I have one of these by Red Caboose but would like others. Did the RTR come with the high break wheel or did someome change it out. Intermountain all have the lower break wheel as do the Red Caboose they now sell.
Don’t know for sure, but I rather doubt it. The high brake wheel mounting was a holdover from the roofwalk era. These started going away after the m,id-60s, which is when the low mount brake wheels came along to avoid the need to climb very far to set the brakes. Unless IM or RC does an earlier version of these cars with roof walks, then you’ll have to DIY it.
If I remember correctly, Concor offered a 57’ mechanical reefer that came with a high mounted brakewheel. I’m not sure if it had a roofwalk or not, but that should be easy to correct.
Unfortunately, the roof itself was of a style as found on earlier versions of the car, possibly a R70-15 (?), not the R70-20/25.
I have a few models of cars with high-mounted brake wheels. Most are P2K kits form lesser known, even obscure midwest roads. I believe I have one Atlas ice bunker reefer that’s a high-wheel, too.
All the Red Caboose R-70-15 reefers I have without running boards came with the high brake wheel, as per the prototype. The OP didn’t indicate if the model in question also had a running board, as Red Caboose has both.
Note the above and other photos from http://rr-fallenflags.org/up/upfe.html and elsewhere, showing such cars with the running boards removed. Note the “keep off roof no running board” label adjacent to the B end side ladder, which Red Caboose also includes where appropriate.
The R-70-15s were built prior to the 1966 changes to safety appliance regulations, while the R-70-20 through -25 classes (the prototypes for the Intermountain model) were built later, with low brakewheels and four-rung ladders. Typically PFE left the original B end configuration when the running boards were removed, only lowering ladders on the A end and adding the B end roof grab. Changes may have occurred on some cars from older classes, but I haven’t seen many. Cars as pictured above were in compliance with the new regulations, and required no further changes to the B end.
When I am talking high brake wheel, I am talking the ones above the roofwalk level. About half my cars are uf this type. It is a Red Caboose RTR.
AFAIK, mechnical reefers tended to have end mounted brake wheels. A few early ones may have had tall brake staff above the roof, but this was not a typical design feature of mechanical reefers.
Now, if you’re talking iced reefers, most had the tall brake staffs. Some late ones adopted the high, end mounted brake wheels. Not sure this transition had anything specific to do with much of anything other than that increasing height and management discourgament of working on roofs, though, unlike the later changes made due to the deletion of roofwalks entirely from car designs.
You mean like this?
I’ve heard these refered to as a “horizontal” brake wheel or colloquially as a “stem-winder” type.
8859 001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
I have several PFE cars from Red Caboose, but all were undecorated kits. All of them came with so-called power handbrakes like this…
This one was an undecorated kit from Tichy, and it’s equipped with an older style “stem-winder” which extends above the car’s roof. These types of brakewheels could be operated by the brakeman standing either on the brake platform or on the car’s roof or runningboard, depending on the height of the shaft…
This one"s an old Athearn BlueBox reefer, stripped and repainted, and also with a power handbrake…
Any of these cars could be fitted with either the older-style stemwinder or the power version (the “power” was supplied by a gearing system, although some stem-winder ty
A lot of companys used Tichy stuff, most don’t know Ertl stuff was Tichy. It was proubly Red Caboose using Tichy stuff as Tichy has never made RTR that I know of. And yes that stem-winder as you call it is what 1/2 my stuff has.
Sure wish we could trade stuff on here.
The various Tichy offerings of brake gear include stuff for the car’s end, along with the underbody components, although if you want to fully model the underbody stuff, some phosphor-bronze wire, also from Tichy, would be necessary to represent at least the major piping and the rods that operated the brakes.
Here’s a scratchbuilt boxcar with a fairly complete representation of the underbody brake gear for the so-called Westinghouse AB brake system…
…although a lot of it is lost from view once the car is put on the track (it can become readily viewable, though, if you have derailments involving roll-overs).
If you’re looking for brake parts for the cars’ ends, I may be able to help you, but don’t have a means to contact you, as my “Conversations” feature on this site is completely locked-up…I can neither send nor receive private messages.
If this is of interest to you, I may be able to ask another Member of this Forum to relay my e-mail address to you, and we can then talk about what you need and what I might be able to offer.
Wayne
Following are from the HOSeeker.net website:
There are diagrams for the reefer they made; there was an instruction addendum showing an underfloor suggested brake arrangement; there was a Prototype Modeler (don’t know who they were) kit showing the vertical brake stand.
I don’t worry about the under car detail unless it can be seen from the side. Layout height is around 33" and I may be short but not that short.
I’m not sure if it actually worked, but I have attempted to send you a PM with my e-mail address as the subject line, as I cannot include any other info. It may or may not have worked.
Wayne