift and turn, rather than having a wheel to activate the brakes. Could be wrong, but that is what it looks like.
The Accurail box car I am working on at the moment has the brake rod taped to the instructions. Don’t know why they didn’t cut it the rod to the right length. I can do it easily enough, but I’d think that it would be just as easy to cut it the right length in the first place and save wire.
Have fun,
Richard
Those cars are equipped with Miner (the manufacturing company’s name) hand brakes. I tried to find info on the prototype, with little luck. They were operated, I believe, by a racheted handle, and may have been a power hand brake (power referring to the fact that they gave the operator a mechanical advantage - they still required manual input). To operate them, the brakeman grasped the lower end of the handle and pumped it up and down, much like old-style automobile bumper jacks.
In addition to the Accurail cars, I have LifeLike (Proto-no-thousand) reefers equipped with them…
…as well as Intermountain USRA composite-side drop-door gondolas…
…and Con-Cor/Revell welded gondolas:
Sorry, but I couldn’t find any photos showing the “B” ends.
Wayne
Wayne, Thanks for the info on the Minor style lever brake system. I sure wish Accurail would have done the more common wheel/gearbox type. Love your work! Roger Huber
I’m not sure about the advantage of lever. I heard from a brakeman they were exhausting to operate because you’re not in the best position to maneuver them.
And now, I won’t ever feel guilty to have kep
This is a link to a patent showing a Miner Brake: http://books.google.com/books?id=1egxvcpvv7cC&pg=PA468&lpg=PA468&dq=miner+brake+patent&source=bl&ots=lxON9g49fk&sig=Tgwc1i3b41i026Hyncxuxw2qjXc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uKv_Tq2MM8br0gHwoOWRAg&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=miner%20brake%20patent&f=false (should open to page 468) and how it works.
Your link works, but I couldn’t find page 468. However, thanks to your correct spelling of Miner, I found lots of info by googling “Miner-type handbrake”. [swg]
Wayne
They do have other car series that have more conventional brake wheels, but the Miner patent style was quite popular at the time those cars were supposed to be build.
As for the hortizontal wheels that stick up above the car roof - they do stick up pretty far. Remember they were typically operated by a brakeman standing on the roof of the car, not standing on an end platform. Too low and you’d have to be bend over to operate it. The later Ajax and other vertical wheels were designed to be operated while standing on the end platform.
Insteresting aside, from the link, if you go back to page 460 of the patent gazette, you’ll find the common tapered battery post and terminals we see in pretty much all cars these days.
–Randy
Hmmm. When I click the link it takes me right there. Anyway, the page numbers are to the left or right of the Official Gazette page header.
Miner handbrakee levers are still used on piggyback flats and auto racks