Intermountain to Produce Steam Era Universal Hand Brake and Reefer Hatch Supports

Photo Courtesy of Marty McGuirk

As part of its forthcoming Fruit Growers Express and Western Fruit Express refrigerator car kits, Intermountain has created parts for Universal hand wheels and supports for the ice hatches. Both of these parts will be etched metal. The Universal hand brake that was common in the late Steam Era has been the most needed hand brake in HO scale. It was the second most common prototype, trailing only the Ajax variety. This part will fill a large gap for modelers seeking to accurately recreate hand brakes on HO scale freight equipment. The etched hatch supports for the refrigerator will offer modelers of these cars a part that is more scale-sized than a typical injection molded part, yet more durable than a styrene or engineering plastic part.

From Marty McGuirk, Vice President at Intermountain:

"Here is a digital shot of the EARLY TEST SAMPLE of the HO scale Universal hand brake and the braces for the roof hatches on the FGE/WFE car.

Since it's virtually impossible to produce a good looking Universal brake in plastic (long story) we opted to go with etched metal. We do need to make some adjustments.

Obviously the metal has to be etched flat, and the real wheels had a "dish" to them so we will punch these parts on a forming die before selling them.

These two wheels were punched on my own "forming die" consisting of a brass tube and a rounded piece of aluminum stock on my desk so the "rounded dish" effect isn't perfect. But we're close.

Please remember that these are EARLY SAMPLES that have been 'hand formed.' The final parts will look better."