Re: Brake staff /cylinder confusion -- 1900 C&S stock car at museum.

Posted by Jim Courtney on Feb 18, 2017; 7:04am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Brake-staff-cylinder-confusion-and-mismatched-trucks-tp3464p7718.html

I'm already talking myself out of my brake rigging solution, with the stop fixture.

First, looking at the threaded end of the truss rod in Keith's photo, it dawned on me that it's hard to imagine a large nut being located on a particular segment of brake rod, without the entire rod being threaded! And I doubt there was much welding going on in the 1880s-1890s.

Then I reconsidered the Fairplay photo above with the nearly new UP built 27 foot boxcar:





All (three?) of the brake rods seem to pass below the needle beams, one to the right, two to the left. And there is no evidence of any truss rods, just like the hi-res photos that Todd Hacket posted of one of the 27 foot Tiffany reefer, at the Washington Spur wreck:





If there is a "stop fixture" it must be up near the A end of the car, hidden by the truck--of course the photographer at the Washington Spur wreck chose not to include the A end of the 27 foot reefer, where we might see something to resolve this. 

Or, maybe my first diagram, with the brake rod from the "A" end brake staff and attaching to the brake lever for only one truck, is the most feasible explanation. As Chris pointed out earlier in the thread, there was a variety of early hand brake applications, with single brake wheel / staffs attached to single truck's brakes, etc.