Over the past few days I've been going through the Brookins collection of blueprints. There's a fascinating variety of material there. Much of it we have no practical use for, of course: there's little chance we're going to want to make new wheels, axles, equalizer bars, or even bolts. Lots of specifications for bolts.
And then there are many third-rail clearance diagrams. The wiring diagrams, of course, are certainly useful and I've set them aside.
Blueprints come in all sizes, and we have some truly huge ones:
This is a full-scale plan for the vestibule bulkhead in a Cincinnati car like the 431. It measures about 4.5' by 9.5' and has naturally been folded up into a bundle. There are several more like it, some of which may be even bigger. We have no practical use for this, of course, but it's certainly impressive. Scale it down by a factor of, oh, 64 or whatever, and you might have something useful. :)
As I say, we're not going to be making new wheels. But among other things we have specifications for "war standard wheels" that I hadn't heard of. Evidently, during the war CRT, CA&E, and North Shore were supposed to use common standards. There were multiple standards -- take your pick:
Prior to that time, it appears the CA&E had their own standards. Here's the typical 37" wheel from the thirties, which is probably what most of our wood cars are equipped with.
And then there are a few oddities, such as the 1949 blueprints for a bath house at the St. Charles Country Club. I have no idea why that's there. I was hoping for original plans for the Jewell Road shelter, but no such luck.
Anyway, this material will go into storage for future reference. We already have an unparalleled collection of documents in our various library departments, and the Brookins collection makes it even better. And that brings me to my next great advertising slogan:
"IRM -- the Smithsonian of Railroading!"
8 comments:
I wonder if the CA&E had the same high speed wheel profile as the CNS&M ?
Randy Stahl
If you want to talk about wheels, we can give you some wheels. I added a profile for the common prewar 37" wheel to the blog post. The tread has a taper of 1 in 90.
And I dug out the actual standards sheet and added it to the post, if anyone's interested. There were multiple standards to choose from.
Can I print and keep these prints for my own use? I’m thinking that the current APTA profile might be closer to the CNS&M profile.
I kinda get a kick out of wheel profiles.
Now my next question is :
How frequently were the wheels reprofiled? Was a car held out of service only because of a worn profile?
That’s the funny thing about wheel profiles, they don’t last very long especially with steel tread brakes.
I’d love to see some mechanical dept budgets
Randy Stahl
I've often wondered what the purpose of the holes drilled through wheel webs is on electric cars.
Wonderful to have these blueprints. In the Steam Department, we thankfully have prints for various items, and it's fun to think about how I would go about making this item or that. If you need any electric car parts made, I doubt I would have any trouble getting materials and permission, so just ask. I already have my parts in three steam locomotives, could be fun to spread it to electric cars, too.
Josh Reynolds
That's an excellent question about the wheels. I'm waiting for Dennis...
Someone told me, I think it was Tom Jervan who passed away recently, that the reason for the holes was to lessen the resonance of the wheel plate so they didn't squeal as much going around tight curves. I don't know if it's true, but note that large circular saw blades are pierced for the same reason.
Dennis Storzek
But then it makes sense that this would be more prevalent on electric cars than on steam road cars, which don't go around sharp curves. Thanks!
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