Dear Pieter, We were very curious also (only the first run had this feature, we had this area of the roof tool welded and recut with the door guide only to the right). The only cars I have ever seen with door guides to both side used two doors, either as an autobox, or a ventilated boxcar. I always wondered if a 2nd door would someday be added to the cars for ventilation similar to the ACL watermelon cars... Don
On Jun 12, 2012, at 9:52 AM, Pieter Roos wrote: > Hi Matt; > > An excellent question! The extended door track is a common feature of all > single sheathed boxcars built under U.S.R.A. auspices. In reading various > articles on these cars, none have touched on why that feature was > incorporated in the design. I might guess that planning was to allow for > either doors opening to the right or to the left, as on the PRR X23 and LV > double sheathed cars of a few years earlier, but that is just a guess on my > part. None of the production U.S.R.A. cars had a left opening door, or any > other door feature that I can see accounting for the longer upper door track. > > Pieter E. Roos > > --- On Tue, 6/12/12, Matt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Pieter, > > Just curious but why does the upper door guide extend to the > > left but not the lower guide? > > > > Thanks, > > Matt Hogan > > > > --- In [email protected], > > Pieter Roos <pieter_roos@...> wrote: > > > > > > I've also attached a photo of an SHS U.S.R.A. > > boxcar... > > > Pieter E. Roos > >
