Southern's "Well" Car Lowers the load

Huge industrial boilers are everyday products of Southern - served Combustion Engineering plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., but as the boilers produced there began to outgrow existing transportation equipment, something had to be done. As many of these large boiler sections were shipped by rail, the railroads sought a car to safely transport them. Section sizes were running to 18 feet 4 inches high and 7 feet wide, too large for present railway clearances when loaded on the rail cars customarily used for "oversize" shipments.

When loaded, the boiler section sits just eight inches above the rails. The boiler's weight is supported by two A - frames at either end of the car.

The problem was turned over to the engineers in Southern's Customer Engineering department at Washington, D. C., and they came up with an answer - a bottomless car. A - frames at either end of the car support the load so that it nests into an open well in the center of the car. With the bottom of the load only eight inches above the rails the previously difficult clearance problem was solved with room to spare.

The open well in Southern 50098 is visible in the photograph as the car stands at the Combustion Engineering siding in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Southern's "well car" made its first trip under load on August 14, carrying a section of Combustion Engineering's new VP-14 boiler to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant at Beaumont, Texas. With a height of 19 feet 6 inches above the rails, the load moved easily from Chattanooga to interchange at New Orleans.