The old brake system under #3 was Westinghouse. I guess I failed to state that. Early on the Westinghouse automatic brake system used plain triple valves as I described earlier. Later plain triples did not have the curved slide valve seat and also the combination cut out valve as part of the triple valve body. The plain triple valves also mounted to a pipe nipple on the end of the brake reservoir as opposed to the 2 or 3 bolt gasket mounting of much later style triple valves such as the P, H and K types. That the plain triple valve that was on #3 had the combination cut out cock, auto air and straight air suggests that it was very early. That it has the straight air position is not an indicator that the car was ever used with straight air, only that it was at the time not long after transition from straight air to automatic. Even this could be a red herring. The brake system under the old DRGW RPO at SVRR has a similar brake system with plain triple valve, but that plain triple does not have the combination cut out cock, it being in the branch pipe. At terminals car men could have changed out a defective plain triple valve with what ever style of plain triple that they had on the shelf rebuilt, so we can't say with certainty that the early triple valve on #3 is what it was originally equipped with, but if it was, it would put the date of the under frame of the car in the early years after automatic air was developed.
To Dan's mention of alternative to Westinghouse brake system trials on the SVRy, it was up in the 1920's I believe and was a system built by a company in Portland, Oregon called the Automatic Brake Co. IIRC. Note the initials of the company being AB which those readers who have railroad brake knowledge will recognize as the next generation after the K triple valve system. Supposedly the trial on the SVRy was successful, but then no further mention of the company has surfaced. I have to wonder if the good folks in Wilmerding, P.A (WABCO) might have stepped in and bought up the design. Alternately, Automatic Brake Co. could have been set up by WABCO to quietly test the new design which if it failed would not be associated with the parent company. Some good research possibilities here for someone interested.
