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  2. Photo: Flood Damaged PFE Reefers

Re: Photo: Flood Damaged PFE Reefers

Schuyler Larrabee
 

Well, I agree that it’s not tight to the floor above it, but . . . it’s also appearing to be bent, and on a wrecked car, I’d be cautious about generalizing from the condition of this particular diagonal to say that all diagonals on PFE reefers are the same.  Once bent, that channel has lost a good bit of its integrity.

 

What surprises me about this shot is that it’s much more common for diagonals to the end of the car to run from the middle of the bolster to the corner of the car, essentially at 90 degrees to this configuration.

 

Schuyler

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Tim O'Connor
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2020 8:10 AM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Flood Damaged PFE Reefers

 

Tony or anyone --

A question - Did you notice the 'diagonal' brace between the draft gear and the floor stringer? On models
these diagonals are always flat against the floor. But this one looks like it goes from the floor (and stringer)
to the end sill - not flush against the floor.

Tim O'Connor


On 7/4/2020 11:54 AM, Bob Chaparro via groups.io wrote:

Photo: Flood Damaged PFE Reefers

A 1933 photo from the UCLA Library:

https://dl.library.ucla.edu/islandora/object/edu.ucla.library.specialCollections.losAngelesDailyNews%3A1054

This photo can be enlarges quite a bit. Photo editing software brings out the details.

Description: "Wreckage of train tracks and Southern Pacific box cars [sic] after record-breaking rainfall in southern California. December 31, 1933."

This photo can be enlarged quite a bit.

The nearest reefer appears to be PFE 9544. That would make it an R-30-5 reefer, one of 3,021 cars (series 7101-10121) built in 1909-1911 by Pullman.

Notice this car has a single grab iron on the near end side. With regard to safety appliances, interchange rules required an additional grab iron on house cars, hopper cars, and high side gondola cars built new or rebuilt on or after August 1, 1933.

Notice how some of the siding has been stripped from the sides of the cars.

Additional photo:

https://dl.library.ucla.edu/islandora/object/edu.ucla.library.specialCollections.losAngelesDailyNews%3A1053

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

 


--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

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