Early 1900's Box car roof construction

[Anonymous]

Does anybody have any idea how early box car roof planking was done? Meaning tongue & groove or ship lap. What kept out the rain? I'm scratch building a 1:20.3 boxcar for a Garden railroad that I would like to look prototypical due to the size.

[dehusman]

Early boxcar roofs were usually were double thick, the outer roof was there to protect the inner watertight roof. They also used tin sheets that were welded at the seams or had a folded joint or battens covering the joints. The outer wood roof would have plain seams with no beading. The underside of the boards had groove cut in them so the water that leaked between the boards would hit the grooves and not make it to the joints in the inner layer of boards.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

dehusman, Found this site www.jim-fran.com this guy is restoring a wood roofed box car. His is like the prototype in my book( in appearence). The roof was constructed with two layers of tongue & groove pine planking, with the top layer staggerd over the bottom layers seams. The ridge was then capped with tin.

Thanks for your help.

http://www.jim-fran.com/dendronva/index.html This link will take you directly to the box car pics.

[Anonymous]

Matt. if you can get a copy of train shead mag. the drawings for the wood box cars are in there. You can find them on E Bay. Hope this helps. Mike with Ozarks Live steamers.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ozarks live steamers

Matt. if you can get a copy of train shead mag. the drawings for the wood box cars are in there. You can find them on E Bay. Hope this helps. Mike with Ozarks Live steamers.

Thanks for your reply I'll it out.[:D]