For those who care - Jones cars

[Edward H. Lybarger]

In Car numbering, the "M" stood for "Miscellaneous."  I believe in the world
of trucks, it stood for "motor."

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Bob Schmidt
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 9:17 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: Re: For those who care - Jones cars



Interesting tidbits for those of us endeared to the older equipment.
Thanks for sharing.

One can note subtle differences relative to the archbar design
throughout the various series of cars. One can pick up on this when
viewing photos of the cars  Not being an authority on the archbar
designs used by the PRC, I can only assume the "M" series archbar
identification numbering system has to do with wheelbase dimension,
(axle-to-axle within the same truck frame)...and/or the diameter of the
wheels themselves.

M541...(a Clark dump-to-rail-flat conversion), had a set of large
archbar frames with huge wheels....a classic example of one of the
largest of the archbar frames and wheels.
The F-series Freight Motors no doubt shared  a very similar frame and
wheel size. M210, 283, and other Diffco issues were relatively smaller
by comparison.

It would be interesting, as an additional technical tidbit, knowing the
specifications for the frames 'n wheels assigned the various "M"
numbered archbars.
Always a joy having another small piece of the overall, complex, PRC
picture.

Bob.