Railroad car frame straightening at West Toronto Yards 1921

Straightening Frame for Steel Freight Equipment.

The accompanying illustrations show a structural steel framework which is in use at the car department. West Toronto shops, C.P.R., and which is employed in straightening bent end and side sills, sprung sides and ends, bent corner posts, grab irons and ladders, bulged corners, etc., of steel freight cars. The frame is necessarily of substantial construction and well braced, and is erected on a solid concrete foundation.

The top bracing is provided by six transverse I beams, together with the auxiliary tic rods, as shown in fig. 1, and longitudinal channels at the top add to the rigidity. The section of the vertical members is as shown in fig. 2, which also shows the screw jacks and blocks, the blocks moving vertically in the vertical members of the frame, on loosening the nuts, as seen above and below the screw jacks. In addition, there are large rings, secured to iron holding bars sunk into the concrete foundation, for use in straightening vertical bends.

The procedure is to chain the work to the rings in the foundation, and straighten the bent part by the use of jacks set on the concrete. The frame, used in conjunction with a heating torch operating on fuel oil, and which is used to heat the work in various cases, so as to facilitate the bending, does a very satisfactory job on steel cars, and saves a great deal of labor in the way of cutting rivets and riveting up, removing and reassembling parts, etc., and amply demonstrates its economy and usefulness in car repairs.

We are indebted for this information to J. Bannon, General Car Foreman, West Toronto shops, C.P.R.

 

 

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