As discussed in an earlier thread the above product was widely the material of choice for what we perceive as a concrete floor in passenger cars. Oddly enough I have confirmed it is still available and sold, although on a much smaller scale than decades past. It is still used on warships for flooring in ammunition rooms since it is totally non sparking. What I also heard is that many (most) railway cars in India use it for car flooring.

But it is not like mixing some hardware store 'sandcrete' in a pail or trough, laying it on and having hours to trowel it or finish it. Think more along the lines of plaster of paris behavior. The mix is of two dry parts, and once the required amount of water is added, it is exothermic (gets quite hot) and sets quickly. So the advice to us was to mix in small batches that you are confident can be applied and smoothed quickly.

Both of the dry parts are quite hygroscopic and will be ruined if not kept DRY and cool. Our latest shipment came in sealed five gallon paint buckets, and with the bagged material double wrapped in heavy black plastic heat sealed bags.

Part one -Calcined magnesite oxychloride

Part Two - dry granular magnesium chloride

The manufacturer of the product was identified on the bags as

Combustion Engineering Basic Chemicals
Valley Forge, PA


Bob Kutella

From a 1947 newspaper ad:

_____
"A large retail store wanted a basement flooring that would resist dampness, stand up to the wear of continual floor traffic, and still retain an appearance befitting a store of high repute. So they MASTIPAVED THE FLOOR!

Pabco MASTIPAVE has many other features to recommend its use under arduous conditions.

MASTIPAVE is self-healing when cut, will not chip or crack, is resilient and silent underfoot, and a long life is assured from the moment of its low cost installation.

MASTIPAVE

Made by PABCO PRODUCTS PTY. LIMITED"
_____

[Edit: (9/22) It turns out this is a different product than the one Bob K. is describing.]

It seems that Mastipave is not the concrete-like material which was discussed in the previous thread.

I found a reference to a patent for the product, which states that the Pabco product is a felt base treated with a bituminous compound (which sounds reasonable for a Pabco product).

http://www.logosdatabase.com/logo/mastipave_71252272

Well, the Mastipave we just received, and from which I gleaned my post info, is definitely a concrete like, quick setting cementitious product used in the car floors of much of our equipment.

The UK and the US - two countries separated by a common language!

Bob Kutella

If I understand correctly, Mastipave is a product that is based on magnesite. Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in this modern product and used it as the flooring in his studio in Oak Park. On a railcar I have noticed how it absorbs much of the sound coming up from the underbody, during operations.

There was an interesting railroad, the Sonoma Magnesite Railway, which hauled the product in gunny sacks on little 4-wheel 2-foot gauge flatcars. The railroad was abandoned by the 1920s and gradually scrapped over the years. Upper portions were significantly intact in the WW2 years and the Davenport 0-4-0t that fell in the river was scrapped in the early 1960s.

I'm a little surprised at Bob's reference to Mastipave; I don't ever recall seeing this name called out in car drawings, and Bob's admonition to mix it in small batches is at variance with photos of workers laying the entire floor in published photos of cars being built. However, I suspect the material was tracked through recommendations from the Chicago Transit Authority shop men, so it may well be what the CTA was using to patch floors.

Most drawings I've seen that specify composition floors call the material flexolith, which I believe is a generic term, and would roughly translate as "flexible stone" given its roots. A lot of the older Car Builder's Cyclopedias contain ads for "Tucolith", which was the Tuco Products Co. version. A photo in their information pages in the 1946 CBC shows four men working from planks to finish the entire floor of a coach, so I don't think this was a particularly fast setting material.

I did a Google search on the names; "Tucolith" only brings up citations in old industry publications. "Flexolith" appears to currently be a trade name for an epoxy modified patching cement. I can't determine if it is a descendant of the old railroad car material, but I suspect it would work well as a modern replacement.

The 1946 CBC also has illustrations of two different brands of the formed steel panel used under the composition flooring: Morton "Chanarch", and "Keystone" plate by the Berger Manufacturering Co., plus references to several other brands of composition flooring: "Karbolith" by the American Mason Safety Tread Co., and the "Ferroinclave" floor covering by Industrial Brownhoist Co. Lots of activity in the composition flooring field right after WWII.

Of additional interest is a dimensioned cross section of a typical composition floor; .040" Galvanized iron covered with 3/4" thick cork, 3/4" Keystone flooring filled with flexolith, the flexolith being run 1/2" thick over the raised pressings of the Keystone flooring. These were by no means heavy solid concrete slabs.

The 1953 CBC has fewer entries, but does have dimensioned drawings of the "Chanarch" plate, along with span and loading tables.

Anyone found suitable amreplacement for Chanarch (or Keystone) floor pans? Modern concrete pans for bridges do not seem to have the angular grooves that not only provided rigidity, but served to hold the flexolith in the event of cracking. A lot of cracking could be sustained without the material actually coming loose from the floor pan.

Best,
Mike

How about standard off the shelf corrugated metal?

If you could weld something into the valleys for the concrete
to lock onto. Porous weld bead, auto body dent puller spot
weld pins, tack weld nuts, maybe even tack weld in a length of rebar.

You would want to do the welding modifications before it gets galvanized
due to the dangers of "Zinc Flu".

-Hudson

The problem I see is lack of strength... The composition layer is so thin, it adds nothing to the strength, unlike a concrete building deck, where you may have 4-6" and the purpose of the steel is simply to support the concrete until it develops its own strength. In a railroad car with a composite floor, the steel provides the strength, while the composition flooring only provides sound deadening and a wear surface.

I went searching for usable products, and they reinforce my point; I found 9/16" thick corrugated decking here:

http://www.dek-ing.com/dekfloor-shallowvercor.html

But it is only available in 26 or 22 gauge. Chanarch was available in 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, and 14 ga. 14 ga. is about .078" thick, IIRC; that's some pretty hefty stuff.

If the 22 ga. Vercor does prove to be suitable, I'd be inclined to tack weld a layer of expanded metal on the top surface to unify the cement material with the decking:

http://www.mcnichols.com/products/expanded/

http://www.corrugatedmetal.com/corrugated-metal-panels/


at the bottom of the page is a picture of corrugated perforated metal

I wonder if the two tacked together would be strong enough.

-Hudson

I would think the holes would be too small, and the size of the spots of cement that would key in would be likely to fracture. I'd still go with expanded metal tacked on top of corrugated; field welding should not be a problem with the proper respirator.

I like their selection of corrugated better than the link I found; at least it goes to 18 ga. which is somewhere around .050" thick, which might be enough, given the short spans typical in railroad cars.

Not knowing the consistency of the concrete, I wonder if just drilling
holes in the corrugated metal would lock the two together.

-Hudson

Dennis, can you please post or link to those tables? Thanks

The book is not right at hand... should be able to get it by the weekend.

Thanks, much appreciated.