I recently picked up a Marx Commodore Vanderbilt windup freight set. It runs great, even better now that it has had a thorough cleaning.
There are a couple of parts of the motor which are not understood. One is a wheel (wood?) with a sandpaper-like rim, about 3/4" diameter. The other is an ell shaped sheet metal part which fits in slots on the front of the frame. The long "free" end of this part lays loosely on the spring. It has a pin pressed into it which lightly rubs against the "sandpaper wheel" previously described. Do these two parts constitute a brake, or do they serve some other purpose?
The arm of the sheet metal ell has a few slight bends. Is this supposed to be straight?
Thanks in advance for your time to help me on this.
