Re: (erielack) 6-foot-gauge rolling stock - passenger

["Schuyler G Larrabee" <sgl2_@_ix.netcom.com>]

Pete Gifford wrote:

> I also wonder how wide the rolling stock was.  Many of the things we
would like
> to look at 140 years later were not captured in photographs!

No, but sometimes in drawings . . .


I got John H White's _The American Railroad Passenger Car_ book out tonight,
and wrestled it to the ground (I have the hardback version, weighs at least
10 pounds!) and looked up what I could find on the dimensions of Erie 6'
gauge passenger equipment.  Some interesting stuff there.  And no less than
40+ citations in the index for "Erie Railway.

There's an illustration of the "Diamond" framed cars built ~ 1840.

White says that the Erie "despite its great track gauge of 6 feet" has been
content with short cars held to 36' in length.  Some were as much as 11 feet
wide, however, and in 1855 and 1856, there were some cars built that were
65' in length, and 10'-9" wide, built to the design of Calvin A Smith,
master car builder at the company repair shops at Piermont.  There are
drawings of these cars in the book.  >>>>Very interestingly<<<<, these cars
included a simple form of air conditioning, and air cleaning, in that the
incoming ventilation air was passed through a water spray, contained in
"pedestals" in the sides of the car, which were fitted with plate glass so
that the passengers could actually see the water spray . . . !!!  I wonder
how many sparks got quenched in that spray . . .

In 1874, the Erie built some coaches ~55' long and 10'-4" wide.  A comment
is made that the width is in accordance with clearance limits on standard
gauge lines that could handle wide cars, so interchange was a consideration,
and, I speculate, they may have been looking forward to the Erie's
conversion to standard gauge.  There is a drawing of this car.

The La Mothe car, the first all metal car, ran on the Erie, during 1859,
broad gauge days.  It was 51'-6" o.a., by 8'-4" wide.  It later was run as
an example on the B&M and other standard gauge lines, so the width wasn't
taking advantage of the ERIE's loading gauge.

In 1842 (we're talkin' EARLY here) the Erie ran two >>sleeping<< cars.
There are partial section drawings of these in the book, but they aren't
complete at all.  These cars were 11' wide.  These cars were a little
primitive as sleepers, no enclosure of the berths, nor bedding nor pillows
offered.  In fact, in 1842 the ERIE has so little track that even at the
slow speeds in those days, there was no need for sleeping cars at all, and
apparently they were never used as such until the late 1850's when they were
downgraded to track worker's bunk cars.

Not a 6' gauge car, but interesting:  One of the Santa Fe cars sold to the
EL for commuter service was SF 3070, the first full-sized stainless steel
car built in the United States, built by Budd in 1936.  Its framing was
experimental, and very light.  The SF considered the car a marginal success,
borderline failure, due to being underengineered for strength, but kept it
in service and sold it to the EL.  I wonder if the EL, or any of the
railfans around there, knew what that car represented.

SGL

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End of EL List Daily V3 #548
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