Re: Dumb question of the day

The photo shows the dead cylinder lever attached to the end of the brake cylinder. This is only possable with the KD type but does not define it. With the KC type the dead cyl.lever is attached to the car frame, but this arraingment is also used with KD cylinders. The deciding factors are usually space under the car or, if a rebuild, the availablity of components. On a wooden car it can be very tricky to thread the connecting rods through the truss rods, bolsters etc. without interfearing with other components or each other, and still maintaining the proper leverage. (For freight service with K brakes this was defined by the AAR as a total force on the wheels of 64% of the light weight of the car. Specific operating conditions may have dictated some other number.) Note that the dead cyl. lever and dead truck levers are the only ones that are ridgid on one end, all others are floating. This is done so that the braking force is equalized on all wheels despite differences in the shoes. The function of the dead cyl. lever is to reverse the direction of pull on the brake rods, hence it does not float. However, it can be used to equalize the leverage between the trucks.

Sumpter Valley Ry. has had a total of seven D&RGW cars, all of which had type KC cylinders. The "green cars" Bret refered to were part of a four car purchase that were the first cars we had. These cars had brakes but the rods and levers were detached. During our first season (July-November, 1976) we operated with engine brakes only, as no one took the time to figure out how to hook up the car brakes. (We kept the locomotive on the down hill side.) That winter, when the brakes were hooked up on the two "green cars" some of the levers got mixed up. I believe that some of them were borrowed from a Stoddard Lumber Co. flat we had.