Model Railroading > ARTICLE NEEDED

In the Aug. '78 Railroad Model Craftsman there was an article on Duryea Cushion Underframes. Does anybody have that issue & and be willing to copy the article? Hopefully I can find the issue at a show one day but till then it will have to do.

THANKS
DOUG

ALCO630 Wrote:
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> In the Aug. '78 Railroad Model Craftsman there was
> an article on Duryea Cushion Underframes. Does
> anybody have that issue & and be willing to
> copy the article?

Yes and yes, but the Duryea Cushion Underframe is only mentioned as part of an article about Lehigh & Hudson River wood cabooses.

Lets talk about it and see if that's what you're looking for. jdalebauer(at)aol(dot)com

jb

Does the article have any good drawings or picturesof how it's costructed? I want to accurately model one on a P2K caboose.

RMC, Aug 1978

The dominant feature of these cabooses (and the one that endeared them to crews everywhere) was the Duryea cushion underframe. This design was available under license from the O. C. Duryea Corporation of New York, having been first introduced in the late 1920's. It came in a variety of designs and was used extensively under all types of cars, especially among the Eastern coal roads (B&O, CNJ, RDG and WM). This particular version actually employed two cushioning functions working simultaneously. The cushion gear, shown in the drawings, employed two large draft springs, caged by follower blocks and draft strops and connected to the center filler casting by long link bar. Movement of the floating sill to the left caused the following serial events: the sill would move left, causing the draft stops to engage the right-hand follower block, thence the springs and the left-hand follower block, which struck the center filler casting.

The center fillers were, of course, firmly anchored to the stationary sill, also known as the torque arm. In this position, the springs could be compressed to their full travel - - approximately ten inches. A movement to the right reversed the sequence; however, in this case the gear link came into play and transmitted the force back to the center filler. The cushion gear also performed the function of re-centering the floating sill after each movement.

The friction gear, also shown, was composed of the gear itself and the wedge. The wedge was a hardened steel casting anchored to the floating sill of T-section shape with important exception that the leg of the "T" was wedge-shaped on the top and bottom faces. The gear itself comprised a two-piece cast steel housing which held hardened wear shoes against the faces of the wedge under the pressure of two vertical springs tied together with large bolts. A movement of the floating sill and its attached wedge in either direction would cause a spreading of the housing halves against the spring pressure. The housing was held stationary by another gear link to the right-hand center filler and the resultant friction served to dissipate the energy of impact.

Stops welded to the top of the floating sill limited full travel to the capacity of the gears. The couplers themselves butted against a small follower plate and draft spring assembly and operated only in buff (compression).

The Duryea gear was a valuable contributin (*typo in the article*) to lading protection and crew comfort, but in recent years heavier trains and the higher resultant train action forces proved to be too much. They became susceptible to sill cracks around the coupler crosskey slots and to buckling under buff, especially during an emergency brake application. On July 1, 1972, the A.A.R. prohibited them in interchange, and the new F.R.A. Car Safety Rules prohibit and operation of them, with the important exception of caboose cars not used with pushers.
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There are drawings, but few of the parts mentioned above are identified. If you know what you are looking at they may be of help. It looks like some parts like the friction gear and wedges are an enclosed assembly. There are four underbody photos that "to me" would be of more assistance in doing a modeling project.

I just started cleaning out a storage area and have this stack of old magazines that were on their way to the trash bin. It's yours for the postage. I stopped subscribing to RMC 15 years ago and have never had a need to go looking at these old issues, so it's bye, bye.

jb

Yes, thanks. I would be very interested. Contact me off list at RDGC630@WEBTV.NET