PORTRAIT OF RESTORED DROP BOTTOM GONDOLA 871

Before and After – via a few examples
Old photos by George Niederauer; new photos by Stefan Niederauer
As Found — The A end as found: a hole through the bottom plank, all planks badly deteriorated, and only traces of the original paint remaining.
As Restored — The A end rebuilt with new wood, original hardware reinstalled, and painted as it appeared in the late 1920s.
As Found — The interior as found, with the wood badly deteriorated throughout.
As Restored — The interior rebuilt with all new wood and bolts, brackets repaired, and the wood sealed for protection.
As Found — The later lettering scheme, with “D&RGW” spread above two sets of doors.
As Restored — The late-1920s scheme restored, with “D&RGW” placed above a single door, between just two straps.
As Found — The later scheme, using abbreviated dimensions and the “flying” Rio Grande herald at upper right.
As Restored — The late-1920s scheme, with dimensions spelled out in full and no “flying” Rio Grande.
As Found — Bolts had worked loose and the brake cylinder hung down beneath the car.
As Restored — New wood and bolts hold the brake cylinder solidly in place.
As Found — Workers often patched as needed and got the gondola back on the rails as fast as possible.
As Restored — Welding patch ground down and painted.

Summer/Fall 2009 – Major Disassembly

May 2009 – Work Begins

Dennis D’Alessandro cuts through one bolt, and Ashley Malcolm punches another one out. Photo by Eric Mencis
Eric Mencis chisels a bolt.
Jim Granflaten torches off one. Photo by Eric Mencis

June 2009

Trying to remove an old bolt with a wrench didn’t work many times. The long thick wood members are floor timbers for nailing down the center floor boards. The rotted imbers had to be dug out. Photo by Tim Bristow

July 2009- All Apart

Photo by Tim Bristow
Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro

Many bolts were rusted away to a fraction of their original shank diameter, and many mounting plates were badly corroded to thin, structurally unsound pieces. The four rods shown in the photo are ends to the truss rods, also thinned by corrosion. Most bolts and many mounting plates would be replaced.

One end of the gondola with the body completely removed. The metal arch above the center sills is part of the body bolster (supporting cross member) attached to the frame. It has a center pin that fits into the truck bolster. The brake hand wheel and rod leaning against the end sill attaches to the endwall. Photo by Tim Bristow

Restoring Drop Bottom Gondola 871: 2009–12

Photos by George Niederauer unless otherwise noted.

2009 and 2010 Restoration Work

  • October 6, 2009. The frame is at its barest, cleanest, and brightest – only two longitudinal center channel sills and their end sills. Still attached are the couplers and draft gear. Before painting with primer they were sandblasted and inspected for defects. Couplers are not painted, per FRA regulation – better to see fractures.
  • November 3, 2009. Ted Parks and Chris Killgore paint a sill with a water sealer such as used on house decks.
  • November 3, 2009. Tom Bristow (far left), Chris Killgore, Ted Parks, and Hank Pantzar, all of Pagosas Springs. Dennis D’Alessandro was out of the camera range. They are testing the fit of a sill into a channel. The wood center sills are 31.5 feet long, 8 inches high and 4 inches wide – each is one solid piece of fir.
  • November 3, 2009. Hank Pantzar chisels a notch to fit the beam around a metal part of the channel freame. The holes were drilled to fit over rivet heads.
  • October 1, 2010. Tom Artzberger operates a drill while Chris Killgore steadies the cross member. They are drilling mounting holes in lateral beam mounting plates, which will be riveted to the cross beam. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • October 1, 2010. Test mounting an oak wood insert and metal brake rigging parts to the back side of an end sill, The wood would be sealed and the hardware would be primed with red oxide before permanent mounting. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • October 15, 2010. The restored air reservoir and brake cylinder are mounted under the center sills. A new steel mounting plate and wood spacer provide a solid mount to support action by the brake cylinder. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • October 15, 2010. Tim Bristow bolts a cross member to the sills. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • October 15, 2010. The full metal skeleton of the frame is back together, fully restored – structurally sound to take a full load again.
  • October 29, 2010. After the skeleton frame was finished, the crew moved on to disassemble the trucks. Here theB end truck has been disassembled, and top bar of a frame on the A end truck has been removed. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • October 29, 2010. Parts from disassembled truck B are scattered around. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • Where the sides step down, fractures have formed on the bottom of a spring seat. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • Mark Smeltzer is painting a spring seat (upside down). Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • November 1, 2010. Some nuts take a large “cheater pipe” to provide enough leverage, as Keith D’Alessandro (Dennis’ son) discovered, as he removed the last bolster retaining bolt. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro
  • November 1, 2010. The wheel sets after the trucks were disassembled. Photo by Dennis D’Alessandro

2011 – Major Restoration Continues

  • April 30, 2011. All center sills have been coated with preservative and mounted on the metal frame.
  • April 30, 2011.It is too expensive to get a field riveting machine to our work site or to take the frame to a shop for riveting. Our volunteers came up with a creative solution. They made special bolts with round heads that look like rivets, then welded the bottom nuts after tightening them. Lastly, they ground down the built up weld to make the welded nuts and bolts look like rivet heads, too.
  • More welded nuts that look like rivets.
  • June 4, 2011. Nearly all floor timbers are in place, bolted to the center sills. The inverted-V shaped structure in the foreground is the body bolster. Pictured are Jay Scherer and Dennis D’Alessandro.
  • July 23, 2011. Closeup of body bolster. A truss rod will fit over the saddle on top.
  • July 23, 2011. All floor timbers in place, strap hinges for drop doors temporarily pinned in place for priming,door boards being sealed.
  • July 23, 2011. Close up of two door strap hinges and their mounting blocks.
  • July 23, 2011. Both trucks nearly completely assembled.
  • September 8, 2011. The middle eight doors are mounted. The four end doors require special attention to an additional bracket for the winding shaft mechanism.
  • Closeup of door
  • October 8, 2011: Both fully restored trucks are in place, centered on king pins projecting down from the body bolsters through the center plates on the truck bolsters. Brake gear is shown in front of the truck.
  • November 25, 2011. The gondola trucks and frame are moved from our tent to a spot inside a heated airplane hanger with a smooth floor.
  • Nov 25, 2011 Gon being unloaded into airplane hanger.
  • Nov 25, 2011 The gondola sits on a wood 2×4 track on top of two layers of the old side planks from the gondola to spread the load and protect the solar heating in the floor. Our thanks go to Doug Lashley for the use of such a luxuriant work space.

2012 – Finishing Touches Restoration

  • March 17, 2012. Ron Nott and Jonathan Smith, our oldest and youngest volunteers, put leverage on a stubborn bolt to free up the brake shaft chain sheave.
  • March 31, 2012. View from B (brake) end. All four corner posts are bolted to side sills and bottom end boards with the associated corner hardware: sill steps and winding shaft lever mechanism. All four winding shafts and their large levers are in place. The doors were removed and stacked at the end to allow working space within the frame.
  • April 3, 2012. Rusty Barnes heats a thick truss rod to bend it lower to clear a door hinge. Just one of many – so many – such tasks.
  • April 12, 2012. The corner of the A end is finished except for torching off the bolt ends to lock the nuts. Note the bare strap with the hand holds bolted through it. The vertical 2×4 holds the frame level. Photo by Duane Danielson
  • April 12, 2012. Ron Nott uses a portable crane to lift one of the heavy side boards, while Tom Artzberger and Dennis (out of picture at right) are ready to guide it into position. Photo by Duane Danielson
  • April 25, 2012. The center floor is half spiked down, while Dennis D’Alessandro works on an extension to an end intermediate post. The heads of the floor timber bolts were countersunk and sealed against water with caulking, also making it easy to lay the floor. Historically, many floor planks had to be chiseled to fit over bolt heads.
  • April 28, 2012. The center floor is complete, nailed down with 40d (5-inch) spikes.
  • April 28, 2012. Winding shaft lever and pawl. Note that the bolt ends have been torched off, which also locks the nuts in place. Also note that the nuts are aligned square with body, as was done originally as a sign of good craftsmanship.
  • April 30, 2012. Ground level view of the A truck, showing a brake beam with a pair of brake heads, shoes, and hangers. From the end sill the truss rods run over their saddles on the body bolster and bend down at angle through the cross timber whose ends are door stops.
  • April 30, 2012. The truss rods bend under the queen posts on the cross timber.
  • April 30, 2012. The A end truss rod connects with the B end truss rod at the center of the gondola. This side view shows the air brake assembly, with the triple valve attached to the left of the air reservoir and the brake cylinder to its right. The small air pipe above the reservoir will connect from the triple valve to the retainer valve at the Bend of the car, near the brake wheel. Above the end of the small air pipe is one-half of a strap hinge for a drop bottom door.
  • May 2, 2012. Brake wheel on brake shaft with a bearing attached to the top plank. The shaft sits in the stirrup hanging from the end sill. To the left of the stirrup is the brake shaft chain sheave. A chain will run from the shaft through the sheave to a brake rod. The ends of the bolts have yet to be torched off.
  • May 27, 2012. Greg Simpson sprays a light coat of white on stencils he made.
  • May 27, 2012. Greg Simpson hand paints letters.
  • June 2, 2012. All doors are installed, and their chains are adjusted for good closure. Photo by Duane Danielson

2012 – Getting it on Display

  • June 8, 2012. Moving day. George monitors the door clearance and track one side, while the driver for Knecht’s Towing winches it upon Randy Babcock’s light track laid on Knecht’s roll back trailer. Photo by Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. Ron Nott monitors the other side of the track as the rear truck approaches the junction of the wood 2 x 4 rails with the metal rails. Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. The gondola is chained down on the trailer, ready for the trip from the Durango airport to Silverton. The end sign, 8″ CARRIER IRON RIVETED, was placed on cars after their wood center sills were replaced with steel channels during their rebuild in 1926. Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. A group of volunteers photographed on moving day. L to R: George Niederauer, Mark Kasprowicz (Oxford, England), Ron Nott, Duane Danielson, Dennis D’Alessandro. Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. Jerry Hoffer pulls the gondola off the trailer with his Jeep. Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. Dennis D’Alessandro operates the gondola brake as necessary to keep the easy rolling gondola from overtaking the Jeep. Ron Nott hitched a ride on the gondola. Photo by Stefan Niederauer
  • June 8, 2012. A vivid illustration of the contrast between the fully restored drop bottom gondola and the deteriorated bare frame of the high side gondola in front of the Silverton Northern engine house. Photo by Stefan Niederauer