freight car brake wheel

[trra51]

When were low mounted brake wheels mandated? 

John

[edwardsutorik]

I don't think they ever were.

I think the lowering happened as a result of running board (roof walk) removal. With running boards removed, there was now no reason to place the brake wheel up high. The brake wheel ALWAYS would be accessed from the ground, so why waste time on forcing a worker to climb up and down a ladder to work the brake wheel?

But.

Running boards were outlawed on new cars as of 1966.
Running boards were outlawed on old cars in 1983. There were still some for a year or two after that, anyway.

As you will recall, there were cars out there, back in the day, where the running board was removed, but the brake wheel was NOT lowered. It cost a bit more money to do that. But it also cost more in labor to NOT do it. And then there's the safety part about ladder climbing.

With running boards outlawed on new cars in 1966, I expect ALL of the cars delivered new after that date had the low brake wheels.



Ed

[trra51]

Thanks for the information Ed.

John

[12bridge]

There are still hoppers (stone/coal) running around with high brake wheels.

They suck.

[wp8thsub]

There's a regulation for this, 49 CFR § 231.27 - Box and other house cars without roof hatches or placed in service after October 1, 1966. Separate regulation governs cars with roof hatches as well as gons and open hoppers, as they have different requirements for ladders, although cars built after enactment used similar logic with regard to brakewheel placement.

In short, house cars built after the regulation change were mandated to have low mounted brakewheels (in accordance with other safety appliance changes including ladder height), while existing cars could retain the original brakewheel location and remain in compliance if certain revisions were made to grab irons and warning stencils.


DSC03986 by wp8thsub, on Flickr

Only a few house cars seem to have been built in the transition period with high mounted brakewheels and tall B end ladders, but without running boards or full height A end ladders. These NP cars are the only ones I can think of right off that were built that way, but there were probably others. Prototype photos show mounting holes for the top rungs of the A end side ladders that were never installed.

[riogrande]

Is that a Cannon boxcar?

[redfish]

I'm pretty sure that most of the hopper cars running around today with high brake wheels are rebuilds. NS Top Gons would fit in this group. They left the high brake wheel when rebuilt because it was cheaper. Then they invented the brake stick to keep trainman from having to climb the ladders.

[wp8thsub]

Feb 8, 2024 9:21:01 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Is that a Cannon boxcar?

Yes.