On May 3, 2007, at 12:01 PM, Staffan Ehnbom wrote:

Richard,

You wrote:

Fact 1: Though Camel made doors, they did not make corrugated steel
doors, only the hardware for them. GN (and other) diagram books refer
to "Camel" doors because they had Camel hardware, and that was what
most often needed repair or replacement. (Incidentally, I'm sure
Staffan's recollection of having seen a photo somewhere of a 31000
series car with a wood door is mistaken; it defies credulity that the
GN would have had these cars built with wood doors and then replaced
them with corrugated steel doors within just a few years, and at the
time these cars were built the application of steel doors had become
almost universal car building practice.)

The GN diagram for the 31000 series dated 1927 specifies Camel no. 32
door, definitely a wood door. A 1940 diagram for the 31000 series has
a note saying "Camel all steel 6'0" doors applied per A.F.E.57770,
dated 10-11-39 and which is captioned "Equip 1320 box cars (obviously
covering more cars than the 31000 series) with single 6 ft. steel
doors to replace present wood doors also equip cars with power hand
brakes and truck spring snubbers". I do have the photo of a 31000
series car with a wood door here with me on my desk. I tried to attach
the picture with my mail to the list yesterday but should have known
it doesn't work. Failed to get it into the photo section too. So if
A.T,, Russ and Chet will e-mail me their e-mail addresses, I'll supply
you and Richard with the pictures.

Staffan, your scan of the photo came through just fine (though the
original photo obviously leaves something to be desired) and
establishes without doubt that, to my surprise, the cars were
originally built with Camel wood doors. Ca. 1939 also makes sense as
an approximate date at which they were replaced with steel doors. The
reweigh date on the photo isn't entirely legible but appears to be
mid-1930s, which also squares with the other evidence; someone else had
suggested that the steel doors were applied in the early 1930s, which
seemed implausible. The note attached to the 1940 diagram also
confirms that GN was using the shorthand "Camel doors" on the diagrams
for what were actually Youngstown corrugated steel doors with Camel
fixtures.

Richard Hendrickson