I got a headache thinking about why these cars would have truss rods. If these were the older MDT cars with the Bettendorf center sill, those cars had Z bar side sills and if a repair were required in the 30s to the center sill, there would be no reason not just to put a standard center sill in its place or make a splice per approved methods. No truss roads would've been required since they are normally used for cars with cars with all wood sills. Thanks to Matt's posting the builder's of the ACF 1925 car confirming it has a straight center sill. The drawings for this car are in the 1928 Car Cyclopedia and they confirm not only the straight center sill but the use of a steel angle side sill. There's also an article on this car in the Jan 26th, 1926 Railway Review written by P Alquist, MCB of the DL&W.
I dug out my file (the ACF car was included in my miscellaneous cars chapter in the book) and I have a shot of DL&W 7026 from Bob's Phtos with the truss rod repair(which reminds me this discussion came up before somewhere). It looks like the reweigh data says KV 8-32, which would indicate this repair/modification was done prior to the car being stencilled for LRX. I also have a xerox someone sent me of LRX07134 which was featured in an O Scale railroading article in the June 1987 issue by Eric Brunger. The car appears to be as built but xerox quality is poor.
This is one of those "is what it is" repairs that probably didn't follow any guidelines. I'm starting to like Matt's proposition that this was a repair to one of the ACF cars. There was a photo back in the Jun 1973 RMC of DL&W 6756 which was one the ex MDT Bettendorf underframe cars in DLW ice service. It cleary has the has the unique Bettendorf center sill, the bolster attach as well as Bettendorf trucks so its unlikely this car was the basis for the repair The posted photo of the LRX car was a bit fuzzy, was it possible to read where the repair/last reweigh was done????
Rpger Hinman
ps
another photo I've seen and can't locate is of car floats in New York harbor unloading a banana boat. One float is MDT cars and the other is a mix of LRX and MDT cars so I presume that float was going tot he DL&W. Keith Sirman sells shots of the LRX car displayed at the World's Fair in 1939.
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On Feb 15, 2011, at 12:09 PM, Charles R Yungkurth wrote:
I am positive I have seen a drawing of a LRX car with the two center truss rods
in a publication such as Railway Mech Engr, Railway Gazette, etc. But have
never been able to find it again. There was a cross
section that showed a casting at the center beam where the roads supported the
center beam.
This was a complete drawing, not an article about modifying the cars. Keeping
searching for it. The mystery continues!
For what it is worth, I was a pretty consistent Lackawanna "train watcher" from
about 1938 through WWII and don't ever recall seeing LRX or DL&W
refrigerators in trains except those repainted red and ice in the DL&W's huge
ice business. I think the road's need for refrigerator cars ended aroung 1940.
But I do remember the yellow reefer that waas displayed at the Scranton depot
along with the 4-6-4, a covered happer, and a caboose before going to the "39
World's Fair.
Chuck Yungkurth
Chuck Y
Boulder Co
________________________________
From: MDelvec952 <MDelvec952@...>
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Mon, February 14, 2011 8:55:58 PM
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re: LRX Image...
Lackawanna's big reefers from ACF were distinctive for having the straight
center sill, versus the fishbelly center sill common on ACF reefers of that era.
I have some photos of these in service in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. All of the
1930s in-service photos show cars with no truss rods, including the car numbered
LRX 1939 for display at the New York World's Fair and the LRX 7268 from the 1940
World's Fair (7268 is notable as the only one with an Ajax hand brake). Only
photos from the 1950s show cars with truss rods. The cars with truss rods all
have KV (DL&W's Keyser Valley Shops near Scranton) shop marks, which is
consistent with local railroaders who claimed that Keyser Valley added the truss
rods.
I have DL&W general arrangement drawings for these cars dated 1944 and 1952, and
neither mentions the truss rods though one of the photos is dated 1951.
The three cars pictured during the 1950s were empty when the photo was taken,
though one car is stenciled to be returned to the Nickel Plate Road at
Cleveland. That car has a reweigh date KV 4-40, same as the World's Fair car.
Other reweigh dates are earlier than the 1950s. The addition of truss rods
should require the car to be reweighed, but it's odd that the 1944 or 1952 books
don't mention the truss rods though they mention so many other less significant
components, modifications, etc.
If a concrete reason for the addition off truss rods surfaces, I'd love to hear
it. The downgrading of reefers on the DL&W was to use them in ice service ,which
is more dense than produce. But I have seen writings and waybills that discuss
bananas and potatoes as common lading, the latter moved in the winter with
heater pots in the ice bunkers. It's been my hope to model one or two one day.
Mike Del Vecchio
In a message dated 02/14/11 20:56:43 Eastern Standard Time,
rhendrickson@... writes:
Aha! The plot thickens! DL&W 7000 is yet another reefer design,
also (obviously) by AC&F but with a straight rolled steel center
sill. However, that underframe (especially on a reefer, typically
lightly loaded by comparison to other freight cars) would never have
needed truss rods to support it. We may get some explanation of this
confusion from Roger Hinman, who really is an expert.
Richard Hendrickson
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