H-10-44 281 and Brake Sled X82 switching at Tulsa, Oklahoma in December 1960 (Al Chione).
For an explanation of the brake sled, we turn to Frisco.org resident expert Karl Brand who provides the following information: There were three brake sleds used at Cherokee Yard in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They were made from the tenders of the 1500 or 4100 class steam locomotives. The “hump” at Cherokee Yard was all downhill, unlike the hump at Tennessee Yard where the hump engines had to shove up and over the hump. Since the cut of cars being shoved down the hill at Cherokee Yard had no train air, the brake sled added weight and brakes to keep things from running away. It’s why the SD38-2s assigned to Cherokee Yard had dynamic brakes, and the SD38-2s assigned to Tennessee Yard did not.
While it is true that much of the hump lead was down hill which required braking, the hump lead grade changed to up hill for the last approximately 45 cars. As the cars were humped and the subsequent weight reduced, we had to adjust our braking power until we reached this up hill section when we would transition to power mode. When I hired out in June of 1971 the brake sleds were no longer being used. In fact, I didn’t know anything about them until reading a post here several years ago. As tonnage increased the Frisco began to add up to five cars of air along with the dynamic brakes of the SD 38-2s that Karl mentions to hold the cuts of cars. We had several run a way cuts which required help from the retarder operator to stop before the practice of added brakes on the cars was instituted. Terry