We are currently reworking the draft gear on a circa 1895 narrow gauge caboose at Ardenwood. The car, a recent gift from the California State Railroad Museum was restored in a ship yard under supervision of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the R&LHS.

That restoration included some compromises which we are currently correcting. The current issue involves the coupler yoke. The car was originally equipped with link and pin draw heads with a single spring draft gear using stop blocks bolted to the platform sills. The draft gear stops (apparently original) are located for those link & pin draw heads. The car received knuckle couplers by 1910 or so.

The original couplers were long gone when the car was restored, so they purchased replacement couplers from the West Side Lumber Co for the restoration. Those early restorers found the new couplers too short, so butchered the yokes to make something that while it retained the couplers, lost all functionality. We are now trying to fix that.

We have found one of our box cars has a similar issue, solved by the SP about 1916 or so. They forged much longer yoke, then inserted a cast iron spacer to fill the extra space.

Has anyone encountered a similar installation? I can’t find anything in the period literature so far.

Other issues on the car include plywood (with grooves) in place of car siding, and a someway fanciful paint job, including a large redwood tree herald never used on the lines railroad cars.

Randy

At WRM we have done a lot of old draft gear work. Mostly on Janney couplers. We have had new yoke straps forged by Great Lakes Forge in Chicago. I have an early McConway & Torley catalog from 1905, which illistrates many of the early coupler systems. This catalog is too fragle to copy. If you would like to see it, I would prefer you look at the original. At the present time at WRM, the couple and draft gear are out of one end of Key System 1201 (Carter Brothers 1895). It has been modified and I suspect that it is a link and pin conversion. Many of the parts do not fit well, and it does not work well, probably due to the conversion.

I would suggest that you stop by WRM some time in the next four weeks or so and take a look at it. Let me know in advance and I will be sure the McConway & Torley catalog is there for you to look at.

Dave Johnston