KC brake - Model Railroader Magazine

banjobenne1

Looking for instructions (esp. drawings) for KC brakes underside of freight cars. Thank you.

 Ed has pretty-much covered the piping, and Kevin has taken care of the basic brake rigging.so I'll simply add some photos.

Depending on how much detail you want, it can be pretty simple...I don't usually bother too much with the majority of the prototypical piping, as much of it would be visible only if I were to have regular roll-overs of my rolling stock.
This is a modified Train Miniature boxcar, with some added brake gear...

...same car (with almost no piping)...

While the scratchbuilt boxcar car, below, has AB brakes rather than KCs...

...I decided to do a fairly complete job on the piping, even though the majority of it will not be visible when the car is on the layout...

A lot of hopper cars used KD-type brakes, due to the limited space for brake gear under the B-end slope sheets.  The KD system separated the brake  cylinder from AB valve and the air reservoir of the KC system. 
I've built a number of such hoppers by cutting the brake cylinder from Tichy KC brakes, although, if I'm not mistaken, Tichy also offers the KD type.

It's somewhat difficult to show the KDs on a hopper....

...and even moreso once they've been painted black...

The Pennsy used split K (KD) brakes on some of their X-29 boxcars, as seen on this Red Caboose kit...

No piping was included with the kit, and at the time, I probably wouldn't have known how to model it.

Wayne