This forum is dedicated to Riding Scale Railroading with propulsion using other than steam (Hydraulics, diesel engines, gas engines, electric motors, hybrid etc.)
The scale of the parts on the Railcraft website is 9/8" scale, or "one and one eighth inch scale", to run on five inch gauge track. There are a few guys who run 1.5 inch scale models of 3'6" prototypes on five inch gauge track, especially in Queensland, and some here in WA as well.
Most brake, plumbing, and other hardware on US narrow gauge equipment (well, D&RGW and RGS) was essentially full size equipment. In other words, the track gauge was reduced, rolling stock dimensions were reduced, but many other items were off the shelf standard gauge equipment.
The New York KC Brake Cylinder listed above is an example.
As noted, the Railcraft parts listed are 1 and 1/8 scale, versus US standard gauge 1 and 1/2 scale (or 1.6 for the real scale folks).
The New York KC Brake Cylinder had an end to end dimension of 46-3/16" according to a drawing furnished here on an earlier thread. That equates to 5.0234" in 1/8 or 1-1/2" scale.
Railcraft's item is 124 millimeters, or 4-7/8" long.
If anyone cares to grab a ruler and crawl under a 1-1/2" scale car to see if the brake cylinder is within 1/8" of full size, please be my guest.
I did a 3D print of a K brake cylinder in full 1 1/2" scale. I was in mid process of prepping the print for casting in resin when I discovered the Railcraft products. It was cheaper to order some parts from them than to pay for the silicone to make the mold so I thought I would take the risk and order the parts. It's funny, I guess I didn't quite pay full attention to the scale listed on Railcraft's website. The cylinders that arrived are pretty close in size to the 3D print that I had done. I will admit they are a bit smaller. They are high quality castings. These parts are suitable for 1 1/2" scale IMHO. If I get a chance I'll post a pick of the two together. So you can properly assess the difference. Here is a pic of the 3D print next to a 1:20.3 scale white metal cylinder that was used as reference:
If memory serves, that Railcraft product seems to have tank and cylinder diameters that are about the same as my 1 1/2" version but overall it is shorter and squatter. At any rate, the Railcraft cylinder is within my acceptable range of tolerance for an appliance that is tucked in the shadowy recesses of the underside of my rolling stock. I can totally understand if all you museum modelers out there cant tolerate the discrepancy though.
Regards,
Eric Maschwitz
Head of Operations, Squirrel Mountain Mine
Former Whistle Punk,
Gunn Lake Land and Lumber, a subsidiary of East Devils Hill Lumber Co
Hi Brian, I just dug through my email and found my correspondence with them. It appears that I had them send me dimensions before I pulled the trigger on the order here is a quote from the email they sent regarding pricing and dimensions. Bear in mind that I ordered two cylinders, some brake shoes, and some bearing covers so this price was for all of those parts:
Hello Eric
The approx dimensions of the Westinghouse Brake Cylinder Assembly are 27mm for the cylinder dia. and 125mm in length. Hope this is what you need.
The price for the postage (registered) is $30 Au. The total for the order if the Westinghouse Brake Cylinder is the correct measurements would be $102.00 AU.
At this time XE.com says that the cylinder alone would cost $20.64 USD plus shipping which seemed reasonable to me. I think pay pal charges a small "international fee" too. With shipping for one cylinder I suspect it would definitely be less than 50 bucks. Like I said, I would have spent more on the silicone for a mold and since I wasn't making a gazillion cars that would would use these cylinders it was a cheaper option for me.
Regards,
Eric Maschwitz
Head of Operations, Squirrel Mountain Mine
Former Whistle Punk,
Gunn Lake Land and Lumber, a subsidiary of East Devils Hill Lumber Co
The cylinders that arrived are pretty close in size to the 3D print that I had done. I will admit they are a bit smaller. They are high quality castings. These parts are suitable for 1 1/2" scale IMHO. If I get a chance I'll post a pick of the two together. So you can properly assess the difference. Here is a pic of the 3D print next to a 1:20.3 scale white metal cylinder that was used as reference:
