Ray,
That is a great question. It reminded me that GN had similar box cars with
the combination sliding and plug doors. I checked it out and referred to
my copy of GN Equipment Vol. 1, page 62 where I found the following
explanation of why GN had these dual door cars. "The rationale for the
combination plug/sliding door was to accommodate two different types of
loading
-lumber and grain. If a car was used to haul lumber or plywood the plug and
sliding door could be opened to provide a 12' wide opening. The wide opening
allowed enough space for a fork lift to load the car which saved the
shipper time in the loading process. If the car was used to transport grain,
the plugged door would remain sealed and a grain door would be used in
conjunction with the sliding door..." While there is no photo of either of
the
car doors open, but based on the caption explanation of how the GN used the
cars, I don't imagine there was any sort of divider. So essentially it
allowed the railroad greater flexibility and a dual use for the same rail car.
Seems that the "Q" would have had similar thoughts as to greater
flexibility for freight car utilization somewhat based on the grain rush and
steady
lumber markets. Hope this makes some sense and helps to answer your
question. Interestingly enough, Front Range used to offer this combination
door
model in HO Scale in GN livery some years back.
Later, Dave S. Tucson, AZ
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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