Patent ID: 8256584

Claim:
A manual release assembly for a parking brake assembly in a railway car, such parking brake assembly at least including a push rod mounted for reciprocal motion within the brake rigging disposed on a truck apparatus of the railway car and a pneumatic fluid-pressure-operable brake actuator connected to the push rod and responsive to a reduction of pneumatic fluid pressure in a brake pipe to longitudinally move the push rod in a first direction in order to apply a braking force and maintain the push rod to continue to apply the braking force, the parking brake assembly responsive to an increase of the pneumatic fluid pressure supply in the brake pipe to longitudinally move the push rod in a second direction to release the braking force, said manual release means comprising: (a) a bracket secured to a rigid member of the railway car; (b) an L-shaped slot formed in said bracket; (c) an elongated link member having a first end thereof passed through said L-shaped slot and extending outwardly from said bracket; (d) means for connecting a second end of said link member to said brake actuator; (e) a grip member disposed on and secured to said first end of said elongated link member, said grip member manually operable by a user of said manual release assembly to move said link member from a first position enabling application of said parking brake assembly into a second position enabling release of an applied parking brake assembly; and (f) a bias means engageable with said elongated link member and with said bracket for returning said link member into said first position upon release of said grip member by the user.