Re: Looking for references

The standard referance on wooden car building practice was written by William Voss back in 1892. This book is entitled "Railway Car Construction: A work describing in detail and illustrating with scale-drawings the different varieties of American cars as now built."
Voss was in charge of the car department of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway when the NATIONAL CAR AND LOCOMOTIVE BUILDER asked him in 1888 to write a series of articles on the construction of railway cars. The book was developed from this series.
A complete reprint (in soft cover) was recently published by Orange Empire Railway Museum of Perris, California.