Upper and Lower...bolsters I'm talking about, yes bolsters

The title sounds like something one might hear at their dentist's office.  I was going to make a reference to a railway ticket office but neither VIA nor Amtrak use the term "upper" or "lower" any longer, the younger readers may not have any idea about what I was making reference to.

Again I apologize for not have taken the time to photograph the riveting process when we fabricated the two upper bolsters.  These are relatively small projects but do take up a large percentage of the group to complete so finding someone "extra" to shoot the photographs becomes a problem.

**Thanks to Barry Thomas a photo was found of the group building one of the upper bolsters.**

 

Jim Stitt(gun), Jim O'Shea(bucking tool) and I (tongs) working on the upper bolster May 11/06. Photo: Barry Thomas

What is a body or upper bolster?  It is defined as,"the transverse members of the underframe over the trucks which transmits the loads carried by the longitudinal sills to the trucks through the center plates".

What is a truck bolster?  It is the cross beam in the center of the truck to which the lower center plate is fastened and on which the car body rests. This point is of course just below the upper or body bolster.

The top photo is a upper and lower bolster from a standard freight car in 1905.  696's bolsters are not exactly the same but close enough to illustrate a point.

Here is the completed upper bolster sitting upside down and beside the old one.

The new upper bolster was build in house by the 696 group while the lower bolster fabricated by an outside firm.  As you can see the original was cast while the new one is welded.

The original cast truck bolster....

....and the new fabricated truck bolster.