On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 10:49 AM, Jack Mullen wrote:

As others have said, the brake being discussed is the staff type, in which the lever is lifted, then moved in a horizontal arc to rotate the staff, which winds chain around it's lower end.

And, since most were patented, the designs became more and more outlandish in the effort to avoid existing patents. This one is particularly goofy, and luckily we have views from two different angles. In the broadside view of the car you can see that the handle forks above its attachment to the staff, so when lifted the mechanism at the end falls on the opposite side of the staff and engages the tapered shape at the top of the staff, which looks like it has gear teeth on it. The stubby end of this extension is a  handle for the brakeman's other hand, and possibly moves a detent to engage the teeth. Meanwhile, the staff has a ratchet at its base, equipped with a pawl to be operated by the brakeman's toe. When winding the brake down, he must've looked like he was dancing a jig!

Dennis Storzek