Can anyone give a ball park idea of what the cost is to install a rubber roof on a clerestory roof on a passenger car?

Torch-down products (technically, an APP modified bitumen membrane) like Johns-Manville "Dibiten" http://www.dibiten.com/(or a similar competior's product) in 4mm (~.160") or 5mm (~.200") thickness, smooth finish (i.e. no slate granules on outer surface, which would not look correct on a RR car), cost around $0.50 per square foot per layer. They're applied by heating the meltable bottom layer with a propane roofing torch until it starts to drips, then you press it on the car roof. Dibiten is supplied in rools about 3' wide. Seams are overlapped 6". Total materials + roofing torch rental + propane cost for an 85' long x 10' wide x 3' high clearestory roof is roughly $1000 for a single layer. The Dibiten literature recommends two layers, or one layer plus a roll-on paint-like top coating, peridoically renewed.

In 1989, Golden Gate Railroad Museum http://www.ggrm.org applied a single layer of Dibiten and no top coating to the raised center section of air-conditioned heavyweight 8 section - 5 bedroom Pullman "Clover Plot" (originally the 10-2 "Rampur"). We covered some especially mushy areas of wood T&G with galvanized sheet metal before applying the Dibiten. I helped apply the Dibiten. The car has been stored outdoors since 1989. It's now at Western Pacific RR Museum in Portola, CA. At last report the roof was still 100% watertight.

The disadvantage of torch-down roofing is how to remove it decades later when it wears out. Can this be done?

One alternative alternative is having a professional firm sandblast the roof and then spray on pickup-truck bedliner material. This costs $13k-$17k per car.

Falling from a roof can be deadly. Last month a volunteer on 4-8-4 ATSF 2926 restoration in Albequerque died by falling from the locomotive. I strongly suggest you put up scaffolding on both sides and ends of the passenger car so that a fall or slip from the roof will be caught just below roof level, not on the ground. Be sure the scaffolding is wide enough or otherwise secured so that it cannot tip over if you slip off the roof. If your budget or available scaffolding won't surround an entire car, get enough to make a 20' long section safe and then move the scaffolding or the car as work progresses.
- Doug Debs

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EPDM Roofing Membrane has also been used in applications in place of traditional canvas, it is applied in the same manner as canvas roofing. I know for instance this material was used on the replica Pacific Electric cars that now run in San Pedro, CA:
http://www.bestmaterials.com/detail.aspx?ID=15884

I accidentally found a New Zealand company that specializes in flat and low-slope roofs. Much of the info is applicable to railroad passenger cars. Reommended reading:

Roofing material history, discussion of different types of roofing membranes: http://www.scieroofing.com/retro.htm

"Dodgy roofs" is a case-by-case study of what works and what doesn't: http://www.scieroofing.com/sadroofing.htm

- Doug Debs

The Mid-Continent Railway museum has a bunch of wooden passenger cars.

The old Railway & Loco Preservation magazine did almost a whole issue on them.

Part of it was about doing rail car roofs. They did a comparison on using traditional methods and then the new stuff like rubber membranes.

The only long term solution of course is to put the car indoors in some kind of car barn.

Ted Miles

Wes Swift used glued down EPDM rubber on Yosemite Valley 330 with good results, although I'd be more inclined to only glue the edges and tack the sheets like canvas, but he did the job, not I. Wes seems to be pretty approachable, I'm sure he would discuss costs. contact him through his website: http://www.yv330.com/index.html

Has anyone had any success in having a contractor install a rubber roof? I know Strasburg used a contractor at one time