Let's try this again. I don't see where the first message I sent posted.

I am digging into the step traps on our troop sleeper. Were these sprung like normal steps or hand cranked? The rotating shaft on ours look to be designed for a handle of some sort.

Does anyone with one of these cars have a working trap?

Thanks
Bill

Looks pretty standard to me...it should just hinge there... It might have a spring to pop it up a bit, but not necessarily...should just lift up and engage a latch to hold it upright.
If it's not been moved in a long time, it's probably stuck or stiff...

The square end is simply for a wrench used to adjust the spring tension. No hand crank.

Howard P.

Never worked on one of these, but my first impression of the square head is it is used to tension the spring.

I see Howard types faster than I do.

I have never worked on one either.

Thanks for the info Howard and all.

I guess I just never paid much attention to them before.

Bill

To further the discussion a bit, the general trap door practice, but not specifically for troop sleepers, was that the square head was for adjusting the torsion spring pressure after a rounded headed pin was removed (knocked out with a punch) , and was reinserted in one of a stepped series of holes to tighten or loosen the spring tension, as desired. I can't tell 100% but it looks like the head(s) of one of the dowels protruding on the casting. There are at least a couple of troop sleepers restored and on display, maybe more that I am not aware of. There is one at the B&O Museum here in Baltimore (MD) and another at the Mad River and NKP Museum in Bellevue, Ohio. As Pullman built them, there may be drawings and or specification information at the Pullman Library in Union, Illinois.

G.F.Payne

And the "spring" was not usually a coil spring, but several pieces of flat spring steel that were twisted (by tightening the square nut) to obtain the desired spring tension to lift the trap.

I repaired a similar trap on a car (Salt Lake & Utah 751, Niles Car Co. 1916) at the Western Railway Museum a couple of years ago.

All of the above comments are correct, the mechanism is quite simple. Just knock out the pin and all the parts come out.

The trap on 751 had a broken spring. I purchased new spring steel strips from McMaster-Carr.

Thanks for all the feedback and info.

I think I can see some of the flat steel springs in one of them where the metal sleeve is rotted away. Since I'm going to have to disassemble steps to replacing side sheet I figure I'll take the traps off and rebuild those mechanisms.

I did not see anything in the archives about this and a Google search popped up with all sorts of patent info on different trap designs. So maybe this will help someone else out in the future.

Reviving one of my old threads, how many groups with troop sleepers and steps vs rungs actually have functional traps?

Just curious.

If you have a troop sleeper from the second order you don't have to worry about traps!

We have two from the second order. Both of them have rungs instead of steps.

Reviving this thread again in case someone else needs the information in the future.

Does anyone with a pullman troop sleeper have functioning traps?

That unusual springing on the traps is a similar concept to the torsion bars used famously by Chrysler in its front suspensions. Torsion bars are common on tanks which have multiple road wheels and not much room for springs.

Phil Mulligan

Phil - concept is the same but application is totally different. Pullman springs are more like the old VW bug suspension with a stack of spring steel strips in a tube.

I could be wrong, but wouldn’t the trap mechanism be the same as used on regular Pullman cars of the time? It would make no sense to me to design something special for a smaller quantity of cars.