Topic: SR&CL Ry Car Building - Flat Car

[russ]

The fact that they were from two different manufacturers likely explains the different truss rod configurations.

Thanks

Russ

[tomc]

Russ,  the 33ft 4 truss rod flat cars are SR&RL 400 series.  Will have to do more research on the 28 ft cars but believe they are a Portland product.

Tom C.

[russ]

Do you know what the specific prototypes were for these models?

Russ

[tomc]

IIRC, That is the way the real ones were built.

Tom C.

[russ]

Thanks for the progress pictures!  How did you decide to use only two truss rods for one and four for the other?  Seems like a big jump for only 5 feet difference in length .. do you anticpate significant higher loading on the longer one

Russ

[tomc]

_DSC6502.jpg:  Here the brake rigging brackets are shown attached to the 28' car.  The 28' car is very similar to the 33' car.  The primary differences are that the 33' car has four truss rods while the 28' car has only two; the 33' car has a greater distance from bolster to queen post support than the 28' car; and the 33' car has a greater distance between queen post supports.  This last difference is evident when comparing the distance between stationary lever support and lever supports on the 28' car shown here versus the distances for the 33' car.

[tomc]

_DSC6501.jpg: This image shows a side view of the bolster end of the 28' car before the draft gear stop castings have been positioned and installed.

[tomc]

_DSC6492.jpg:  The brake rigging on these cars is similar to a typical prototype freight car in the days before air brakes.  The picture shows the 33' car with the brakes released.  The main or floating lever is near the bottom of the picture, while the stationary lever is near the top.  The stationary lever bracket is directly below a truss rod.  The spring shown between two truss rods serves to release the brakes when the brake wheel chain is not pulling on the rod shown at the lower right between the truss rods.

[russ]

Thaks for the update on the flat car ...

Re: Visiting .. spring or fall woudl work as well .. nothing special about coming in the summer

Russ

[tomc]

_DSC6487.jpg: This is a view showing how the brake staff is connected to the brake actuating rod under the car.  The chain is simply bolted to the side of the 3/8" square brake staff.  The other end of the chain is pinned to a yoke end which is attached to a rod which connects to the floating lever.

[tomc]

_DSC6486.jpg: Brakes and trucks have been applied to the 33' car.  The trucks were previously used on the logging disconnect cars, and had brake gear applied, but only two of the required 16 brake shoes (for four trucks) were available.  Machining the as-cast brake shoes to fit the brake shoe brackets was the third most time-consuming operation we performed.

[tomc]

_DSC6483.jpg: Another view of the draft gear for the 33' car.  At a request from Jack, we increased the total swing of the coupler by tapering the outer edges of the draft gear support pieces.  The taper can be seen to the left of the coupler shank where the draft gear support extends past the end block.

[tomc]

_DSC6479.jpg:  Draft gear is applied to the 33' car.  At Mel's direction, we positioned the draft gear stop castings so that the total movement of the coupler shank (when the spring is compressed) was centered with respect to the stops provided by the faces of the end beam and end block.  Filing the draft gear stop castings was the second most time consuming task during assembly of the two cars.

[tomc]

Russ,

We don't run to much in the summertime account of fire hazard.  Plan on spring/fall when it has been wet or winter.

Tom C.

[russ]

Thanks for sharing the construction pictures, Tom

Definitely want to make a trip there next summer perhaps with Ferd.  But woudl want to make sure that steam was running as I missed that last time aorund.

Russ