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  • General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment
General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment

Moderator: John_Perkowski

 #707949  by Plate F
 
I saw another thread talking about plug type doors and what hazards they may pose, but I myself am still a bit confused over which style of door is the plug type. What are the other kind of doors?

Google was no help as it simply brought up thousands of links for model railroad catalogs.
 #707974  by Gadfly
 
I'm not sure I can accurately describe it. They are usually used for high-volume Boxcars where a larger opening is needed for access. They are double doors that fit
"flush" and are secured by turning a wheel or a multi=spoked handle which pulls the doors snugly into the door opening. Sometimes you can spot these doors by looking at/for the handle which is often painted yellow. They are also supposed to work better than the standard sliding doors that tend to get bent, warped and difficult to close. We used to have to close boxcars almost every afternoon to go out on the afternoon switchlist. We always got the beat-up, non-revenue boxcars with boogered-up doors. These we usually had to close with a tow tractor (mule) and a special chain, and even then, we'd often have trouble getting them to shut. Once in awhile we'd get a plug-door box, and these we often could shut by hand or just nudge them shut with a fork lift.

When you're out 'fanning, about the best was to SEE plug doors is to look for the HUGE boxcars. They are the ones that most often have the plug doors. There will be a wheel or handle in the center, and the opening will be bigger and different in that the doos fit flush into the car body.


Hope that helps1 :-)


Gadfly
 #708040  by Plate F
 
Thanks, that was what I had been considering the plug type but was a bit confused.

I am correct in thinking that there are single door plug-types??
 #708274  by NV290
 
Actually, that information is totally incorrect.
Gadfly wrote:I'm not sure I can accurately describe it. They are usually used for high-volume Boxcars where a larger opening is needed for access.
A plug door can be on any size boxcar, not just high cube cars. And they are not used specifically "where a larger opening is needed for access". Plug doors are used where a tight seal is needed. Hence the name, plug door. Many plug doors are not any larger then a standard boxcar sliding door. While many high volume boxcars have plug doors, it is not a requirement or a nessecity that a high cube box car have plug doors. We used to get monster 89' high cube auto parts box cars that had double standard sliding doors. And NS and BNSF for example have high cube box cars with huge sliding doors. No plug doors.

A plug door is used to keep dust, dirt, wind, rain and weather OUT and the product safe and clean inside. They also allow a higher level of security due to the design of the door. A place you will almost always find plug doors for this reason is on reefers. The Tropican Juice Train is a perfect example of plug door cars. Also high value paper cars, electronics, food products, etc. A normal sliding type boxcar door is not always going to be water tight and definately not airtight. Because of that, you can only ship items that will not be harmed by dirt and moisture or whatever your shipping must be packaged in such a way that it is protected from the elements.

Plug door cars being more complex with their special door sliding and closing/opening arrangement cost more to make and cost alot more to maintain so you don't see as many. Sliding door cars are simpler to build and maintain and the doors are allowed to be open or closed during shipping without any issues. And the vast majorty of "sensitive" items are often shipped in trailers nowadays anyhows, so plug door cars are still nowhere near as commonplace as the traditional boxcars.

Gadfly wrote:They are double doors
And a plug door can be a single door or a double set of doors. The vast majority are single doors. Double door plug doors are not as common as single doors.
Gadfly wrote:that fit "flush"
They don't fit flush with the side of the car. They simply fit tightly against the side of the car, but definatley not flush.
Gadfly wrote:and are secured by turning a wheel or a multi=spoked handle
On some, yes, but most use a simple "t-handle"
Gadfly wrote:which pulls the doors snugly into the door opening.
Correct. A gear mechanism forces the door against the car.
Gadfly wrote:Sometimes you can spot these doors by looking at/for the handle which is often painted yellow.

There is no AAR or FRA requirement to paint the handle any special color. In most cases, they are simply whatever color the door is. Black on FBOX cars, White on Reefers, etc.
 #708344  by Sir Ray
 
So are 'Combo' doors sets one of those layouts more common in models than they were in the prototype. These were double door boxcars, one plug door and one sliding door - I believe the idea was the sliding door would be the normal access method, but if the consignee required an extra wide door opening the plug door would also be opened. I suppose the plug door was used to cut down on dust/rain/ leakage etc., as opposed to using 2 sliding doors, but for a long time I thought the plug door served as part of the 'structural integrity' of the boxcar when it was in motion - sure looked it, at least judging from the Athearn models.

I also remember various laments in 1970s Railway age articles on boxcar doors -about workers beating them with sledges and crowbars, or pushing them with forklift tines, to get them opened/closed - often hard enough that the door would fall off when the boxcar was being pulled from the siding. This is when they were pushing those rachet systems to open boxcar doors, where the worker would use a wheel and rachet system attached to the boxcar door to leverage the door open - now those definitely were rare in the prototype - were the Amtrak MHC ('Express Cars') the last to have such a system?
 #708645  by Gadfly
 
I'm afraid we were guilty of pushing them wih fork lifts, hitting them with sledges or spike mauls--anything to get them unstuck. We always got the bad cars that were all but ready to go the scrap line. They usually had the stubborn doors that somebody had already beat to death. Sometimes they were being used as Gang or Tool cars or to ship motor cars in for rebuild. This is O/T, but one time we got a car in with a Fairmont motor car, and it was full of spilled sugar in one end. It was FULL of bees and yellow jackets! When we opened the car, we had to RUN because it released a whole swarm of stinging bees, and for 3 weeks, we couldn't get near it to unload it. We shoved it out of the yard and down onto the back of the Scale House track! :(

Gadfly