1. The wheels are in fact brand new on the overhauled 1700s.
2. Spin/slide is fully functional on these cars, with valves that release and reapply the brakes rapidly when a slide is detected. These valves operate on a per-car basis and regulate only brake cylinder pressure (which is not trainlined), so there's no reason why they won't play nice with other cars.
[quote=diburning]The way that the brakes work on the red line cars (from what I can see, on all types of cars) is that when the air is released (brakes released) the brake shoes don't appear to spring back away from the wheel. Instead, the brake shoe stays in place (with little to no force applied) until the wheel pushes it out of the way as the train is accelerating so that the brake shoe is very close to the wheel when the air is applied to start braking.[/quote]
The brake shoes do come fully off the wheels, but probably not more than an inch off them. Might be hard to see from afar. It also takes a few seconds for them to back off all the way, so the train might start moving before the shoes are visibly clear from the wheels.
2. Spin/slide is fully functional on these cars, with valves that release and reapply the brakes rapidly when a slide is detected. These valves operate on a per-car basis and regulate only brake cylinder pressure (which is not trainlined), so there's no reason why they won't play nice with other cars.
[quote=diburning]The way that the brakes work on the red line cars (from what I can see, on all types of cars) is that when the air is released (brakes released) the brake shoes don't appear to spring back away from the wheel. Instead, the brake shoe stays in place (with little to no force applied) until the wheel pushes it out of the way as the train is accelerating so that the brake shoe is very close to the wheel when the air is applied to start braking.[/quote]
The brake shoes do come fully off the wheels, but probably not more than an inch off them. Might be hard to see from afar. It also takes a few seconds for them to back off all the way, so the train might start moving before the shoes are visibly clear from the wheels.