Good day all,
After seeing the comments on my stock car, rather than correcting the errors, and before I build a cattle car, I decided to order the cattle car that had been mentioned there in.
Before we get started on the revue of the LGB cattle car, I must explain to you all what the words mean; in the United States, the year of our lord 1906 a law was enacted to protect the meats that were entering our markets, this law required the haulers of said live stock to provide cars that were specifically designed for the cargo that was intended to be hauled.
This basically means that prior to 1906 the car was actually called a stock car, and after 1906 the car would have been named by whatever cargo the car was hauling, ie cattle car etc.
The biggest hardship was not in the cost of so many different rail cars, but in the fact that these cars spent half of their time being pulled empty.
Prior to 1906 the cars doubled for hauling everything from dry goods to railroad ties, so the overall likeness to a box car was far more important to profits than the comfort of the live stock.
So in the picture of the 1860’s stock car and the 1920’s cattle car you can see the true differences.
I have not been able to procure the plans for the D&RGW cattle car, however it is not possible to measure this particular car with the intentions of rebuilding it.
In my opinion this car would have been built after 1920.
I did find it very cool that D&RGW used wood for their cattle cars for such a long time, it seems it would not have mattered, being that the cattle car could not have been over loaded, I guess the biggest issue would have been shear pulling weight.
But it shows that as where coal was a ready commodity, iron ore must have been scarce.
I’m sure for dragging around the back yard and leaving out in the rain for the $20 I spent, I probably wouldn’t care much, as you can see by the pictures the previous owners left it outside. No rust at all, just a bit of fading.
I was excited to see the couplers and the trucks, it turns out that the trucks are plastic, as are the wheels. The couplers are kadee, they are offset.
The brake system is very cool, it is molded in, although the cylinder looks like it can be removed.
The wood that is being used is basically 2 inches by whatever, and there is no framing of any kind under the car.
I did notice on the real D&RGW’s car that the car sits very low on the trucks. I assume this is because of curve radius, however it allows for no brake chain, and no possibility of adding one.
I also noticed on this car and the actual car that the trucks have been spread as far as possible. I’m sure this really helps with stability at speed. Most likely pointing out that both this car and the one in the picture could be a much later version.
The fact that the entire car is built with 2 inch by 4 inch boards makes it nothing like the original car. This is pretty much seen throughout the car.
The doors are functional, I do really like the door stops, they are the same as the original. The door tracks are nothing like the original car, and the door handle places the operator in between the car and the loading ramp.
All of the grab irons are just molded in, I’m sure replacing them would take very little effort, as well as extending the brake wheel.
The car seems to roll just fine, nothing like the Bachman’s metal trucks and wheels, however just fine.
So as far as a backyard runner, it looks like it’s going to work just great, but as a static display it’s going to take quite a bit of work to earn it’s own shelf.
I was very surprised by the weight, I suspected that it was going to be heavy, as I read that hand built cars tend to need weights added to them, it turns out that the hand built car is 3 times heavier, even with the metal trucks and wheels removed the hand made car is heavier.
It is a beautiful car made in Germany and if I had an actual lay out I would enjoy running the wheels off of it.
Dan
After seeing the comments on my stock car, rather than correcting the errors, and before I build a cattle car, I decided to order the cattle car that had been mentioned there in.
Before we get started on the revue of the LGB cattle car, I must explain to you all what the words mean; in the United States, the year of our lord 1906 a law was enacted to protect the meats that were entering our markets, this law required the haulers of said live stock to provide cars that were specifically designed for the cargo that was intended to be hauled.
This basically means that prior to 1906 the car was actually called a stock car, and after 1906 the car would have been named by whatever cargo the car was hauling, ie cattle car etc.
The biggest hardship was not in the cost of so many different rail cars, but in the fact that these cars spent half of their time being pulled empty.
Prior to 1906 the cars doubled for hauling everything from dry goods to railroad ties, so the overall likeness to a box car was far more important to profits than the comfort of the live stock.
So in the picture of the 1860’s stock car and the 1920’s cattle car you can see the true differences.
I have not been able to procure the plans for the D&RGW cattle car, however it is not possible to measure this particular car with the intentions of rebuilding it.
In my opinion this car would have been built after 1920.
I did find it very cool that D&RGW used wood for their cattle cars for such a long time, it seems it would not have mattered, being that the cattle car could not have been over loaded, I guess the biggest issue would have been shear pulling weight.
But it shows that as where coal was a ready commodity, iron ore must have been scarce.
I’m sure for dragging around the back yard and leaving out in the rain for the $20 I spent, I probably wouldn’t care much, as you can see by the pictures the previous owners left it outside. No rust at all, just a bit of fading.
I was excited to see the couplers and the trucks, it turns out that the trucks are plastic, as are the wheels. The couplers are kadee, they are offset.
The brake system is very cool, it is molded in, although the cylinder looks like it can be removed.
The wood that is being used is basically 2 inches by whatever, and there is no framing of any kind under the car.
I did notice on the real D&RGW’s car that the car sits very low on the trucks. I assume this is because of curve radius, however it allows for no brake chain, and no possibility of adding one.
I also noticed on this car and the actual car that the trucks have been spread as far as possible. I’m sure this really helps with stability at speed. Most likely pointing out that both this car and the one in the picture could be a much later version.
The fact that the entire car is built with 2 inch by 4 inch boards makes it nothing like the original car. This is pretty much seen throughout the car.
The doors are functional, I do really like the door stops, they are the same as the original. The door tracks are nothing like the original car, and the door handle places the operator in between the car and the loading ramp.
All of the grab irons are just molded in, I’m sure replacing them would take very little effort, as well as extending the brake wheel.
The car seems to roll just fine, nothing like the Bachman’s metal trucks and wheels, however just fine.
So as far as a backyard runner, it looks like it’s going to work just great, but as a static display it’s going to take quite a bit of work to earn it’s own shelf.
I was very surprised by the weight, I suspected that it was going to be heavy, as I read that hand built cars tend to need weights added to them, it turns out that the hand built car is 3 times heavier, even with the metal trucks and wheels removed the hand made car is heavier.
It is a beautiful car made in Germany and if I had an actual lay out I would enjoy running the wheels off of it.
Dan
