My first question (on this topic) is: I believe that I've read that the designations "'B' end" and "'A' end" refer to the end with the brakewheel (or eqv) and "the other" end; is this true (or true enough)?
Second question: Underneath, there are the various pieces of equipment to which the brakewheel (or eqv) is attached, along with the trainline (have I got that right?), such that either one can set the brakes for that car. It appears to me that most of that equipment (a couple of resevoirs and a center-pivoted lever etc) are all located toward either one end of the frame or the other; is this true? (Or have I just not looked at enough models or prototypes (haha) to notice that this is not the case?)
Finally, if the various pieces of underframe eqpt are, in fact, generally at one end or the other, are they normally at the same end as the brakewheel? Or, are they normally at the opposite end?
The 'B' end is always the brakewheel end. 'B' = "Brake". Easy to remember.
Can't help with the other questions as I've never paid attention, which I guess I really should have. I'd suggest either a quick trip down to your nearest railroad yard with a camera or study photos in books or magazines.
Probably answers more questions than you knew how to ask. ;-)
Better quality models have a pretty good representation of brake rigging. Replace the molded-in levers, rods, and pipes with separate parts, is all (says he, knowing full well that this is the fiddly part of freight car modelling, and has led to patchy baldness and other signs of stress and frustration.)
The "B" end is the end with the brakewheel. The "A" end of course is the opposite end.
There are a number of parts connnected to the brakewheel, including a chain a pivot and rod underneath the car that goes to atleast one set of trucks, sometimes both, which allows you to apply the parking brake (or "hand brake" as it's usually referred to) on the individual car.
There are other components such as the air reservoir, brake cylinder, triple valve, retainer valve, cutout c*ck, A/B valve, bleed rod, etc that are components of the AIR BRAKE system. They don't really have anything to do with the hand brake, although they may be tied into the hand brake components in some capacity.
Some cars have the reservoir tanks underneath the carbody somewhere, and some have them up on the end. Usually a tand car or covered hopper or an open top hopper and some types of flat cars (mostly intermodal) will have the brake reservoir, triple and cylinder on the end with brake wheel, but I've seen a few cases where they're on the opposite end. However these components may be underneath these type cars, just depends on the individual cars. Almost all gondolas and Box cars will have everything underneath. Some cars have truck mounted brake cylinders, where as others have a single cylinder underneath that is connected to both trucks by use of a rod.
I've seen cases where most of the brake equipment is toward one end, and others where they're toward the other. There is no particular standard. Just depends on the car type and the model of car and the manufacturer of the car body.
Haha. Probably patchy relationships, too, I bet. On that basis, maybe I'll skip hyperdetailing the brake rigging under the car. As for the other patchy things, too late!
But thanks for the link!
(Google is increasingly *not* my friend -- I find myself using it less and less as they keep making it find more and more things that don't match my criteria. But that's another story.)
Yay! You are the second person in this thread to confirm my belief that that is the case, so at least I don't feel like a mis-informed ignoramus on that point. I just wanted (or needed) to make sure. (Post-perfusion syndrome is not your friend.)
Wow! That's great stuff. Thank you
Some of that was sorta obvious -- like that cars that have no "there" there under the frame (e.g. tank cars, intermodal cars, etc) tend to put greater or lesser amounts of the rigging up "on top" of the car. This is clear "by inspection", as my math friends like to say.
However, I am strongly disinclined to do the necessary inspection to find out what things look like *underneath* those cars where the rigging is not in plain sight. People tend to frown on that sort of thing these days.
And while I have rather more leisure than some folks, I really can't make a serious study of all the different arrangements. So ... it's enough to know that, as you pointed out, different manufacturers of cars (and/or the brakes) and different railroads put that equipment in all sort of arrangements. That being the case, I'm not going to worry that much about getting it in the *right* place unless I am making a thorough-going model of a specific car.
Mostly, I just figured that *if* there is some convention regarding whether the triple valve and/or resevoir(s) go on the "A" end or go on the "B" end, then I would like to make sure that I have all my shells installed on their frames such that this is true. But if, as seems to be true from your statement, it's much more complicated than that, I don't think I need to worry about it that seriously.
All of which is NOT to say that I don't appreciate the time and effort to construct your very informative reply. I will no doubt put it to use when I start following Wolf's advice and replace all the molded-in parts with separately-cast / molded / extruded / carved parts. ;-)
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