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| Re: Stainless steel subway car fabrication (811226) | |||
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Re: Stainless steel subway car fabrication |
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Posted by Bill West on Tue Jul 21 02:42:54 2009, in response to Stainless steel subway car fabrication, posted by diver on Fri Jul 17 14:19:32 2009. Stainless can be arc welded and I believe it can be joined to mild steel that way. I recollect that the vestibules of Budd long distance cars have plug welded connections (fill up some punched holes) between stubs up from their mild steel bolster/draft pocket/end sill frames and the collision post uprights. Budd’s uniqueness was more exactly in being able to exploit the low cost of spot welding to build rail cars just as had been successful in automobile bodies. Competitors Pullman, ACF and St Louis all put out stainless cars but without access to Budd’s patents they had to use LAHT shells and then just put decorative stainless sheathing over it. This covering of the shell keeps in the moisture and leads to the well known rust nightmare. I haven’t looked at one of these for a while but I think the sheathing was just attached over sheet metal LAHT sidewalls by sheet metal screws or small rivets the size of modern pop rivets. So I don’t find it surprising that the St Louis Brightliners are falling apart in the salt water. Electrolysis between the different metal compositions may even be speeding up separation of the skin from the frames.Bill |
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