Tom Bee brake hangers on the Allen Mogul trucks

[Raymbo]

The tender on this Allen Mogul came with Tom Bee caboose type trucks on it, and rather than change out the trucks, I put some Tom Bee brakes on them to control the train.

While putting the new water cistern in, I had the tender upside down and noticed that the brake hangers were very loose on the pins that Tom supplies with his brake kits, and there was some wear on the hangers themselves where they had rubbed on the wheels. This is not the first time I have seen this, but it is the first for a pair of caboose trucks, at least for me.

Since the holes are already 3/16 it is not possible to tap for a 10-24 so I generally go with 1/4-20 X 1-1/2 inch button head cap screws and a nut to tighten against the truck side frame. This eliminates the wobble in the hangers and they stay in line with the wheel tread. I have done this on other cars in our collection and I think it is an improvement over the pins even though the installation of the pins is easier.

I leave about 3/32 inch play between the nut and the spring hanger so the hangers can move with the wheels in the journals.

RG

[NP317]

I did precisely the same installation when first installing brakes on my Tom B trucks.
Never a problen in the 13 years of running.
~RN

[Raymbo]

I had to learn this by experience. I wondered if anyone else has done this.

Thanks for responding

[blff cty lcmtv wrks]

back in 2003, i built up six set of the allen arch bar trucks. i was asked to see if i could install brakes on them. at that time i didn't know much about the tom bee products, so i went with the mcr brake sets. i knew about the truck sets, as i had built up about eight sets of them for a friend here in town, but i don't think tom had brake sets at the time. anyhoo, back to the mcr sets, i had to do a bit of improvising and chopping and whacking, but eventually got them installed. the leverage bar length had to be altered as the wheel base on the allen arch bar truck is a bit shorter, but i think every thing else pretty much fit. i had to make up a hanger to fit on the side frames so that i could attach the brake shoe hangers, but that wasn't too much of a project. we use vacumn to operate, and use a steam ejector as a vacumn source. so far, they have operated satisfactorily.

respectfully submitted
big c
bluff city locomotive works

btw. how do you spell vacumn? my spell checker goes off on it. it also goes off when i spell allen. go figure.

[Raymbo]

Vacuum is what I remember and Allen would be capitalized.

I have used MCC, now Titan, brake rigging on Wayne Godshall's Andrews trucks and they work fine. I am using all direct air for brakes, the small diameter lines on a long train takes time to set up but they will hold a long train on a grade.

RG

[blff cty lcmtv wrks]

raymbo;
thank you very much. i'll remember that. i might try air sometime. use a small battery powered compressor along with a tank, then, run a line all the way to your back car, thereby applying the brakes to the last car first and then working it's way toward the front. supposedly, this would keep the train stretched. sounds good in print, anyway. whether it would work in real life is another thing. just thinking.
big c

[John_S]

Ray, that's a good fix. I have two pieces of rolling stock with Tom's trucks and brakes. Might be time to take a peek and see how they're holding up.

On my Allen mogul tender I've been running a pair of Cannonball archbar trucks without any problems. I took on the challenge of building prototype brakes for it. They work great (and even give a nice squeak/squeal when applied) but they are a LOT of parts to fabricate!

Tender brake parts laid out and painted