Re: idler car hassles

The side mounted brake wheels were an early design only on a few cars and not particularly successful. Almost all of the 6700's had shortened staffs in the conventional location.
Brake wheels were required on all cars.
Interestingly, there are many pictures of the pipe cars back in Durango being staged for an Eastbound train showing that the idlers and pipe gons were seperated from each other coming back from Farmington. They had to be switched back in alternating order for loading in Alamosa.
The 30' idlers were cut down from boxcars and stock cars and there was a high mortality rate. The roadbed was often littered with their carcasses. The problem was eventually solved through the development of larger 40' steel flats and gons from standard gauge cars.