Jack:
Thank you for your insights on the operational side of equipment for the C&TS. I think this reality check should be part of the Friends rebuild plan and we need to have a “buy in” from the current operations/ management team. Please see my questions which follow your narrative.
>I can’t speak for any exact policy’s the C&TS has with wood vs. steel frame equipment today. But I can say that in 1997 I started a policy of only allowing wood frame equipment follow the Steel frame sleds up or down the west side of Cumbres. By this time we had accumulated 12 sleds that have GTR rating of 44,000 lbs on a 4% grade.
Having the wood frame equipment in massive tension or compression with respect to the locos & sleds was a worry of mine.
But having the wood frame equipment follow the steel frame equipment in either direction posses no problems in my opinion, as long as the equipment is road worthy. <
OK let’s assume the "master plan" is the circa 1937> rebuilt San Juan train set for use on special occasions and with the potential of utilizing coaches in regular trains. I am going to jump ahead here and anticipate that the enclosed vestibule coaches will be built new from steel following perhaps the Hamilton/ WP&Y model or the D&S steel coaches but closely patterned after a Jackson and Sharp or D&RG built coach. I say this because we can anticipate that as ridership increases more coaches will be needed for regular trains. Now whether these cars are configured in the 24 seat rebuilt layout or the earlier 45 seat arrangement, I think the higher seating configuration will prevail for revenue reasons. This is not to say some coaches could be "first class" with extra fare for the 24 seat arrangement but I am getting ahead of myself.
So now we have the problem you were concerned with in that our San Juan consist is RPO (wood), baggage (wood), coaches (steel) and parlor (TBD). This brings us back to the rebuild of RPO #54. If this car is going to be used at the head end of passenger trains what can be done in the rebuild to strengthen this car (and other historic wood cars) to allow safe operation? Further, if we look at the configuration of the rebuilt RPO’s what are the practical considerations for access of passengers and crew if the mail apartment is restored (i.e. no internal access from mail to baggage section and no end doors). I am going to make the assumption that end door(s) would have to be added somehow but I am not sure how this would even be possible as there is no platform... and further real world use issues how could the mail apartment be used as a snack/ gift bar to boost revenue? Maybe the #053 is then a better candidate for restoration in this use but it is not correct for the San Juan so we are back to a compromise. I am trying to flush out some real world considerations here so that the Friends and RR can work together to produce a rebuild(s) that are both historically accurate and also serve a practical purpose for the RR. Obviously there will need to be some compromises made, from my point of view it is better to think this through now rather than after the work is done…
Rod Jensen
