Re: Air Dump Cars

OR and OS were modified by the D&RGW in that the "air dump" mechanism seems to be home brew (rebuilt at least once), and only one air hose shows on the photos of the cars so that the train line fed both the car brakes and the "air dump" cylinders. The body tilt/side open mechanism was WWS, a mouse trap type of over center contraption. There is some speculation that the "air dump" mechanism installed by the D&RGW was not so much for dumping the car as is it was for pulling the dump body back up on center after being dumped. The Google search mentioned in another post should yield a PDF of a WWS catalog that has a lot of information about the various car offerings, including what would have been the original construction of OR/OS before the "air dump" stuff was added. Dave G has a drawing that shows what I call the mouse trap end mechanism in both the tilt body on center position and the dumped position. I hope he can post that for you.

If anyone knows how the car was plumbed for air, I sure would like to know as the photos I am working from do not show this very well, and some of what I think would be required for both train air brakes and air dump to be charged from the train line does not show up.

The photo is modeling content, kit-bashed OR and OS from a Don Winter kit from long ago (left with the correct 24 inch wheels) and the Rio Grande Models kit (with 26 in wheels because 24" wheels were not available when RGM packed the kit).

Dave Adams