Re: Case of the Missing Truss Rods - Revisited

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Case-of-the-Missing-Truss-Rods-Revisited-tp6387p6454.html

Yeah, these two beauties just beg to be modeled.

Too bad they didn't look like this in 1909.  

But then again, maybe a small "time machine layout" could be constructed, since the physical plant of the early C&S didn't change that much. Build and operate some 1901 equipment with "pancake" stacked locomotives and flat roofed waycars; some 1909 equipment with shotgun stacked locomotives and "new" cabooses; perhaps even a 1920 set of equipment, with those new-fangled Ridgeway arrestors and "intermediate" tenders, and a bunch of SUF cars, all in block lettering.

I've still trying to come to terms with the big Tiffany reefers not having truss rods--that is a "truth" I've known since I built my HOn3 "LaBelle" Tiffany back in 1968. Hard to let go of it. But pictures don't lie, especially high-resolution images like Todd has shared with us.

I've gone through every photo of the Tiffanys in my collection, no truss rods are ever visible on the sides. But I've found no clear photos of the end of one of the big Tiffanys, to look for tell-tell truss rod nuts and washers. I don't know of any!

Anyone have a good clear shot of the end of a big Tiffany reefer?  One without a flat car or locomotive tender obscuring the lower part of the side?