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Whew thatnk goodness its Thursday. I fer one plan on spending some quality time in The Shop over the weekend. I plan on getting some heavy construction done on the boxcar, and hopefully into the detailing phase. Might drag out the tablesaw and convert some shelving board into raw material for some hoppers. Theres always the tankcar waiting in the wings too. I'm still not clear on the best way to execute the walkways for that. The basic tank is done, needs a few details around the dome, and some detailing on the frame. I guess I should assemble another set of trucks from the castings I have too. I do need to order up some resin, but I'm not sure how much I'm gonna need. I have a project from another genre that is gonna require 8 large castings to complete.
I've been considering the possibilty of welded steel construction showing up. The technology existed as of the late 1920s and extended through WWII, I'd say a common carrier NG that shares shop space with a SG parent road would easily have access to such designs and equipment. Perhaps the NG might even serve as an experimental proving ground for new construction practices and techniques for larger scale application.
Interestingly enough, I think I stumbled across a WHYFORE in the design of EBT boxcars. They always looked rather tall and narrow to me, and indeed by the plan views theres about a 6" difference in cross section between them and compareable NG cars. I was looking at some photos of boxcar construction, particularly a composite car end, and then it dawned on me. They basically did away with th external sheathing of a traditonal wood car. With a steel car, the framing members wouldn;t need to be as dimensionally robust as the traditional wood, therefore the ZEE bracing of the car sides takes the place of conventional timbers, with less of a cross section, and the lack of external sheating could easily account for 3" on either side of the car, leaving a piece of rolling stock with the same internal volume, yet narrower.
