Westerfield Gon

[NW Modeling List]

Eric

I just had one of those BFOs this morning.  BFO Blinding Flash of the Obvious.

I haven't seen any one mention the H.K Gregg reprints of the Car Builders Cyclopedia.  There were at least 2 of the booklets that included hoppers and gondolas and one was called coal cars.  

One of those had the complete diagram describing the KDEL brake system as applied to an N&W Gk.  The KDEL (EL meaning Empty Load)  was develop for the high capacity gondola cars because the ratio of light weight to loaded weight was so great. The car has two cylinders and multiple reservoirs.  A load sensor sensed the squat of the springs and decided to apply are to one cylinder if he car was empty and both when it was loaded.

The reasoning was there wasn't a good compromise between empty braking force and loaded  force.  If you only applied enough force to stop an empty car without locking up and sliding the wheels the force on an empty car wouldn't be enough to stop a loaded car within a reasonable distance.

The reprint was what I used to model my first GK from a Red Ball kit way back in 1986, I think.

Stoney
Rick C Stone
NWHS #0001

p.s. Sorry Frank I didn't remember in time for your clinic but better late than never.
 
 On Mar 27, 2016, at 9:12 AM, NW Modeling List wrote:
"I’ve found it interesting that F&C has very detailed layout for their VGN battleship’s brake system, whereas I have heard that they didn’t have a definitive reference for it.  If your research only de-mystified that one sub-topic (brake system layout for ANY of the battleship gons), I would consider that a triumph!  Then we could all get to work making the NPP brass models a little less disappointing.
...
Oh, and if you could list sources of decently accurate, decently functional HO trucks for these cars…"  -Eric Bott