Hello - I've only just got round to making the Colin Ashby hopper that I received when I joined. There are various suggestions on the instructions as to how to arrange the additional brake apparatus. Does anyone have any photos of how this should look or from a prototype? I've searched online for help but to no avail.thanking you in advance.
Hi Damian.
I guess I'll be the first to reply to this question.
The first thing I will say regarding your the brake gear on your hopper wagon is this- decide on what braking arrangements are required as you have several choices with the Colin Ashby kits.
First decide if your wagons are going to have continuous braking (usually vacuum, but sometimes air) or simple hand brakes. If you go for the hand brake option you will simply need to fit the single brake shoe (part G) and a lever. You have a choice of 3 levers, but I would go with Part A. You can fit this to just one side or both, either would be prototypical. See figure 6 in the instructions.
A more advanced brake gear arrangement (and therefore more effective) would be to use parts L, J and levers C on either a single side or both sides. Figure 4 in the instructions.
Probably the minimum required for a continuously fitted wagon would be as detailed in figures 2 and 3 in the instructions. Note though that vehicles fitted with continuous braking would probably have brake shoes acting on all wheels. It is also common on fitted vehicles to find a tie rod or tie bar connecting the bottoms of the W Irons to prevent the force of the continuous brake from pushing the W irons outwards.
In summary I would suggest going for either brake gear G with lever A (figure 6) or parts L, J and levers C on either a single side or both sides (see figure 4).
Note that wagons fitted with bottom discharge doors (i.e. hoppers) would have what are referred to as independent brakes, which means that the brake gear on each side is operated separately to the gear on the other side. This is due to the damage to the cross linkage caused by the wagon load when unloading. So that really rules out the option of continuous braking as the vacuum cylinder and cross linkage would be in the way of the bottom doors unless the position of the cylinder was moved to one end and the break gear modified.
If you really need photos then I could photograph the undersides of my Ashby wagons for you.
Hope this helps,
Darren.
Thanks Darren - that is helpful indeed.
No problem, always happy to help.
Darren.