Re: Need some help with DRG Class 1 cars

Randy Hees Wrote:
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> Thoughts… You have a lot of questions... The term “Class 1” is Sloan’s…
Sorry, there are many more questions than what I posted. I only posted the most pressing. I use the Sloan class designations since it seems to be the easiest method of dividing up the different types. Maybe that's fallen out of favor?

> The earliest cabooses were probably not built by Billmeyer and Smalls, but instead are the Jackson & Sharp built 4 wheel passenger cars reconfigured.
Understood. My questions about the cabeese are geared toward the DRG-built series (#5 and up).

> Draw gear height was less important with link and pin draw heads (couplers are an automatic device)… and there was a great variation on
> drawhead/coupler height…
Semantics I suppose, and maybe there are regional dialects at work here, but to me anything that fastens like things together is a coupler, whether it's link and pin, Miller, drop hook, or whatever and an 'automatic coupler' is just a coupler that has an automatic function (and having kicked, beaten, pried, slammed and sworn at them way too many times in all kinds of circumstances I'd argue the full validity of the 'automatic' claim). Still, I hadn't paid close enough attention to the dates involved, so it seems the lower heights on the four-wheel equipment wouldn't have been much of a problem as it appears they were out of regular service around the time they went to 26" as standard. So only the 4 (probably converted) J&S 'calaboose' cars would have had the small wheels and lower height - must have been pretty stretched covering the whole operation for a couple years with only four. Sorry for wasting time on that.

> Note the original order included 10’ cars (12’ with draft gear) with 7’ wheel bases and a single 15’ long “Lumber Car”… 17’ with draft
> gear with a wheel base of 10’.
I've never seen anything on 10/12 foot cars - is that something that's been omitted/overlooked or recently come to light? And again, I am questioning the stated overall dimensions of the 1-90 longer flats. Do you have another source that indicates the 17' is actually over draft gear and not over sills? I have not found anything specific enough to differentiate. Only thing left to do is 3 dimensional scaling of the photo I suppose. My perspective markup is attached and appears to show the carbody is 17' long over the side sill. The B end sill end is the red dotted line and the long scale above the deck is scaled to that point. Rotating the car out to that plane should bring the A end right about to the 0 end of the scale with no room for drawheads in the 17'. The attachment is cropped - the perspective lines are fully run to fixed vanishing points at each side.

> The earliest D&RG caboose drawings date to the 1882,
Is that just the folio or are there more complete drawings similar to the 1885 drawings?

> You can check the patent… Try Google Patents, patent no. 158892. … Also look for Ron Rudnic’s books
Thanks very much for the patent number, it answered a couple of questions. I will look more for Rudnic's books. Question 4 is really about drawings of the coupler itself as the coupler used on the Hartford model is incorrect.

> There are pictures on Towle Brothers lumber showing the flat car brake staff bracket…. It is an inverted U with the shaft in the middle,
Thanks for the Towle reference. I agree on the brackets. Light and shadows on the B&S flats' builders pics appear to confirm. I hadn't noticed but the same arrangement is also (interestingly) on a flat in the J&S No.3 Smoking Car pic. And they are only about 7 inches tall in the car #1 pic.

> You really can’t compare the caboose pedestals with their leaf springs to the possibly ridged pedestals (more likely a rubber or coil spring)
> used on the 4 wheel freight cars…
The B&S builders photos clearly show the four-wheel flats and boxes with coil springs so no question there. Again, realizing my inattention to the 5 and up caboose dates clears up the question of mixing heights/suspension changes. Sorry about that.
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> When you talk about open frame draw heads, that if for conventional sprung draft gear… the freight cars had a wooden plank spring system…
My bad again - it was getting late and I meant the 5 and up cabeese (OP edited). Thanks very much for your help.
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> Randy