Re: Drop bottom gon rider cars

Actually the conversion of the drop bottom gons was fairly easy. The car's basic frame structure (end sills, center sills and cross members that support the walls) is steel. If you have ever had the displeasure of replacing a rotten wood endsill on a high side gondola, you will appreciate the value of steel end sills.
Once you remove the drop doors and the remains of the "floor" from the center of the car you are left with a nice steel platform on which to build the new floor. The new floor for 705 and 746 was built by bolting 2x8's to the steel cross members of the frame (along the edges of the car) as well as to the center sills. The floor itself is 3x4" exterior plywood. Plywood was chosen as it does more to keep water off of the wood components of the car's frame than a plank floor would. The floor is much easier to replace than the needlebeams etc.
1/2" plywood was used to line the interior walls of the cars. Bench seats, made of "TREX" decking material are located along the sides of the cars. No provision is made for getting people on or off of the train from these cars, however door openings were cut in the ends to allow people to get from car to car. (remember, of the 9 cars in GLR Inc's train, you could oly get on or off of the train from 4 of them and only 2 were used to get people on or off at the terminals)
The floor height, wall height, interior width and seating capacity of the drop bottom conversions is alomost exactly the same as that of the high side gon rider cars previously used.