| Abstract: | It has been the custom among designers of freight cars either with underframes of steel or of wood to depend upon the strength of the underframe alone in making computations for a specified carrying capacity, despite the fact that the superstructure in many cases can and does constitute a truss. The author presents the evolution in design of structural steel freight cars, with which he has been closely identified, where the value of the superstructure as a tress has been duly considered as an element of strength and in reducing weight. |
