Frank,
The W&LE 29000-series had regular, horizontal-ribbed ends. I have a
photo of a steel-side rebuild that shows the ends as being horizontal
(this example being one of the normal convex ends). The W&LE 27000-
series were the ones with the Vulcan ends. They were fairly numerous
on the W&LE, they show up in the background of several photos.
Dean Payne


--- In STMFC@..., destron@... wrote:

I think I'm more confused on the question of vertically-ribbed

boxcar ends

than I was when I first discovered them. What exactly was what?

The simplest one is the "Atlas" end, illustrated in a drawing in

the 1928

CBC. This was three panels, the center panel being narrower than

the other

two, and having only one wide rib, the two outer panels having an

equal

number of ribs, the inner ones narrower than the center rib, but

wider

than the outer ribs. However, I have not seen this end on any photo

of any

car.

The Pere Marquette book shows several cars with vertically-ribbed

ends,

most with two panels of 8 extruding ribs each (though one, in the

class

diagram, shows 8 ribs on the left hand panel and 7 on the right

side). The

book, and the class diagrams for these cars, refer to these

as 'Murphy'

ends. The book also mentions Vulcan ends in a photo caption (p66),

saying

"Another type of vertical-rib steel end of the era was the Vulcan

end,

which had fewer ribs of greater thickness, all protruding inward."

I have seen photos of W&LE boxcars of the 27000 series with
inward-protruding vertically-ribbed ends, two panels with 6 ribs

each; I

was told that the W&LE book (John B. Corns, vol. 2) says "...the
corrugations on the 4-section Murphy car ends of the first fifty

cars

[29000 series] were turned inward, almost as if the end panels had

been

installed backwards." This confuses me, as there are, on the

photos, only

two panels visible. (I had a thought that perhaps Corns is

referring to

4-panel inverse Hutchins ends?). I have seen an end similar to the
W&LE-type 6-rib inward end on Michigan Central boxcar no. 99999 -

almost

identical, except for having two panels of 7 ribs each, all inwards

as on

the W&LE cars.

Lastly there are the vertically-ribbed ends on Piedmont & Northern
boxcars. I have so far seen only one photo of a car so equipped, in

the

February 1957 issue of Semaphore (P&N company magazine).

Unfortunately

that's in a box at my dad's house (just recently moved house yet

again) so

I can't count the ribs, but I recall them as being either 14 or 16

ribs in

total on two panels, extruding ribs like on the PM cars. This car is
either number 1101 or 1111; it's difficult to make out on the photo,
though I'm tending towards thinking it's 1111. I've seen written

that P&N

1108 had Vulcan ends (assuming this to refer to the vertically-

ribbed end

as on 1111), but the photo of 1108, post-rebuild, in the April 1957
Semaphore shows it with a Hutchins end. I have seen no other

reports or

photos of P&N cars with such ends.

Beyond the W&LE, MCRR, P&N and PM, I have not seen or heard of

reference

to any other railway owning boxcars with vertically-ribbed ends.

And,

those which I have seen vary greatly from one to the next, it

seeming that

only the PM and the P&N shared a similar design.

Does anyone have info to clarify this question (or info to further

confuse

it?)

Frank Valoczy
Vancouver, BC

-----
http://hydrorail.hostwq.net/index.html - Rails along the Fraser
http://hydrorail.rrpicturearchives.net/ - Rail Photos