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Re: (Not A Freight Car) Slanted Loading Dock

Eric Hansmann
 

Thanks for your notes, Dennis. The photo angle and lighting made it difficult to see the truss rod details, even after some Photoshop massaging. I did notice the bolts below the coupler striker but thought those were mainly the striker attachment hardware. I did not realize they were associated with an inner pair of truss rods.

 

Thanks also for the notes on identifying steel centersills based upon draft sills. This will be handy when reviewing pre-1930s freight car photos.

 

 

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN

 

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dennis Storzek
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019 3:20 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] (Not A Freight Car) Slanted Loading Dock

 

On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 10:15 AM, Donald B. Valentine wrote:

From a second look I think you are right about only two truss rods on the DL&W boxcar,

I disagree, I think iy is a four truss rod car, and we can only see the near side rods. The inner rods are quite close to the center sills, as evidenced by the placement of their terminating nuts on the striker casting, and therefore are quite far from the outer rods. If uou look carefully under the car you can see the brake cylinder on the near side of the center sills, and the queenpost on the inner truss rod is quite close behind the brake rod that that runs to the lever on the near end of the brake cylinder. We can only see halfway under the car.

I also don't think the car has a steel centersill. If the car had been improved with steel sills, they would have included the draft sills, indeed one common improvement before the advent of steel center sills was steel replacement draft sills, as the draft sills tended to be the weakest part of the underframe. The construction visible at the end of the car still clearly has wood sills; the ends show, bolted below that cast striker, with the drawbar carry iron bolted to the bottom of the sills.

That end is a proprietary item, shown in the 1922 CBC. Given that there is no initials above the number, I bet the CBC illustration of of a DL&W car.


Dennis Storzek

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