B&SR Box Car 56 - Official Work Thread

[Mike Fox]

Side sills and spacer blocks were installed today.

[John Kokas]

Since I'm kind of stuck down here in PA,  who gets the job of applying the "green" preservative to the underbody ?   Since this is going to be a tool car, which by nature means a lot of rough treatment by tools & equipment, I would suggest considering a hardwood floor over pine as it will hold up better over time and abuse.  Or, put down exterior CDX plywood over the pine floor and screw it down so that when it gets chewed up we can just unscrew, remove, and replace with another piece.  Easier and cheaper.   I'll get out of the backseat drivers chair now..........................

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Not too many screws -make the plywood snug to the sides.
isn't there a bunch of plywood overhead in the Car Barn?
Doesn't have to look nice.

[Mike Fox]

Marcel has been doing the tedious mortise work on the end beams.



Squaring up the holes by hand with a chisel..

[Mike Fox]

[Mike Fox]

Marcel has been busy..

[Jeff Schumaker]

WW&F museum - the home of craftsman work.

Jeff S.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Well done you both  to restore  that box car actually a stock car that will be helpfull for the trackcrew. Wood, wood before joining the WW&F I would not have thought that wood  would have been the commodity you use and work  most on a railway. In France we mainly use metal. In Pithiviers shop it's tough to find a tool intended for woodwork and volunteers at large don't have a gift at working wood. If need be we call out a carpenter by trade.

[Graham Buxton]

Wood, wood before joining the WW&F I would not have thought that wood  would have been the commodity you use and work  most on a railway. In France we mainly use metal. In Pithiviers shop it's tough to find a tool intended for woodwork and volunteers at large don't have a gift at working wood.

However, there was a time when wood was a key ingredient of French boxcars, and woodworking skills and tools were needed.  As a relatively well-known instance, the "Merci" boxcars that were shipped to the USA are primarily wooden cars.  For those not familiar with the Merci boxcars, here is one link:

http://mercitrain.org/Ohio/

[Benjamin Richards]

The WW&F (and I suspect other roads) even went so far as to replace as-built steel superstructure with wood in some cases. Loco 4 is an example. From our own Roster pages:

Originally [Loco 4] had a full steel cab, but this was cut back after the Mason’s Wreck and eventually replaced with a wooden cab.

I suppose "using local materials" is the path of least resistance, and we sure do love our timber products in Maine. Cost probably also a factor.

[Keith Taylor]

If need be we call out a carpenter by trade.

Here a carpenter is a skilled trade for building houses. And I’m sure teams of excellent carpenters built many box cars over the years. I expect those who built locomotive cabs would probably come not from the carpenters union....but instead the cabinet makers union. Luckily our crew qualifies as both!
Keith

[Duncan Mackiewicz]

The museum is very fortunate to have Marcel doing so much of the carpentry work on this car. I have done this sort of carpentry and can appreciate the skill/talent I see being done by Marcel. Very, very nice work.

[Mike Fox]

Unfortunately hot all parts are shown, but here is the progress on the boxcar. The crew led by Marcel is making great progress.

I forget the technical name for these, but it holds the draft gear and the cheek plates bolt up to the sides in the holes shown.



Marcel has been carefully removing and catalogging the old studs. Some he says he can save by splicing on a new end, but there are a few that will have to be all new oak.



The other set of draft beams, almost finished.



South end of the car, ready for the end beam.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Looks like steady progress is being made.

Jeff S.

[Mike Fox]

Marcel had hoped to have the draft gear back on this afternoon but I did not make it over to see.