Hi- New to this-first time posting. Can anyone tell me about brake lines between Matador gun tractor and 5.5 inch gun? I am doing AFV Club Matador towing Accurate Armour 5.5" gun. Tractor has what appear to be " glad hands" air brake connections at rear. What type of brakes did gun have?air ? hydraulic? mechcanical ? I have done internet searches for images of both tractor and gun and had fellow modeler check Matador "Rough with the Smooth" book but no luck. Gun kit has hand operated parking type brake handles at backing plates but I can't Imagine towing something as heavy as this gun must be with out some sort of travel braking system.Any help/leads would be most welcome- Thanks - Richard

Hi Richard (and welcome )

According to the informations I've found in this thread about the KFS 1/24th scale kit of this gun :

http://www.militarymodelling.com/forums/postings.asp?th=76281&p=2

"The brakes on the 5.5 were 'electrically' operated with solenoids in the brake drums."

How it works :

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-solenoid-brake.htm

H.P.

Frenchy- Thanks (Merci) I thought about electric brakes after I posted as the gun kit has an electric connection on one of the trail legs but I thought it might be for fire control. Given it's location at the pintle ring end and your reply I think it is for brakes. Now I need to find where it connects on the Matador. I have found one image which shows this area well in a museum example but there is no brake line (now an electric cable) rigged . Any thoughts ? Thanks again - Richard

I guess this should help with the power socket on the Matador :

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5507/11683250254_556e9cdaca_b.jpg

from this walkaround

H.P.

Henri- Thanks for your help-AFV Club matador kit does not have socket as shown in walk around but easy enough to make- Thanks to you My questions have been answered - Richard

Had a look through remaining parts in Matador kit and there is indeed an electrical plug in that is not called out in the instructions. It is part number 69 . Most are probably aware of several minor glitches in the instructions of this excellent kit so add this to the list.