1920 box car with a wood roof help

[Anonymous]

I would like to know how box car roofs were originally built. I have a few pics, but they are not clear enough to see how they were built. The pics show wood planking , but I wonder if it was a tongue and groove or ship lap?

I decided to start building some box cars with the help of my 8yr old daughter while awaiting funds for my motive power.

[toenailridgesl]

Matt,
I'm doing some checking for you. Will post result if I can find some. Most US boxcar roofing was covered with some type of weather-proofing like tar paper, canvas etc, so from a modelling point of view does it matter? Here in Oz most of the goods wagons had corrugated metal roofing or sheet metal.

[Anonymous]

Matt
I now have you some photos, you pick

Hardware on this car body suggest that it may possibly have originally been a Tiffany reefer. Built in the late 19th century these cars were used by such lines as the Denver South Park & Pacific to transport perishable goods. This reefer most likely came to the Sumpter Valley from the Utah & Northern. This unusual car has a unusual tin roof, and apparently double siding. at one point the car suffered a fire as many pieces of siding are charred underneath. Traces of the original horsehair and canvas insulation can still be found inside. This car is currently missing most hardware, including grab irons and stirrups, but is in fairly good condition. The original identity of this car is still under investigation.


Durrenberge said that Pullman built 40 box cars for the A&N, nos. 100-139, part of a system-wide order. These cars were 36 feet and 7 ft. 9 ins. high. The door was 6 feet wide and there was a small end door two feet by 2 ft. 6 ins. They rode on arch bar trucks and had a metal roof.

Will look more in A.M. sorry Matt

[toenailridgesl]

Hey Matt! Look what I found!

D&RGW 3064 Boxcar interior, bottom flange angle-iron carlines 3/17/1966 NG Freight Cars Br38-1 B&W Negative Br38-1
Info from this site: http://www.colong.com/PhotosDRG(W)NG.html

[Anonymous]

Hi Phil
That looks pretty standard for roof construction the WAGR used similar construction with a painted canvas top of course with a curved rather than peaked roof which seems to be common on US freight waggons.
No corrugared tin roofs that I know of this side of the border but would love to be proved wrong as it is a visualy interesting roof type
Maybe one of the Aussies has a drawing of an Aus 3'6" gauge van with iron roof
regards John

[Anonymous]

Phil thanks for the help. The link doesn't work though. The picks I have resemble a Cedar roof but no rows like house roofing, My pics not that good so it might be 2 layers the second over lapping the first layer at it's seams. The inside pic ( yours)shows a plank or possible tongue and groove running parallel with the car sides mine shows them running parallel with the car ends and coming to a peak under the roof walk. Maybe even a copper or tin ridge cap under the roof walk.

[Anonymous]

Phil, Check this site out http://www.jim-fran.com/dendronva/index.html Look for the bocar project and click on it. I was right in what I thought was done. The car on this site has two layers of Tongue & Groove pine staggerd so that the joints don't line up with the ridge capped with tin.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by carpenter matt

Phil, Check this site out http://www.jim-fran.com/dendronva/index.html Look for the bocar project and click on it. I was right in what I thought was done. The car on this site has two layers of Tongue & Groove pine staggerd so that the joints don't line up with the ridge capped with tin.

Matt

The lapped painted wood roof would make sense for a mid to late 19th century boxcar, by the end of 19 century even tarred canvas roofs similar to passenger cars could be found on some express boxcars, but as steel cars were introduced to replace older wood car in the 20s and 30s, the metal roof on wood cars became more common place by the early 30's these were placed over the original wood roofs when the cars were modernized or refurbished, often along with steel dreadnought car-ends added on, trying to add a few more years of service to already outdated cars. After WWII, the all steel cars became the norm. an all wood roof wouldnt be out of place in the 20's.

Heres the book you need...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801852366/qid=1092267868/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-3700140-9505438?v=glance&s=books

[Anonymous]

Thanks Vic, I'll add it to my wish list for my B-day. I'm still waiting on Narrow Gauge in Southwestern Penn by Jim Weinshenker. I've started building 3 boxcars with my daughter based on the Waynesburg & Washington RR and GR plans. I've been meaning to ask you how far back your collection of Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette goes back. They did I think two articles at various times, I wonder if they contained anything I didn't already know or have. I had the yr/mo written down but the wife I believe threw out the paper I had wrote on[:(!][V].

[jmozz]

Matt did you use the hardware from ozark to hang your doors and if you did could you e-mail me a picture so i can see what goes where on your boxcar jmozz

[Anonymous]

Jmozz, Havent got that far do to time restraints and involving my daughter. I only go as far as her attention span allows. Basically I have a box full of precut parts. And as always I make stuff harder than it should be out of the shear challange of it. I didn't score my plywood sides, I'm making actual planking for walls, roof, and floor.

[toenailridgesl]

Matt, don't know why the link didn't work properly but here it is again
http://www.colong.com/PhotosDRG(W)NG.html

You'll need to cut and paste it as the link doesn't like the ( ) brackets they used

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by toenailridgesl

Matt, don't know why the link didn't work properly but here it is again
http://www.colong.com/PhotosDRG(W)NG.html

You'll need to cut and paste it as the link doesn't like the ( ) brackets they used

Phil tried it but all I found was a bunch of columns with descriptions couldn't open any pics.

[TheJoat]

Nice site Phil!

BTW, if you are less the 1024x768 resolution, you may not see the picture link - it's on the far right. Not a picture for every row, but certainly a LOT!

[Anonymous]

Bruce thanks for the tip, I was finally able to check out Phil's Pics.