Brake Wheel Placement

[Charles McMillan]

What height should the brake wheel be placed on a boxcar above the roofline? I have not been able to find a definitive answer to this question.
Thanks for your help.
Charles M

[Dave Eggleston]

What period are you modeling?

[Charles McMillan]

I am modeling the late 1920's to early 1930's on the C&S.
Charles M

[Chris Walker]

Mal Ferrell's C&SNG; Ken Pruit drawing 8309 calls out 11ft 10-1/2 in, top of Rail to top of Brakewheel.

Check the FILES on the C&SN3 Blog for the Folio Drawings provided by Jim Courtney: C&S Boxcar variations in road number differing heights.

[Charles McMillan]

Thanks for the answer Chris.
Charles M.

[Mike Trent]

Thanks, Chris, for the reminder on Jim's files in the Blog. Happy to report my cars are in range.

Ken Pruitt's drawings, like John Maxwell's and others should always be scrutinized. This has been well known among builders for a long time. Even the folios are not infallible and may include unusual aspects of particular items. An excellent example of this is the folio of the B-4-F class locomotives. which has a drawing of what can only have been #75, identifiable by the high sand dome profile, and tender. This caused some of the chaos with the On3 Sunset #74.

Another example of a Folio sheet error that really wasn't an error is the D&RGW folio of Combine #212. The drawing and specs are indeed the folio of the #212, but do not reflect that the Alamosa shop switched numbers of car #212 and #215, after sale of the #215 to the Mexican National Railway in the '40's. kits and models were made of #212 and ended up being much shorter that the #212 that everyone knew in the "Silverton" fleet.

Research always pays off, right?    

[Chris Walker]

Mike Trent wrote

Ken Pruitt's drawings, like John Maxwell's and others should always be scrutinized.

Research always pays off, right?

Thanks Mike; we have such a wonderful resource here on the Forum and with the Blog.  Kudos to Darel all those years ago for kicking this off, and building the C&S archive.

Only problem is identifying the errors; one has to get the feel of the issue first. Successive authors have perpetuated these; and those in turn amplified by the Web.  It takes a lot of time and cross-checking to isolate an error, and only if one gets down to the nitty-gritty....and then only if one knows where and what to look for.

There is an old American saying that had this Kiwi perplexed for a few years('cos I ain't a Yank, and cos I don't Fish); the old adage "Are we gonna Fish, or cut Bait".  Some are noticeable, others not so obvious.
Just when does one know to call it, or keep digging, otherwise it never gets revealed.