Reposted from alt.railroad:

"I was wondering if any preservation group in the UK or US has used steel to replace wooden pillars, or structural members, in the front or rear ends of wooden bodied rollingstock. I would be interested in corresponding with any parties who have done this before, to assist in a heritage restoration project underway in Australia. I intend to only replace the front and rear ends with an all steel structure, and any positive or negative experiences would be great to hear from.

To respond, send to daniel741231@hotmail.com

Best regards,

Daniel Nightingale
Sydney, Australia"


LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

> Reposted from alt.railroad:

> "I was wondering if any preservation
> group in the UK or US has used steel to
> replace wooden pillars, or structural
> members, in the front or rear ends of wooden
> bodied rollingstock.

The closest I can think of offhand is that some redesign and rebuilding of the early New Orleans Perly Thomas cars was done to improve crashworthiness and upgrade to new standards. I know they were not all wood cars to begin with, but perhaps a parallel exists.

In our case, we try to be accurate and authentic to the original design and materials from a historical perspective. And it seems to me most body and corner posts are complex cross sections which would be difficult and expensive to fabricate in steel - especially if only one or two of each (one left, one right) were needed. The wood posts were easier to shape and often they included pockets, mortises and offsets for attaching and fitting other framing. Perhaps difficult to do in a steel copy and there might be more problems to solve in fasteners and attachments.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net