Westinghouse Triple Valve - Style and Drawings

[amadlinger]

Hello all,

I am presently working on building a 1.5"scale/7.25" gauge tank car, modeled very closely after the Tidewater tank car at the Strasburg Railroad, and have questions for the group. Specifically, I am working on all of the brake system components (reservoir, triple valve, etc) that are out in plain sight on the car and need to look good but certainly do not need to work. I (unfortunately) did not take a picture of the triple valve on the Tidewater car when I was at Strasburg last and have no prints to go from, and at the moment I need help finding information on the triple valve.

Two questions: 1. for a car of this era (built 1923), what style of triple valve would most likely be on the car...K, AB, etc? 2. Does anyone have a picture, print, drawing, sketch, or doodle of whichever valve it is...or, better yet, a casting of one? I know Precision Steel Car sells the ABDX valve casting, but I believe that is far too late an era for this car.

TIA!

Sincerely,
Adam

1923 Tidewater tank car at Strasburg RR, 8/19/05

[Rwilliams]

You have selected a very nice looking tank with some serious rivet detail. the modern tanks of today are just a big can. The tanks of yesterday are far more interesting. In the 1920's you would be definitely working with the K system of brakes. It was not until the early to middle 1950's that the railroads put in an all out push to complete the conversion to the AB system of air braking.

Check with Jeff Smith of Branchline Products. He has a great website featuring his very detailed resin castings of the K system brake. It is a combination of the brake cylinder, triple valve, and the air reservoir. It would be perfect for your needs. I recently purchased one of his castings for my 1.5 scale caboose and it is in need of very minor cleanup. A few holes will have to be drilled to attach this part to your model. It is well worth the cost. Jeff is very nice to deal with.

I found the brake cylinder pushrod casting from Precision Scale Car to be a perfect fit for the cored in brass tube in the brake cylinder end of the Branchline resin casting.

Robert

[SZuiderveen]

While Robert is correct for the era when the car was built, the photo shows a 600/900 cubic inch combined reservoir associated with an AB valve. In fact, the Strasburg Rail Road's petition to continue in service a freight car over 50 years old (found at Regulations.gov) states that TW 1367 is equpped with ABD brake valves. This car was updated at some point in its life to extend its service, i.e. once K valves were banned by the AAR for interchange in the late 50's, this tank car was upgraded for brake schedule to make it to 1978.

Additional photos of the car are here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPict ... x?id=59924

Photo of sister car with easier to see brake valve (and disconnected brake rigging) here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=905340

Steve

[Dick_Morris]

A friend modeled a similar car from about the same date. He used the bottoms from a couple of scrap propane tanks for the dished ends. I don't know about your neighborhood, but our dump takes hazardous waste, including old propane tanks, and was perfectly willing to turn a loose of a couple when I wanted one for the shell for a foundry. There are several discussions in the foundry forums that explain how to safely cut one into pieces.

[LVRR2095]

Adam, the sister to that car is at Allaire State Park in Farmingdale, NJ. The Strasburg car as well as the one at Allaire were both found at Bay Head, NJ where they were used as diesel fuel storage tanks.
A visit to Allaire might answer some of your questions.

Keith

[amadlinger]

Gentlemen,

You guys are awesome! All of you have provided exactly the information I was looking for, and then some. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Adam

[Dave_Johnson]

This is a photo of the reservoir that I took last month. Note the information on the stencil.

[Greg_Lewis]

There's an outfit called Raildriver that has put the 1922 Car Builder's Cyclopedia on CD in HTML format along with high res. scans of all the illustrations. This document includes details of brake equipment including triple valves, brake cylinders and more.

They also have a loco cyc. and a maint. of way cyc. Useful resources.

http://raildriver.com/

[Rwilliams]

Adam,

I have included an image of the Branchline Products white resin casting. It is highly detailed complete with some raised lettering that could be highlighted with white paint or lightly sanded after a black paint job.

To complete the K system you would need only some basic plumbing and a centrifugal dirt collector which is a highly visible part of most accurate air brake systems then and now.

Robert

[SZuiderveen]

This is a photo of the reservoir that I took last month. Note the information on the stencil.

Nicely placed so it does not show up in most "photo freight' shots, but meets the requirements of the SRRC 's 50 year car waiver.

Steve

[Dave Bortz]

Hi Adam;

I think Precision Steel Car has a lot of the components you are looking for. Look up their website, it has really nice pictures of all their parts.

Happy building.
Dave Bortz