Re: Berkshire Valley ore wagon: Detailing. Boxcar Door Vent.

Posted by Jim Courtney on Jul 16, 2024; 10:29pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Berkshire-Valley-ore-wagon-tp19903p19916.html

Curiouser and curiouser . . .

The two planks running from the back of the wagon to the boxcar door opening look to have ice chips on them to me.

And what is between the two vertical white marks on the door, above and to the left of the "vent"? Is it a knob of some sort, to open and close the "vent"?

The South Park's two classes of Tiffany reefers didn't have ice hatches on the roof ends. Blocks of ice were placed in the cars along with the perishable goods to be shipped. The vents on the ends of the Tiffanys circulated air among the ice and perishables to keep them cool. Perhaps this a similar design. Or perhaps the car is carrying ice, either being loaded from the wagon or in the process of being unloaded to the wagon.

Sloan's Century + Ten . . . book says that the D&RG 4932 was one of the 30'  20-ton boxcars purchased from Ohio Falls Car Manufacturing Co. of Indiana in 1895 and 1896, a total of 400 cars in two orders, the first order was numbered in the 4400-4499 and the 4900 to 4999 block, replacing vacated car numbers. Sloan makes no mention of ventilated boxcars in this order.

I have a couple of Leadville Shops kits of this car to build for my 1909 interchange roster. This would be a nice detail!

Sounds like we need some D&RG freight car scholars to opine . . .


And BTW here is a wagon a bit overloaded with grain and another 30' D&RG boxcar:




D&RG 4259 was apparently one of the second order of Ohio Falls cars. At first I thought that there was another rectangular dark vent at the right end, over the stirrup, but then realized one of the coatless guys had hung a dark coat over the grab iron at the top of the rectangle. Another coat was just left on the ground!

In a world powered by non-iron horses, grain and hay were important commodities for shipping by rail.