Re: D&RG Class 3 and 3A Box cars

I think a couple of things are being missed here. By 1902 these cars would have been 20 to 25 years old and not worth the effort to rebuild and update for the new safety standards. Likely these best cars from the class 3 cars were replacement cars, which had been built to replace wrecked cars. This car replacement occurred as the original cars were owned by trusts and not the railroad. As such the replacement cars were probably built to the same general design of the 27' 1884 to 1895 rebuilds, except for being 25' cars. This means they would have lost the B&S frame design and probably had the continuous draft arrangement. As such these newer cars would have been decent candidates for upgrading with automatic couplers. To obtain a 20 ton capacity rating, the cars would have needed not only 20 ton trucks, but larger truss rods as well. The replacement cars may have received these wen they were built, as the 27' cars did. That made updating a simple matter. Likely the 30' class 3A cars were a similar story.

What would these replacement cars look like? Replacement cars from 1883 and earlier would have been class 3 cars as that is what they were building. These would have been among cars going to scrap to the D^&RGW, and the RGS. There was an 1883 drawing for a 30' boxcar and it is likely cars built after that date and that were no longer covered by the trusts, were built to that plan. Cars still covered by a trust might have looked like a shortened version of the 27' rebuilds. The D&RG commonly reused some wood and some iron when rebuild cars, so it is possible, especially on the 25' cars to see some of the B&S/D&RG ironwork.

The reason why I don't believe the class 3A cars were any of the original B&S/D&RG built cars is not only their age, but also their construction. The class 3 cars had deep notches in the center and intermediate sills and also on the inside of the outside sills, at the body bolsters. Changing the the wheelbase of the car would eliminate any reuse of the frame members. Also the method of making the tendons at the old end sills and the side sills would structurally eliminate any cutting down of the frame. As the class 3A cars would have required automatic couplers, new trucks, heavier truss rods different grab irons and different roof walks, there wouldn't have been much left to reuse other than some old weather boards.
Dave