OK, folks -- here we go on stillwells again. The pressed steel shapes that form the stillwell truss look like a capital "T" imposed on a peace sign. They are joined at the top of the window arch and at the bottom with a diagonal running from below the window to the floor. The floor itself is the horizontal member. The first order of stillwells (1915) included one combine with the seven coaches; the next order (1916) was for three combines and 18 coaches. In 1951-52, the railroad created two more from short coaches 2135 and 2142 (PSC 1924) and five from long coaches 2073, 2080, 2082, 2091 and 2092 (SSC 1929). In all, there were eleven combines -- six short and five long. All rode on stillwell trucks. Since the first four were original and the other seven lasted pretty well, the door must not have presented a problem. I do not know which car the F&C kit represents. Randy Brown - -------------------------------------------------------------- The basic structure of a Stillwell is what amounts to a Virendeel truss, that is, a truss without diagonal members. That's what is covered by the patent. Or was. It's a truss structure which depends on rigid joints between stiff members. So, having a door just meant taking into account the size of the opening and making sure that the joints and adjacent stiff members were sufficiently strong. SGL ------------------------------
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