Re: Comeng/Budd licences

[David Johnson <trainman@ozemail.com.au>]

Quoted with permission:

John writes:
"It is true, the license agreement from Budd gave Comeng access to their
construction techniques and these were followed for many years. But
Comeng developed a number of construction methods in stainless steel
that out-dated the Budd methods. Bud were very conservative and never
sanctioned some of the methods Comeng developed... though they were
highly sucessful and were even copied by other overseas builders. Of
course Budd was taken over by Thyssen in the early 80s and eventually
went out of business and so Comeng had by then ceased paying any license
agreement.
I am not sure about the corrugations in the floor of the IP. It may have
had them but I think not. They were first used on the single deck
interurbans for NSW but not for the reason suggested by David. They were
to retain the floor compound that was trowelled in to form the surface
to which the floor finish was attached. I think they were the only cars
on which this was done.
Floor corrugations I think were first used on the STA railcars to carry
end loads. All single deck cars built by Comeng from then had these
corrugations. eg XPT etc. It was a simple technique that allowed
different end loads to be catered for for different clients by simply
altering the thickness of the corrugations."

--
David Johnson
trainman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/
------------------------------------
These comments are made in a private
capacity and do not represent the
official view of State Rail.
C.O.W.S. Page 11.