I have usually seen the brake cylinder, either for an AB or a K brake, mounted on the side of the centersill of a steam era freight car. The cars in question are the prototype PRR G-22 gondolas. Kohs & Company, Inc. is importing an excellent model of the G-22b container car in "O" scale, and has some pre-production model photos at www.kohs.com. These models have the brake cylinder mounted to the steel floor of the car - can this be correct? I have been under 200+ freight cars measuring them, and I have NEVER seen a brake cylinder bounted to the floor of the car! Thanks for your response. A.T. Kott
That's gotta be wrong. Not even the non-standard railroad of the world would mount a cylinder on a sheet steel floor, where the repeated heavy thrust of the piston being actuated by brake applications would soon compromise the mounting and/or distort the floor. Brake cylinders were always bolted to substantial mountings fastened to the center sills or draft sills. The only exceptions I can think of were the UTL Van Dyke frameless tank cars, where the cylinder mountings were riveted to the very thick tank bottom sheets.
