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I didn’t realize CP had this type of van. Was it more of a transfer van vs road van?
CP built three of them, 437265-67, but they didn’t opt for building more. One survives out west at a museum/park.
Interesting that this one appears to have gotten brown paint in the early 70′s, and not action yellow. Also that it has typical freight car trucks, and not caboose trucks with leaf springs.
Did the leaf springs provide a smoother ride for the crew in the van?
Not specifically smoother – but as there is more friction between the individual leaves in the spring pack, they are far better at dampening out oscillations, and thus be less “bouncy”.
Another option is to replace one of the spring packs on each side of the truck with a special dampening strut, although it doesn’t look like this was done on this car.
RE PEIR’s question, I recall as a teenager seeing one on a freight train operating between London ON and Windsor. That’s the only time I’ve seen one. That would have been in the mid 1960s.