Western Railroad Discussion > What is this Spring Thing?

Hello Train Orders community,

  Today the volunteers of the PSVRR were performing an inspection of our bay window caboose trucks.  When we jacked up the car to roll out the trucks, I noticed these springs in the vertical orientation.  After asking around, none of us could determine what these springs were for.  They don't contact the trucks in any way, and there is nothing inside the car there above the springs.  Does anyone know?  The car was built in 1969 for the Cotton Belt.

Maybe it's a dampening system for the conductor's chair, maybe it's the ejection seat...

---

---

---

I speculate that it is designed to control compression and ultimately friction between a moving beam and a stationary component of the underframe as part of center beam cushioning device.
Hopefully someone with real knowledge will pipe in.
Tim Costello

I wonder if our Mojave caboose has the same gear. At 85 I do not plan to check it out!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

They bear against one of a pair of wedges, one is attached to the main frame and one to the sliding center sill.
When a coupling or slact action impact tries to move the siding center sill relative to the carbody, the wedges meet each other and press one of them downward, which the spring resists with gradually increasing force.
This both cushinons the impact relative to the carbody and absorbes energy as the wedges slide against each other.
This is a small version of the Hydra-Cushion underframe.

Oh, so it's a form of shock absorbion for employee comfort or maybe safety. I'll look closer next time I'm out to try to see the wedges.

Thank you railstiesballast, for the quick response 👍

Posted from Android