On May 16, 2011, at 5:34 PM, soolinehistory wrote:

he Car Builder's Cyclopedia started life as the Car Builder's
Dictionary, with the express purpose of standardizing the
terminology. As such, I tend to use, and stand by, the definitions
it gives. Here is what the 1980 edition says, picked up, I'm sure,
from earlier editions:

"Fish-Belly Sill. A term used to describe a type of center sill
construction consisting of shallow sections at each end with
transitions to a deeper section at the center. Fish-belly sills are
often used on long cars which need heavier sections at the center."

Note it doesn't say how much deeper the section is, and I would
assume the intent that anything other than structural shapes that
pass through the bolster could be considered a "fish-belly sill" if
the section increases somewhere between the bolsters.

Thanks, Dennis. After my earlier post on this subject, I went
looking further and found in the 1953 CBCyc this shorter definition:
"Fish-belly sill. A type of heavy, deep, built up side or center
sill. Profile resembles that of a fish, hence the name." The use of
the word "heavy" here would seem to exclude a shallow fishbelly sill,
whereas the 1980 definition would include sills with a shallower
section between the bolsters."


Richard Hendrickson



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