[Accrs] Journal Boxes ca. 1895

[Alameda County Central Railroad Society]

In the Master Car Builders publications (Car Dictionary, Car Cyclopedia) everything you need to know to build a railway car that can interchange with others and be safe is all documented.  All you need is your own foundry for steel making, melting, casting, heating, bending, shaping, cutting, drilling and grinding.

Provided are all the axles sizes, and matching journal boxes drawings.  Attempting to understand them is not as easy as I though it would be.  Having direct knowledge and perhaps having one available to handle would be very helpful.

I’ve searched for photos of just journal boxes and haven’t come across any that show the bottom, rear, or dust cover views.  So if you ever some across one of these in some museum shop it would be great to capture the images.

In this case, I have a 4.25x8 inch journal box for a late 1890’s CRI&P furniture car and only the 2D drawings of cross section views.

X-Y-X Planes.
[cid:image003.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]
[cid:image005.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]
[cid:image009.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]
[cid:image011.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]

In this view you can see what they cast into the shape a guideway on the top  for the arch bars to rest in to help maintain good X-Y position.  [cid:image014.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]

Here’s a rare view of the rear wall and axle opening.  There is a slot designed for a 2 piece dust-cover that can be made out of wood or other non metal material too help provide a seal around the axle to prevent dirt from getting in.
[cid:image018.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]

If they did a bar guide on the top,  why not have one on the bottom – maybe I missed it or maybe not.  Photos of a real one would be helpful.
Later versions of journal boxes had a round bottom.
[cid:image020.png at 01D4A27E.D805BA20]

I’ve gone back to look at scale model trucks of arch bar type design.  A lot of the small details get abstracted into the design because of injection molding requirements (no under cuts,  getting the part ejected from the die).  But, with 3D printing, these limitation go away do future model makers will be able to design closer to the original design.

I think it’s fairly close, but still needs some more research and then several of the sketches need to be tweaked and reordered in the part build process.

Just imagine the work needed to make the sand casting for this.   This model comes out to 93 pounds (alloy steel) so just picking one up with your hand might not be that easy.

Cheers!



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 034B5EB581794550859C13A43FA6330F.png
Type: image/png
Size: 193944 bytes
Desc: 034B5EB581794550859C13A43FA6330F.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0007.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 5770FF324EDA42AC9D9D36B73CB383DD.png
Type: image/png
Size: 197506 bytes
Desc: 5770FF324EDA42AC9D9D36B73CB383DD.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0008.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 8B1DB181E7BC4FEFA7D87CA05D3A5737.png
Type: image/png
Size: 173130 bytes
Desc: 8B1DB181E7BC4FEFA7D87CA05D3A5737.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0009.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 056A03E5A8B24251A7CCAD687F76B0A5.png
Type: image/png
Size: 193886 bytes
Desc: 056A03E5A8B24251A7CCAD687F76B0A5.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0010.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 02D4F10874CB48EA87A470DEFC2997ED.png
Type: image/png
Size: 248117 bytes
Desc: 02D4F10874CB48EA87A470DEFC2997ED.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0011.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: EA6234A402884081859F0CFA1BF5A69E.png
Type: image/png
Size: 258780 bytes
Desc: EA6234A402884081859F0CFA1BF5A69E.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0012.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 049221B40B434B8B84489B47A07A5DDC.png
Type: image/png
Size: 162838 bytes
Desc: 049221B40B434B8B84489B47A07A5DDC.png
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs/attachments/20190102/406ef834/attachment-0013.png>