Our painting contractor has started the bodywork on UP Buffet / Lounge 4051, and it should be turning yellow in January! Some info on the car is here: http://www.oerm.org/pages/up4051.html

We need to replace the exterior rubber gasket that goes around the window frame on the outside of the car. Our friend Brad Black mentioned to me last week that this was a common rubber shape once stocked by Power Parts. Anyone have any ideas about any vendors that might have it? We can always have some made but would of course prefer to find it somewhere. Thanks!

Hi, John.

This is five year old information, but when I restored my Ann ARbor caboose five years ago, ex-Power Parts material was available from Logan Corp, who is the small people dealer for GETS, who took over Power Parts. Huntington, WV 1-800-669-1967. Perhaps the attached file will also be of help. (PPC 7001)

Steve Zuiderveen

Steve- thanks, PPC 7001 definitely seems like the stuff.

Wasatch Railroad Contractors has the actual gasket you are looking for available in under two weeks cut to the sizes you need.....most likely at a better cost. Contact us off line if you like:

jrimmasch@wrrc.us

info@wrrc.us

Thanks,

Glad to know this stuff is still available; it looks just like what we used on some CN coaches. The triangular section should be stronger and longer-lived than the original 1950's flat-section style.

The slot is dependent for its fit on exactly matching the guage of the steel (aluminum?) used for the window surround, so before you order 400 feet of it, test-fit a sample onto the actual car side. You can't tell its true width by measuring the old rubber gasket, and there are several similar patterns that look identical. If it fits right it will provide a water-tight seal without sealant.

Funny window-gasket story: When installing the sash, I bang on the sash with a rubber mallet to seat it against the gasket as I tighten the screws on the retaining straps. Seems to help get an extra turn or two to prevent leaks. We handed the mallet to one private-car owner with instructions along the lines of, "Hit the window with this as you tighten the screws," figuring he'd know enough to give a lot of light taps around the sash. Sure enough, we turned around just in time to see him take an almighty swing at the middle of the glazing. This guy was a civil engineer.

Aarne Frobom
Adlake City, Michigan

Another source is Central Sales & Service:

http://www.centralsales-service.com/

Contact is John Oelka,
(931) 296-1940
jocss@accessive.net

Another firm I've become aware of that provides window gasketing to most all of the commuter rail and transit agencies is

Delford Industries
http://www.delford-industries.com/

84 Washington Street
Middletown, NY 10940
(845) 342-5805
email: delford@warwick.net
Betty Rubino, Sales Manager
(PS - From a line of Lackawanna and Jersey Central Railroaders, she is!)

I used Central Sales and Service in Waverly TN for a full glazing job on a passenger car last year....Excellent service, have nearly every shape you can imagine for a passenger car in stock ...or can make what ever you need extremely fast...

Excellent service....



Dean Levin