Wagon Roofs?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I’ve been curious for some time as to why the roofs of European rail cars are rounded instead of flat like here in the U.S.? (I call them ALCO roofs[:D]) Anyway, anybody have any idea as to why? Gerry S.

2

I rather suspect it goes back to the lexicology of two words:

  1. American. House cars.

  2. European. Wagons.

American closed-body freight vehicles were built, originally, by carpenters who were most familiar with house, barn and farm outbuilding construction, which uses flat roof sections.

European rail pioneers went to the people who built freight wagons designed to be pulled by four-legged horsepower. Naturally, those wainwrights followed their usual practice of supporting the roof on arches, hence the nicely-rounded roof contours.

So, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet? Not quite. Three quarters of a century ago, in order to make more efficient use of steel in pressed-steel box cars, several railroads experimented with deep-arched (two ways) roof panels. The result - the wagon-top box car…

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with arch-roofed freight wagons)

3

US rail cars started with arch roofs and arched roof freight cars were built in the US into the 1930’s (the Central Valley stock car kit is an arched roof car). About 1880-1890 peaked roof cars became more common. I attribute it to the simplicity and lower cost of building a peaked roof.

4

I don’t know exactly but I think that you will find that flat, flat roofed cars come in with welded construction… the weld should make a sealed box so you don’t need the “eaves” achieved with either a curved roof or a ridged roof.

That said a lot of US cars are ridge roofed rather than flat - the ridge being made up of a lot of standard panels in steel cars. The ridge design may be easier/quicker to asseble when making thousands of cars?

For the UK you also have to take a bit of a look at the much smaller loading gauge.

[8D]

5

Quite true.

I would agree with that except that the shift from arched to peaked roof really accelerated during the era when cars (and roofs) were mostly made of wood and the loading gauges were not appreciably different between the two countries.