Hi BobH ,

The GW/WR had several different arrangements for brake systems on smaller engines .

One very common one though was very simple – just solid pull rods without adjustment .

Not that bad an arrangement on real engines – the brake blocks were standard and the wheels newly turned to same diameter so once set up and allowed to wear in a bit system worked quite well .

On occassional rogue engines where it didn’t work out too well the pull rods were stretched or shortened by a blacksmith to suit !

I can’t find a photograph clear enough to see what arrangement full size 1500 had – it might have had the more complex system fitted to many later engines with complete compensation .

Some other engine types had turnbuckle adjustment but that was not too common .

Assuming though that 1500 had the simple version and you want to follow suit make all the hangers and blocks and put them in place then measure up to make individual matched pull rods .

Brakes fitted to a 5″ engine do help with stopping but most hard and emergency braking is usually done by the train brakes .

Regards ,

Michael Williams .

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 01/03/2014 18:13:22