Lift-link brake levers for 4mm BR wagons

[t.s.meese]

Okay - so I have a bunch of 26 ton iron ore tipplers - a mix of Bachmann and, I assume, old Airfix, judging by the under gear (bought on eBay) and some further Parkside Tipplers on order. I plan to run some as Iron Ore (unfitted) and some as Stone (mainly fitted, a couple unfitted). But now I look at Paul Bartlett's web site, I find that that the brake handles for the Bachmann and the Airfix (but not the Parkside) are wrong. All of Paul's images (fitted and unfitted) show a lift-link brake lever (the type available from Red Panda). From what I can see, the fitted have different arrangements on each side (i.e. a crank arrangement), whereas the unfitted do not, as in a dual brake arrangement. Two questions: 1. Prototype. Why have this complicated drop link arrangement for the unfitted wagons when the regular 16 toners do not? (Something to do with torque?) 2. Model. Does anyone know a source (or quick fix) for the lift-link brake levers? I've checked the usual outlets (e.g. Wizard, Dart, Bill Bedford at Eileen's) and found nothing. The Red Panda underframe provides the requisite lever (which probably needs shortening by 2mm for this application), but at two underframe packs per unfitted ore wagon where all you want is a single lever from each pack, that's a lot of wastage! Hacking some together from bits of scrap brass strip is looking like the only option at the moment...

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Ambis do lift link brake levers, and underframe gubbins too, hellish fiddly as they are etched brass and to scale, two part fold over connecting link with suitable gap on it anyone?

 

Mike.

[Adam]

As Mike says, you can get the bits from AMBIS Engineering: http://www.ambisengineering.co.uk/ (or complete chassis from Rumney Models - a bit more involved, sure - https://website.rumneymodels.co.uk/).

 

As to why, well I have no idea - the lifting link was the 'other' way of reversing the motion and had been around in various forms for ages at the point the BR standard form was developed. It had been an RCH standard fitting for long wheelbase (12') vehicles. I wouldn't like tosay whether it offered an engineering advantage or not.

 

Adam

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

As someone with an O level in physics from more than 50 years ago, I would imagine the lifting link gives a greater mechanical advantage over the reversing cam option, is less prone to wear and seizing up and has a degree of adjustment?

 

Mike.

[21D]

I have the exact same scenario as T.S.Meese. I have 42 unfitted iron ore tipplers - a mix of second hand Bachmann and rebuilds from Airfix mineral wagon kits from Ebay which need drop or lift link brake levers. These are on the 9 foot wheelbase chassis. As he notes fitted tipplers have different arrangements on each side of the cranks to the unfitted ones as well as a 10 foot wheelbase and two different vacuum cylinders. These need the cranks reversing on one side for Tipplers. Not too difficult with Mek-pack.

 

Again as he observes the Red Panda 10 foot underframe has drop/lift link brake levers but at £3.90 a pop it’s a bit pricey just for two brake levers! I think Bill Bedford has a suitable etched underframe but that will be even more expensive! My suggestion is that he obtains the underframe fret from Parkside Models PC63 Dia 1/185 Iron Ore tippler wagon. Peco will supply spares from their kits. These kits use drop/lift link brake levers (which still needing fettling as noted above) but have a late 10 foot chassis. The frets only are £3 each from Peco as against £13 for the whole kit.

 

I have two 4 mm Iron Ore tippler wagons with a 9 foot wheelbase which appear to be kits. They have the correct brake gear. Did Parkside once make a 9 foot wheel base tippler kit?

 

Once I've finished all these tippler wagons I can run them on my as yet unbuilt late 50s Stratford Midland Junction layout using 9F power!

 

Regards

Martin

[t.s.meese]

On 14/04/2022 at 16:37, 21D said:

 

 

Again as he observes the Red Panda 10 foot underframe has drop/lift link brake levers but at £3.90 a pop it’s a bit pricey just for two brake levers! I think Bill Bedford has a suitable etched underframe but that will be even more expensive! My suggestion is that he obtains the underframe fret from Parkside Models PC63 Dia 1/185 Iron Ore tippler wagon. Peco will supply spares from their kits. These kits use drop/lift link brake levers (which still needing fettling as noted above) but have a late 10 foot chassis. The frets only are £3 each from Peco as against £13 for the whole kit.

 

 

Thanks for that - I too thought about the PC63 kit. I am surprised that Parkside don't package those underframes separately, as they do for various other kits. But good to know that Peco will supply the  sprue nonetheless. In fact, I tried the Ambis Engineering link provided by Alan above. They provide an entire underframe kit for the 9' unfitted (WSi09 £3.00), and brass brake gear (etc) for the fitted version (VV6 £1.80). I'm going to give the VV6 a shot and hack it for the unfitted. It is for a single fitted wagon, but with a bit of creativity - the drop link parts look like double thickness with a fold, so perhaps I can get a total of four per fret - I'll see what I can do...
Cheers

Tim.