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While I can't say for a certainty that this was Budd's intention, fluting will give the car added strength while reducing weight. Think about it like a corrugated cardboard box. The fluting on the Long Island EMD DE30AC and DM30AC locomotives is a prime example of this. The fluted side panels are actually part of the carbody stiffening, thus reducing frame weight and freeing up that weight for other components. As I recall, some railroads wanted to keep the fluted look on all cars, so non-Budd car manufacturers obliged by adding fluted sides. But rather than going back to the drawing board and re-engineering, it seems it would be easier to just put the fluting over the existing car sides (my guess). I do recall hearing that this does cause a major problem with non-Budd cars that develop rot between the inside panel and outside fluted panel. If the outside panel is stainless steel and the rest of the car is regular carbon steel, you may not realize the extent of the rust and rot until you tear down the car, and then it can turn out to be pretty severe. Another reason may be that I believe Budd got a patent on the stainless welding process Rupert mentions. If so, it makes sense that other manufacturers could not use the Budd welding process and so would have to build their car using regular carbon steel for strength, then add the fluting over it for looks. Stainless weighs more than carbon steel, but if you can avoid having to double layer the car, you make a lighter car, and that saves fuel, etc. While fuel costs may not have been so important back then, if you can make a lighter car you can pull more of them on a train with the same power and that means more revenue. With all the talk of E-unit nose MU and limits on two E-units per train until nose MU was added, getting an extra car on a train would be a real money maker. Tom Mack Cincinnati, OH ---In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, <kirby@...> wrote : Was there a purpose for the fluting other than looks? I have pictures of a passenger car being built in the Wabash shops in Decatur, IL. They appear to be installing the fluting on top of the flat metal side of the car. I have attached the pictures below. Kirby Lambert On Jan 31, 2018, at 1:18 AM, Rupert Gamlen gamlenz@... [CBQ] wrote:
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