"The BEAST" -- An Atlas O Berwick Boxcar conversion to Proto:48

[Mark5]

Atlas needs to make this box in N scale! 

[ednadolski]

MAGNETIC glad hands? Wuss! Let's make some working glad hands.

Good idea!  that would need working brakes:

Ed

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Good idea!  that would need working brakes:

Ed

Yup!

My thoughts (dangerous, I know) are coming up with a way to use something like memory wire to actually apply them. Then the question is how to to control that...

[nkalanaga]

Working hand brakes have been done in O for years, usually on narrow gauge contest models.  I don't know that anyone has ever tried to use them in operations...

As for working glad hands,  maybe Max Magliaro could be talked into making you some?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Working hand brakes have been done in O for years, usually on narrow gauge contest models.  I don't know that anyone has ever tried to use them in operations...

Yep. I've used em on @AlkemScaleModels 's USMRR. They come in handy from time to time.

As for working glad hands,  maybe Max Magliaro could be talked into making you some?

If anyone could, it would be Max!

[nkalanaga]

OK....  I'm used to small parts, working in N scale for 50 years, but don't think I could handle a working hand brake, even in O.  I'd probably squash the brakewheel!

I can see where they'd be useful, though, just like on the real things.  Modelers have been trying, for as long as there've model railroads, to figure out a way to keep cars in place on a grade.

[ednadolski]

I can see where they'd be useful, though, just like on the real things.  Modelers have been trying, for as long as there've model railroads, to figure out a way to keep cars in place on a grade.

I've found that the Protocraft trucks are so free-rolling that it would be useful to have some kind of brake even on "level" track.  It's rather easy to set a car in motion with a clumsy hand while switching.

Ed

[nkalanaga]

Interesting.  Maybe working "air" brakes aren't so far in the future after all.  Probably not air operated, but I can certainly see O scale electric brakes, using the "air" hoses for control, and the working brake rigging.  With DCC, the loco could easily control the train brakes without needing a decoder in each car.  The "reservoir" could be a battery or capacitor, and the "cylinder" a spring-loaded solenoid.  The minimal electronics needed could probably fit in the triple valve.

[Spades]

Yep. I've used em on @AlkemScaleModels 's USMRR. They come in handy from time to time.

If anyone could, it would be Max!

Ed did you do anything with the link and pin couplers? I have visions of people dropping and losing the pins.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I spent an entire "day" switching them in Virginia.

There were definitely plenty of both links and pins around.