Re: Quesions about a depressed center flat car
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byronrose@...
On Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:07:59 -0500 "Norm Dresner" <ndrez@...> writes:
As an excuse for trying out my new bandsaw, I started scratchbuilding I have two questions: Norm (and some of you clods who haven't a clue as to how we got where we are), That book, and the articles written in that series in MR during the 50s and 60s on which it was based, are as responsible as any other single factor for the beautiful and accurate freight car models we enjoy today. The models were usually very accurate, more so than most contemporary kits, and introduced modelers to car types other than the generic and fanciful box cars and reefers represented by Athearn and Varney kits. I would have no reason to dispute any of the prototype data represented in any of the articles, they were usually taken from cars in the yards near the MR offices. In fact, one article stressed how they photographed a wooden express reefer, measured it, and then proceeded to build it. How many here have ever done that? (Hmmm, I don't see any hands up. I'm not surprised.) The "TPRX" I'm sure, represents the actual reporting marks on the prototype car and I'm sure some good deed doer will take the time to look it up and pass it on. At the time of the original article, few authors used fictitious markings in their presentation of prototype data. They may have used such on their own model. The only area they were weak on was underbody detailing, but since that's no different than the present day practice of some of the more illustrious members on this very list, what's the big deal? But to answer your question, the brake gear on depressed center flats was usually numbered down under the high decks at either end. Sometimes there were two complete sets, each working one truck because there was no way to run rodding between the ends of the car. Therefore, the hand brake would only acted on one truck, so there would usually be two hand brakes. Some cars, a very few in fact, had rodding along the side of the car tying A end brake "stuff" to B end. One three dimensional source of information you might seek out are the brass cars made by Railworks. They had an interesting variety of Pennsy flats, including several depressed center cars (and some high capacity types, with 4 - 4 wheel or 6 wheel trucks). They had full brake rigging on all. There was a Soo Line d/c flat car made by Overland which was very similar to the one in the book article which would give you a good lesson on how the brakes were shoehorned into a very limited space. It was actually based on an article in MR in the 80s, I think. That article may have some brake rigging included, commonly included in freight car articles of that era. A fully detailed model would severely limit the radii that a model could operate on. If you think you might want to detail such a car, contact me off line and I can send you some Xerox copies of these models, and even the 4 truck Athearn flat car I added two sets of ABs and levers to. It worked well on straight track only. I think it might even take a 48" radius curve if I replaced the Athearn wheels of its day with some present day scale flange wheelsets. Another project! These days the brake gear on prototype d/c flats is installed above the deck making the cars a little more interesting in appearance than the older cars. They can get away with it because they don't build them as short as they used to. The bigger decks give more room for the necessary blocking to stabilize the loads as well as access to the brake gear. Maybe I ought to look up the book and that article and see if I still agree with my off the cuff remarks. BSR ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. |
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