A Simple Solution for Working Brakes

[High Hood]

So I thought I’d share this neat idea I found on Tom Patterson’s CWE Blog for working brakes. Turns out a dab of ACC is all you really need!

https://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-bartizek-brake.html?m=1

[CRL]

Is it acting as “glue” or as a “chock”?

[C855B]

Chock.

[jpwisc]

I don't think that would scale down very well to N. A friend of mine had a solution I liked a little better. He had a Tortoise under the layout, when activated a wire came up high enough to hood the axle on the last freight car. When lowered, trains could roll by with no issues.

[peteski]

I don't think that would scale down very well to N. A friend of mine had a solution I liked a little better. He had a Tortoise under the layout, when activated a wire came up high enough to hood the axle on the last freight car. When lowered, trains could roll by with no issues.

Sounds just like what my friend installed on his N scale layout.


The small panel with a black knob activates the Tortoise powered music wire rod that extends up between the rails to prevent cars from rolling down the track. 

[wvgca]

i don't know if a loco would loose power going over them, but maintainence would be pretty low

[peteski]

i don't know if a loco would loose power going over them, but maintainence would be pretty low

Unless you use bright boy for track cleaning. 
This chock solution will only work on gentle grades, My friend's train stop has to hold back about a dozen coal hoppers on a fairly steep grade.  A small blob of CA on the rail head would not prevent that train from rolling down the grade.

[randgust]

I had Atlas HO switch machines throwing up 'sprags' in my hidden storage yard to positively stop trains when I built it in 1973.    I still have one at the exit of my yard that I use to hold a train while I 'spin it up' to make sure all the units are warmed up enough to pull the 2.5% grade out of there.

I also put one on the Hickory Valley to keep the cars from rolling downhill, and two on the "Beaver Creek" module to hold the VERY light log cars at the top of the hill during switching.      I have mine with Tortoises now, and a big 'ol red light comes on the panel when they are 'UP'.

[nkalanaga]

If you wanted you could do the same thing with a "choke cable", which is probably obsolete, so you'd have to go to the model airplane section for a control cable.  Pull the knob out for brake, push it in to release.

[peteski]

If you wanted you could do the same thing with a "choke cable", which is probably obsolete, so you'd have to go to the model airplane section for a control cable.  Pull the knob out for brake, push it in to release.

My friends brake (one pictured in my previous post) started out like that.  It used a control cable for RC airplanes. But it didn't work very well,so he ditched the cable and converted it to be Tortoise-powered.  The pull mechanism already had micro switches for powering up the status LEDs, is the conversion was easy.

[wvgca]

the web site that the op linked to seemed to show quite a number of 'dots' of CA on top of the rail ... how ever it would seem to me that a bright boy would accidentaly wipe some or most of them off ..
not really sure as i have never tried this method .. but i do know the wire sticking up between the tracks method works, i -think- i tried that on the first layout, maybe ten years ago ??

[joelm]

I used a Switchmaster turnout motor to get a rotational action on my "electronic brakeman".  The actuating wire comes up outside the ties and has a 90 degree bend, so it is above the rails. When actuated, the  wire rotates over the rails and either engages the coupler trip pin or, since I clip my pins, engages the wheels.

[ncbqguy]

I’ve read that a whisker of monofilament in a hole in a tie off center to clear couplers standing high enough to engage the axles of the cars is enough to restrain them from rolling yet flexible enough to be pushed down when cars and locos power through in either direction.  Worth experimenting with before more elaborate solutions are installed.
Charlie Vlk

[peteski]

I’ve read that a whisker of monofilament in a hole in a tie off center to clear couplers standing high enough to engage the axles of the cars is enough to restrain them from rolling yet flexible enough to be pushed down when cars and locos power through in either direction.  Worth experimenting with before more elaborate solutions are installed.
Charlie Vlk

Yes, these are all viable options, but it all depends on the steepness of grade, and number of cars to be restrained.  Whisker solution will work on gentle grades and on singles or short string of cars.

[Boilerman]

J. C. Whitney auto parts still sells chock cables with the Knobs.