At Friday’s modelling night, I collared Rob Kirkham for a discussion about the coal car brakes. He is a bit of a kindred spirit in that he models a time before the transition era, and he’s a bit of a stickler for details. I shared my concern that the outboard position of the brake cylinder had made the live cylinder lever too long, while also reducing the leverage available for the hand brake. Sadly, Rob didn’t buy my plan either.
Fortunately, he recalled seeing a model of a similar car, and like the good friend he is, he followed up with a couple of emails over the course of the weekend that linked to the car he’d seen. There was an especially helpful one on the Forbes Train Models site, which enabled me to break the deadlock in my thinking. The key observation is that if the cylinder moves to the side sill area, then the cylinder lever rod also needs to move there. I still have a problem with the hand brake leverage, but that can be resolved with, well, a lever!
The good news is that I’m getting better and better at drawing all these levers, rods and clevises. So it shouldn’t take more than an evening to move them once again.
Pembroke:87 
