I have just reworked 5 grain loading boxcars manufactured by Athearn.There are stencils on the surface of the Soo Line grain plug doors. The left is "GRAIN DOOR" and the right is "INSPECTION DOOR." Do these two structures differ? Can both of them be called grain access doors collectively? I appreciate any comments.
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The close up shows some difference in the way the doors might operate. It almost looks like the grain door is latched from the inside? and the inspection door looks like it's hinged?
If the prototype doors latched from the inside, who's job was that?
Athearn made sure that all the railroads had some of these, even though they didn't. Most had the wood planking and paper behind the door.
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I am going to assume that Athearn did a credible job on modeling the grain doors.
The way it looks to me is it is a pair of doors. The "inspection" door opens first because it has a top and bottom latch. Once it opens up you would use the ring handle to open the "grain" door to load the car, giving you an opening that would be the full width of both doors.
When done loading, you close and latch the grain door and then close and latch the inspection door. The grain samplers just open the inspection hatch. The grain loaders open both.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com