can someone tell me when and why they stopped making these? I’m thinking that perhaps bettere steel was used that did not require truss supports. Much thanks.
(I just built a couple in O scale and have a burning desire to know)
You will notice that your model does not have a center sill . this is correct fof a car of this type.
With the advent of steel fabrication a true cast or rivited center sill gave the car support. The fishbelly flatcars are a girder that if you use your imagination looks like truss rods … does the same job .
thanks much for that explanation! I’m guessing that truss rod flats were still in use on interchange roads into the early 1960s.
I think they were pretty much gone by the 30s
The ICC/ARR ban truss rods in 1952 for interchange traffic. This was mostly due to the age of the fleet, and the advent of steel center beams on freight equipment. Many truss rod box cars had their trucks removed and were converted to storage sheds. J
I think trussrod cars were banned from interchange in the 1930’s, although some lasted in non-interchange service much longer. I think some cars kept their trussrods but had some sort of steel reinforcing or something added that allowed them to stay in service(??) Fishbelly centersills first showed up early in the twentieth century.
But in general, trussrods & archbar trucks were pretty much gone by WW2.
Wood draft sills (underframes) were banned from interchange in 1928.
Dave H.
Truss rods were a critical component of composite construction, popular in the 1880-1900 era. “Composite” was the combination of wood and iron to form rolling stock strucutures. The rods could be shortened by adjustment in order to compensate for the typical shrinkage of wood, which would otherwise cause the car to sag between the truck support points.