Has this been done before?

[18B]

Hi,

 

here's an idea that I thought might work as part of a boxfile layout comcept:

 

as part of a reply to another thread I wrote,

 

If there were room for one 3 way point at the end (or a Y point would do)? Basically a road bridge spans the two or three roads and just the last few inches of the two / three lines are seen, they then converge into the three way point or Y point with a head shunt at the end, just long enough for your largest loco you want to run. If the headshunt could be made long enough to take the loco and a brake van, with the road on a slight incline, after the loco has dropped into the heradshunt and returned up an empty road as though going to the front of the train, a brake van is dropped, (Free wheels) off the end of the headshunt road and onto the rear of the train! the light engine then re-appears pushing another brake van as though it took it off the rear of it's own train and puts it into the end of headshunt, ready for the next train to arrive! The loco goes back up the empty road it came down as though going back to the front of it's trains and the wagon/s and now attatched brake van at the rear can toddle off stage under the bridge as though departing with the loco having ran round. The snag is finding a way of "chocking" the brake van" until it's needed to free wheel onto the rear of the train? it would also need a sector plate or sliding fiddle yard at the end to move the loco from one line to the other.

 

Has any one seen a model (And know of some prototypes of free wheeling brake vans) of a free wheeling brake van, I imagine with a bit of extra weight in the front, once the method of holding it in place was released, it would role fairly well, it would only need to go a foot or so, to get onto the last wagon of the train.

 

http://ruffordbranch...lliery-sidings/ Go almost to the bottom of the page to see an excellent example of a brake van banked siding.

[Guest AlexTM]

Hi,

 

 

Like the idea.

 

As for free-wheeling break vans, it may be worth looking at the Eyemouth branch in Berwickshire. Although originally built with a run-round loop on the platform road, this was removed and branch terminus became gravity shunted for both passenger and freight traffic.

 

In terms of how to do it in model form - fit a motor bogie to the van? There could be problems getting something long enough if the wagon was much over a 10' wheelbase.

 

Hope this is of help.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[18B]

Regarding a motor for the brake van, I imagine that the easiest thing would be the motor from the Hornby Pacer unit as that is to one axle only?

[Wolfy]

What about the High Level Flyshunter gearbox?

[Stubby47]

If the brake van is free-wheeling enough, it can be held in place by a wire-in-tube device that pokes up between the rails and impedes either axle.

Stu

[Dzine]

Hi 18B. A motor will certainly give the control you're looking for but it always seems a bit of a cheat when measured against the real thing. But, of course the problem is in momentum which doesn't scale down. If you're going to have a mechanical device you'll have to give some thought on where you're going to release the vehicle and where you want it to stop. I've been looking into a similar device for fly/gravity shunting, so far I've considered clumps of weeds in the track which might brush against the axle on the underside or something that causes very minor friction against the axle ie if you could fit a rubber sleeve to the axle with an arm that rubs against it when free wheeling but raises up when pulled by a loco...something along those lines. Only at the ideas stage, it really needs a testbed experiment. Good look with it let me know how you get on. Oh by the way they used to like having freewheeling brake vans on the Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen line!

Regards Paul

[AMJ]

If this is going to be DCC the freewheeling brake van might be a nice little project. Could possibly have a gear that engages between motor and wheels (a bit like a starter motor on a car) and when off it leaves the wagon to roll as normal.