Wayne Hoskin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had often wondered who was responsible for the
> roof design, I can relate to the issue of non
> railway engineers who "know" everything butting
> in, I am a Carriage and Wagon Maker by trade and
> have had to deal with them for many years, till
> they move on to design Corn Flake packets (about
> all they are good for).
> Who the hell could squeeze thru those skinny
> doors? How many seasons did they last till they
> got modified Earl?
> Did the Rio Grande cut those flats down for their
> own use or were they cut down especially for
> C&TS?
>
> Wayne from Oz
The Grande built the cars out of SG cars in the late 30's early 40's. When they cut them down to NG, they simply cut the foundation brake beams down to fit the NG trucks. No though was given to getting correct leverage on the individual trucks. The brake pipe was kept in the same locations using exiting holes in the end sills, body bolsters and fish-belly center sills. As SG cars, they had AB brakes. Standard K-1C brakes were installed in the conversion.
To comment on Doug VV's comment on the side sills, the first 7 cars were built to the original design by a private contractor. The second 7 cars were built by and designed by the C&TS. The fishbelly side sills were removed on the second 7 cars. Originally there were 14 6500 class flats on the C&TS.
The first batch ran several years with the skinny doors. The second batch of cars went the other direction with 3' residential doors, which proved unequal to the task of living on a NG passenger car. About the time the second batch came along (mid-80's) the doors of the first ones were fixed. I don't recall how the steel was reworked - if the I-beam was cut loose, moved and rewelded or more likely, the sides of the I-beam cut off to make the steel into a C-channel on each side to widen the doorway.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2017 06:24PM by Earl.