Strasburg Railroad passenger cars 58, 65, and 92

Not to be a smart *** but have you contacted Strasburg about them?  I have found in the past that they are fairly good about providing information on their rolling stock when asked.

I left a voicemail with the Mechanical Department last week.  I hadn't heard anything back yet.  I figured it couldn't hurt to appeal to a broader audience in the meantime.

Jim

there is a chance you could match the truck sideframe by looking at the selections on the Q-Car company website. They produce a myriad of light and medium duty truck frames

Chris,

Funny you should say that about Q-Car.  I picked up a Train Shed Cyclopedia dealing with traction items on one of the tables at the Cleveland show this past weekend.  I found some trucks in there that had similarities to what I'm looking for.  Asked the vendor, who was a traction guy, if he had ever seen this truck, which he had not.  

I hadn't thought about checking the Q-Car site.  I did find a couple of examples there that resemble what I'm looking for, but they aren't quite right.  In particular, the Taylor and Curtis trucks seem similar, and both would seem to be of the right vintage.

It was also suggested to me that the Pennsy had this style of truck with the outside bearing/bolster (if that's even what it is).  I found a three axle truck with similarities, but again not quite right.  I'm still trying to sort through the listing on the Keystone Crossings but it's a bit overwhelming for somebody who isn't at all familiar with any of the Pennsy designations.

My local library theoretically (theoretically, because the last time I tried to see similar items in the catalog, the library could not find them and had no idea where they were - for non-circulating reference volumes - how do you not know where things are?) has early editions of the Car Builder's Cyclopedia, which I'm going to investigate.  Also, there appears to be an edition of the Train Shed Cyclopedia (#68) dealing with early passenger car trucks and appliances, so I'll see if I can rustle up a copy of that.  Although the TSC content is often pulled from the Car Builder's Cyclopedia, so that will be a last resort.

Thanks for the tip on Q-Car.

Jim

Hi Kelly, thanks for the reply.  No worries about the delay, I figured you have plenty of other stuff going on.  It's too bad about the information.  I was hoping that maybe somewhere the castings had a foundry mark, name, or designation cast into them.

They do seem to be common to ex-P&R cars, so one of my next stops was going to be the Reading historical society to see if they had any background.

Thanks again.  The search continues.

Jim