TCDA No. 65 (Reefer) - Official Work Thread

[Mike Fox]

I'll try to take one when we get to that point. But all that the peening does is distort the threads enough so the nut won't back off.

[Dwight Winkley]

you take a ball peen machinist hammer and hit the threads with the small round ball end of the hammer to round over the threads

[Richard "Steam" Symmes]

"Buggering" the threads was the word we used to hear. 

Richard

[Ira Schreiber]

Where I learned it, "buggering" was when you cross threaded the nut and peening was, as said, when you mashed the threads
past the nut to prevent its backing off (and removal !)

Ira (Cross thread)Schreiber

[Wayne Laepple]

My father was an old-time maintenance machinist, and he used the term "bugger" to define both mushrooming the stub of a bolt to lock the threads as well as using a cold chisel to deform the threads so the nut could not be backed off. Either procedure was pretty effective.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Interesting stuff here.  I always heard the method described as "peening over" by the old fellows I worked with on the farm some 40 years ago.  I also heard it from the shop man when I worked at the Maryland Midland RR.  Wayne, I agree the "buggering" the threads was a term that was sometimes interchanged with peening.  And, as you pointed out, it also meant deforming the threads to keep the nuts on.  I have seen that done with a pipe wrench.  Apparently the Portland Company used double nuts on rare occasions on some bolts/rods depending on the type of car. (Maybe standard gauge?)  I have not seen it on any of the 2 foot plans so I'm not aware of double nuts being used on the WW&F cars.

This Saturday we will cut and thread the wall rods.  We'll be installing them in the next couple of weeks as we build the box frame so Mike or James should be able to get photos of the rods, showing the ends and nuts.  BTW - The nuts are counter sunk in the cap sill to allow clearance for the roof sheathing.   

Stewart

[Robert Hale]

That is what I thought, mushrooming over the end of the rod. I'm used to safety wire/cable, cotter pins, castellated nylock nuts, lock nuts and lock washers.

[Mike Fox]

A very nice day today. Not the best photo angles, but we finally got to a stage in the construction where a little work shows a lot.

Steve Z., J.B, and Milo cutting the rafters.


Some cut already, with other lumber for the car.


Getting things ready.


James and Stewart tightening the rods


Light dusting of snow for a little scenery


Before lunch, we had the 4 walls up. James is peening with a ballpeen hammer.


South End wall


North End wall


A couple of the nuts I peened.

[James Patten]

Where did you buy the kit?

Viking Lumber, Ames Hardware, McMaster-Carr, and our own back yard.

[Robert Hale]

A very nice day today. Not the best photo angles, but we finally got to a stage in the construction where a little work shows a lot.

A couple of the nuts I peened.

See, pictures are worth a 1000 words!!

[Mike Fox]

A few from Today

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

More great photos Mike!

Today we started by cutting the top rods.  We then installed the west door header, roof rafters and top rods which sister with the rafters.  When that was done we loosened the turnbuckles on the truss rods and got the center of the car lowered 1" to level the sills and stringers.  With the base frame level we then pulled the end frames plumb and installed 2 tension rods and 2 sway braces in each end.   The last chore was to set three roof rails to test fit them to the rafters.  Since they are less than 30' they will be pulled back out for cropping to allow installation with the joints over the rafters.  

Brendan brought the pine planks for the flooring and Steve Z. cut them to length and cut the ship lap joints.  The flooring is now stacked in the back of the AA truck which is the staging area for all new lumber components.  A few pieces of extra lumber have been loaded into boxcar 309.

Next we will true the ends to the side sills and install end and intermediate braces.  These go in before the belt rail.  There are short tension rods that go from the corner posts to the end braces.  These (among other parts) will be cut next weekend.

J.B brought two friends along who, along with Gordon spent a good part of the day working on Car 65's couplers.  Much was accomplished.

Stewart

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Since I received an email question I thought I would post the answer here.

The large white paper hanging from the workbench shelf in Mike's 3rd photo is the set of Portland Company plans we are using to build the milk car.   The plan is for a typical WW&F boxcar so we are following the design except for two features.  (1) There were two windows we must build, one on each side, to the right of the doors.   (2) The doors were plug style instead of the standard sliding door.  

The original car 65 was converted to a TCDA milk car by the WW&F shop crew in Wiscasset around 1913.  We are not aware of any as-built plans for the car but we have some good photographs and Wolf-Jobst Seidlers CAD plans to use for reference.  See pages 49 - 51 in Volume IV of Gary Kohler & Chris McChesney's Narrow Gauge in the Sheepscot Valley for images and plans of the original car.

Stewart    

[Eric Larsen]

I am not sure that these cars had a window on either side!!!  Only one side as the stove occupied the general location on the other side where the window would have been.  That is why for many years nobody thought they had windows at all!  All the early "known" photos were of the non window side of the car.  It was not until more recent years that photos of the window side started to surface.  Check into this before you make two windows.  
The single window was just for ventilation and to give the guy in the car who tended the stove in the winter time some light.  (I don't think it had much at all to do with spotting cars or picking up the cans on the fly as I have heard some others say.)  Since we are already thinking of using some lighting in the car, let’s build this the way it really was - one window.  I believe there is power down in the area but perhaps we could look into a small solar panel to run the modest lighting in the car.  (I'm thinking of a small panel on a metal post near the car someplace.  There are no obstructions in that area to worry about and it should get 100% sun all year.)  If we just had one window on one side, and the access door that was on the opposite side was left open for the public entrance, there should still be adequate lighting - especially with one single energy efficient light in either end of the car.  Just something to consider.

[John McNamara]

As someone who has a small solar system at his camp, I have some reservations about solar systems. While the output under full sun is very satisfying, the output on overcast or rainy days is considerably reduced. This is solved by having batteries, but they have their own headaches. I suppose highway departments have somehow solved all the problems with the solar-powered roadside signs. I wonder how they do it.

I think that the most reliable lighting would be roof windows!

I gather from your comment "Since we are already thinking of using some lighting in the car.." that we contemplate people walking through the car rather than just having information posted on the outside. Can someone elaborate on this?

-John