Re: [VIC] Wooden cars at high speed (was: [VIC] Parallel run)

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

malcolm's (kmalcolm@tpg.com.au) won a Nobel Prize for literature by writing:
> Please tell me you are kidding.

You really need to research some of the history of these things. Look at
the design and see for yourself. The original design could only cope with
tension from screw couplers.

Take the PL cars as a comparison. They were originally 45' suburban cars,
lengthtned to 58' prior to electrification. Come electrification, it was
decided that the frames were not strong enough to take all the electrical
equipment for motor cars. New frames were built for the motor cars, and
the PL cars were built on the 141 surplus frames.

The PL cars stayed gas lit and screw coupled for a while for the very
reason that they had weak frames. In later years, both were added without
any frame strengthening. Look at what happened to the PL cars from the
torsional forces of the auto couplers!

Cheers
David

> David Bromage <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in article
> <N6dL4.599$TI6.629982@news0.optus.net.au>...
> > Stuart Thyer (s.thyer@anatomy.unimelb.edu.au) won a Nobel Prize for
> literature by writing:
> > > I still believe the cars would have flexed as new, not as much as now,
> but
> > > there has to be give in virtually any structure of its size, even
> motorbikes
> > > frames flex, even a skyscraper flexes.
> > 
> > Part of the flexing is caused by torsional (twisting) forces from the
> auto
> > couplers. The original frame was only designed to take tension forces
> > between the screw couplers. 
> > Cheers
> > David
> >