SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1935
STP38722S

Protective and Decorative Coatings for Railway Passenger Car Equipment

Source

Among the many papers on paint in all of its various phases covered in this Symposium, my subject on painting railway passenger cars, relatively speaking, covers a limited field. While railway passenger car paint involves but a comparatively small percentage of this country's paint production, it is principally of interest from a technical standpoint. Perhaps in no other place in industry are the demands on paint quite comparable to that put on railway passenger car coatings by reason of the service conditions in railway operation. A railway passenger car is out of doors all the year round, subject to all weather conditions. The coatings are frequently, in a brief space of time, subjected to wide ranges in climatic conditions, as for illustration in the instance of through route travel from northern points where extreme winter conditions may prevail to extreme southern points where opposite weather conditions exist. Likewise in transcontinental service going across the hot deserts and next passing through mountain snow. The cars are subjected to the alkali dust of the deserts and the salt sprays of the ocean. The outside coatings are subjected to the acid gases formed from the locomotive smoke which envelops the cars, and, continuously while in operation, to the blasting action of cinders and sand. A dirt film gradually bakes on the surface of the car. This is a very tenacious covering which periodically must be removed by strong cleaning. The painted surface must withstand all of these conditions and still present a good appearance for at least two years of service operation, which, in the instance of sleeping cars on some lines,' is upwards of 360,000 miles for the period.

Author Information

Johnsen, AM
The Pullman Co., Pullman, Ill.
Price: $25.00
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Details
Developed by Committee: D01
Pages: 27–38
DOI: 10.1520/STP38722S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5612-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-5611-1