Athearn 50' flat car brakewheel upgrade

[robjacox]

I've got a few older Athearn 50' flat cars that I'm working on getting upgradedd and "loaded".

They have a strange brakewheel mounting on a housing sticking up from the side of the car. I think the brakewheel should be mounted near the end, with the shaft verticle. I've been unable to find any specific info on this, is there a mechanism mounted to the end sill, or does it just stick up through the deck?

 

[kenw]

Older flats had the brakewheel on the side to allow for "circus-wagon" style drive-on loading. Not sure how modern ones are done, I haven't looked that carefully. I'll see if I have any pics that show it.

 

[UP2CSX]

As Ken wrote, those 50' flat cars with the side mounted brake wheels were made for TOFC service, using two 25 foot trailers. The brake wheels were mounted on the side so the trailers could be loaded straight through and a rear mounted brake wheel would have prevented that. If your flat car isn't used for TOFC service, cutting off the side mounted brake wheel and adding a conventional vertical shaft wheel to the end would be correct.

 

[Southwest Chief]

As has been mentioned, if you're doing any kind of circus loading then the Athearn 50 footer, with its side brake wheel, is a preferred model. I use them for my military train which is loaded circus style.

Also I would highly recommend the wood decks made by modelers choice for your Athearn flats. They look a lot better with real wood decks, especially if you stain and weather them.

 

[robjacox]

...cutting off the side mounted brake wheel and adding a conventional vertical shaft wheel to the end would be correct.

My cars will be all be carrying lumber.

How is the shaft mounted? Is there a housing on the end sill of the car?

 

[UP2CSX]

There are two typical brakewheel installations on modern flatcars. The first is the standard fixed shaft brake wheel as seen in this picture of a Greenville flatcar.

The second it the collapsable shaft flatcar like this Thrall model.

The collapsable shaft solved the problem of having a fixed brakewheel obstruct circus style loading and is used on almost all flat cars being built today.