Patent ID: 8839915

Claim:
In combination with a railway freight car hand brake engageable with a railway car, the improvement comprising an apparatus for sensing the full release of such hand brake, said apparatus including: (a) a housing member having each of a predetermined size, a predetermined shape, a first end and a second end; (b) a mounting means engageable with said housing member and an outer cover of said hand brake for rigidly attaching said housing member to an outer surface of said outer cover of said hand brake; (c) an actuating means concentrically disposed in said housing member; (d) a sleeve member concentrically disposed on said actuating means, said sleeve member having a first end and an opposed second end, said first end of said sleeve member having a flange portion; (e) a flexible connecting means engaged with said opposed end of said sleeve member and a winding gear portion of such handbrake; (f) a sensing means concentrically disposed in said housing member and laterally aligned with said actuating means, said sensing means having a connection with a remote signaling device; (g) a securement means concentrically disposed on said sensing means and mounted in said housing, said securement means having a first end and an opposed end, said first end of said securement means having a flange portion disposed on said second end of said housing; (h) a compression member having a length, said compression member concentrically disposed in said housing and engageable with said flange portion of said sleeve, whereby an electrical signal will be one of detected and received from said actuating means by said sensing means and said sensing means will remotely signal to a train engineer that such hand brake is released, thus indicating that such railway freight car is in an unbraked condition.