Large Scale Central

D&RGW Stock Car 5564D Restoration

Prototypes
#1

The Durango Railroad Historical Society has started the restoration of it’s recently acquired double deck stock car # 5564D. The car is currently in Arboles CO. at the timber mill that has made new (from old beams) timbers for several previous restoration projects.

5564D started as a 1904 Class 5 30ft. Stock car, Built by American Car and Foundry, at a cost of $685.99.

In 1926 all of the Class 5 Stock cars were rebuilt, and at that time the color was changed from “Box Car Red” to Black. 1945 was a major reshopping again, and many remained in service to the end of narrow gage operations into the 1960s

The “B” end, The brake rod and wheel are inside.

And the “A” end

Inside of the bottom Deck ( note the floor covering, and the brake wheel)

And inside of the top deck.

And the badly neglected roof. No we are not going to save it, and yes we are going to replace it all.

And the 25 ton Archbar trucks. Note that the brake shoes are in great condition.

And the letter board

Note that the lettering is placed in the wrong positions on the car (don’t use this one for prototype modeling)

I will be actively helping to rebuild this car, and I will keep posting the progress. Thou it looks in rough condition to the eye, other then the roof, and the top side beams, the car is in very sound condition and there won’t be that much to do to bring it back into rolling condition.

Stay tuned for running updates.

#2

Dave , keep the pics coming , and enjoy your restoration work too .

Mike

#3

Very cool. It will be fun to follow along.

"# 5564D started as a 1904 Class 5 30ft. Stock car, Built by American Car and Foundry, at a cost of $685.99."

That’s about what you might expect to pay for a custom built 1:20 scale model today!

#4

Wow, what a great project. almost like restoring an old wooden ship. Looking forward to watching the progress.

#5

Dave,

Very neat. looks like the car was set up for a load of Woolies that never arrived.

#6

The letter-board is in the wrong place, and don’t use it for prototype modeling? Huh? I am confused. It is a prototype.

#7

@David M. The letter board is in the right place. All the car data and load limits are not!

A picture is worth 1000 words. I have reason to believe that these drawings show the right stuff, But the car was rebuilt in 26’ and major shopped in 48’ again.

An overview:

And Right side of door area.

And Left side of door area.

As you can see the size, placement, and data is not correct for this car as built for the D&RGW. This drawing also shows one of numerous side board configurations after the 48’ shopping. Or a localized repair, that was never fixed to the blue prints specs.

Never assume any one existing example is “as originally built”.

#8

Dave,

I am not for certain on this, but I believe the CRRM has acquired The John Maxwell Collection and if memory serves there are D&RGW drawings there of the stock cars. ai have the drawings that were published in an article in Railroad Model Craftsman back in the '70s, but I am not at home at the minute. I will see what I can find when I get back home.

Bob C.

#9

Dave,

the D&RGW also had a number of lettering mistakes over the years. there is a photo of this car in taking stock, which shows the car in the same paint scheme dated 1980 in much better condition.

#10

@Bob We (the Durango Railroad Historical Society) have a complete copy set from the original Blue Prints for this car and a set of the 26’ rebuild drawings from the CRRM. The drawings I posted is from another source.

@Al we would love to see any and all pics of this car. Especially if it was being loaded with woolies in the 80s.

#11

Awesome! What a great looking old car. I’m assuming it was double-deck for carrying sheep, right?

#12

I think this car (5564D) was formerly at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Is there any info on the stock cars that were stored at Tacoma? Too far gone to restore? As I thought these were originally on the list of possible cars to acquire and restore.

#13

Yes, 5564D, was stored at the CRRM. It was privately owned, and the DRHS acquired it from the individual.

FYI: Any Stock car from the D&RGW that has a small D following the car number is a double decker. The 5000 series of stock cars seemed to have no rhyme or reason as to which ones were Double Decked. So all the Stock cars were numbered in the 5000 series and “D” added to identify those that were Double decked.

The stock cars owned by the D&S, and stored at the Tacoma siding, are all in VERY bad shape. The D&S was not willing to part with any of them at an agreeable price. For the DRHS this car will take a LOT less work and $, to bring back to life, then the very best D&S had to offer.

My Personal Opinion: I think that all the cars at Tacoma will rot away, and fall to the ground one at a time, before anything is ever done with them. They are freight cars on a passenger railroad.

#14

**Dave Taylor said:**My Personal Opinion: I think that all the cars at Tacoma will rot away, and fall to the ground one at a time, before anything is ever done with them. They are freight cars on a passenger railroad.

That’s a shame, but probably true. D&S is a highly commercial operation. Their focus is profit, not preservation. I’m glad your group exists to preserve and restore as many one-off examples of wooden stock as they can. At least a few cars will live on well into the future.

#15

Sell the old roof boards as a fund raiser. Guys might want to make cars out of the old boards.

#16

Jerry, Great Idea… I thought of grabbing a bunch, but not to use for building models from. E-bay maybe, to help fund the new roof. DRHS is seeking Grants from the state of Colorado to help offset the costs.

Hummmmm…… Sell a chunk of an original board at the cost of 2 new boards. You get a piece of real RR history, and we get a new roof. Of course, a “Certificate of Authenticity” would come with each board.

#17

More work on D&RGW 5564D

The Roof was removed quite easily. We had crow bars, and such, but most of it came off with little more then elbow grease. Most of the boards were in sad shape. A claw hammer was the most we had to use.

The center roof beam, and the 2 stretchers on each side were thru bolted to the steel (with wood inserts) rafters, and we had to bust them up to remove. Due to rot and nail holes, easily done with a common claw hammer.

With the roof gone, we could evaluate the condition of the side top beams. These run the entire length of the car, one piece of oak timber, 30 feet long. We knew that these had to be replaced.

Top beam section.

“A” End, top right corner.

Note that the bolt is the top nut to one of the diagonal stay bolts that run to the bottom of the car. Structurally very important.

The two central diagonal braces come together with one steel bracket to keep them in place. The top beam is in bad shape.

“B” end top left corner.

Note: Those are the grab irons that were on the top.

Center roof beam socket. on 'A" end.

Note the condition of the wood from the roof walk. I wouldn’t walk on it for a bet. But the hardware id there.

RR and car number stenciled on the “A” end inside top. Notice that it says D&RG without the W, and that there is no “D” added to the number.

Also on the top “A” end the painters re-paint date stencil.

We think that the “SW” is for Sherman Williams, Painted in ALAmosa, November of 1948.

Also on the sliding door inside on “B” end, Car number, again without the “D”.

And Finally, We shoveled the 50 year old sheep shit out. With the sand base, about 5 inches worth.

And we did find some layers of lime mixed in the clods.

For the time being that wraps up the initial work. San Juan Timberworks will cut us new Oak beams for the top, from hopefully old re-claimed beams.

In the mean time, we need to do an assessment of the trucks. It’s on the list of to-dos.

#18

Bringing back this thread: News artical by the Durango Hearold

We Got The Funding to restore the Cars ! !

Durango Railroad Historical Society obtains state grant
February 13, 2015

DURANGO, Colo. – The Durango Railroad Historical Society has received an $84,799 grant from Colorado’s State Historical Fund to preserve several cars that will be displayed in Silverton. The grant will help buy and restore narrow gauge cars that once served the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the society said. The project will require the society to raise matching funds of $28,266.

Among the cars the society will buy and preserve are:
D&RGW bunk car No. 04432, used by the Water Service Department, which maintained water tanks and other water facilities along Rio Grande lines
D&RGW No. 5627, a single-deck stock car
Rio Grange flanger OT, used to clear snow and ice
D&RGW No. 5564, a double-deck stock car for hauling sheep and hogs
The grant will enable the society to restore the double-deck stock car, bunk car, and the single-deck stock car to their 1930s appearance, and the flanger to its post-1943 appearance.

The cars will be displayed in Silverton, each with its own interpretive sign, and be featured as a part of the exhibit Trails to Rails, which will detail the development of transportation in the region, the Durango Herald reports.

The society has done several similar restorations. In 2007, it completed work to restore D&RGW 2-8-0 No. 315 to service, and has been operating it on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad since then. In a joint project with the San Juan County Historical Society, the society began to restore the 1912 Silverton Northern engine house in Silverton to store locomotive No. 315 and support its maintenance and the restoration of railcars by both societies.

The Durango group also reconstructed three blocks of Silverton Northern track for displaying restored cars. The State Historical Fund has supported all these projects.

The society is also restoring the full-size model locomotive Emma Sweeny, used in the 1950 movie “A Ticket to Tomahawk.” The movie, filmed in Durango and Silverton, is credited with helping to save the Silverton branch of the D&RGW by attracting more tourists to ride the train.

Donations can be sent to the Durango Railroad Historical Society, P.O. Box 654, Durango, CO 81302, or via PayPal on its website, www.drhs315.org.

Looks like I’ll have an interesting summer.

#19

Dave, . . . . sounds GREAT !