Does anyone have any tried" and "proven" tips and techniques on keeping antique passenger coach windows from suddenly falling on passenger's fingers? Also, any suppliers of decent window latches for sale out there? Please share your comments. Thanks.

Our coaches on the Tennessee Valley Railroad have rather substantial latches. I'm out of town at the moment, otherwise I'd see if I could dig up a supplier or manufacturer name. Of course it never hurts to remind passengers that they should keep all body appendages, photography equipment and children that they wish to keep inside the car at all times as windows can accidentally unlatch. That announcement has served me well for almost ten years as I've not had any injury related to a window coming unlatched yet.

awalker2002@comcast.net

> Does anyone have any tried" and
> "proven" tips and techniques on
> keeping antique passenger coach windows from
> suddenly falling on passenger's fingers?
> Also, any suppliers of decent window latches
> for sale out there? Please share your
> comments. Thanks.

Go to:

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Enter "1085A3" in the search window in the upper left corner of the page and click on "Find". After searching, a price ($14.95) and a link reading ">Catalog page" will appear right below he find window. Click on "Catalog page", download the page ("2293.PDF"), and the item you want is in the lower right-hand corner (must be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available from adobe.com for free - - other pdf readers will work too). "1085A3" is the left-hand model and "1085A5" is the right hand one. Each latch comes bagged with 2 stops.

You might be able to order them on line (I've not tried), but McMaster may want you to open an account. I've ordered over the phone using my personal visa, but they want a "company name".

These aren't as nice nor quite as rugged as the "originals", but they're virtually indistinguishable (except to the very trained eye).

McMaster has the reputation of being a bit pricey, but these are a *deal* - - provided they're still available (haven't ordered any for about 10 years).

Low cost low tech soltuion is what we did at Spencer way back in the cashless days - make little forked stops that swivel on the screws that hold the side casing on to the frame. To hold the window open, raise it and then turn the forked end into the opening under the sash, let the sash down into the fork which catches it. To release, raise again and turn the fork down to let the sash slide past. As I recall, we used some half ply for the stops and replaced some screws with longer ones.

Simple but very effective and idiot resistant provided the car stays right side up. If you do turn the car over it probably won't be the biggest problem you will need to solve.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> Does anyone have any tried" and
> "proven" tips and techniques on
> keeping antique passenger coach windows from
> suddenly falling on passenger's fingers?
> Also, any suppliers of decent window latches
> for sale out there? Please share your
> comments. Thanks.

We have been installing counterbalance springs in the walls of our coaches with excellent results. They look and operate just like a steel tape measure (a flat steel spring unrolls out of a little steel box), and are available in various tensions to match the weight of the window. We also have patterns for cast bronze window latches for redundancy. When back in the office Jan. 2nd, I could look up the supplier of the counterbalances, and check on details of the latches.

kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

The ultimate low-tech fix is a piece of inch-by-inch lumber cut to prop the window in the "open" position. Another fix I've seen is to drill a hole in the window slide area on each side and stick a large cotter pin in to hold the window open.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

Another low-tech solution is one that we used on an ancient wood windowed streetcar. Because this car no longer had any kind of latches or tracks, brass barrel bolts were fastened on the bottom edge of the windows which slide into holes drilled at a height to allow 6 inches of window opening.

The bolts have a nice finish to them and add to the overall funky atmosphere of the car. Plus it keeps the little ones from falling out the windows.

East Troy Electric Railroad
jftrolley@aol.com

>The latches that Alan refers to came from Adlake when we converted the two cars back to open window cars from A/C. The latches are very large and do hold the windows well. The only problem seems to be that the housing for the latch becomes stretched from dropping the weight of the window on the latch when in seats. I don't remember one ever stretching to the point where they break or let the window close but I guess it could happen.

Tim Andrews

andrewstim@prodigy.com

Pullman Industries makes the balances Kelly refers to. They can be purchased from McMaster-Carr. They are listed under Window, Balances. They are on page 2359 of catalog #108.

The number I have is 716 334-1350 for Pullman. It is cheaper to buy quantities direct from Pullman. If the number doesn't work try pullmanind.com.

These little gizmos have eliminated pinched fingers and have increased the life of our windows significantly. There are very few silver bullets out there but these things come pretty close, and believe me, we had tried just about everything until we tried these about 15 years ago.


linnwm@supernet.com