Kansas & Texas Coal Co, and Pratt patent Coal Cars

Good afternoon all, I'm new to the forum and come hat in hand for help from another historical society. I am researching a particular type of coal car.

I have found evidence that the K&T Coal Company owned some number of these cars in the low hundreds, ordered from and built by The St. Charles Car Company prior to their being rolled into ACF. As I understand it, the K&T Coal Co was bought by another coal/lumber concern in Missouri, and that concern eventually made agreements with the Frsico whereby K&T Coal Co assets transferred (I think).

The car in question goes by a number of names: "Standard 60,000-pound coal car", "folding sides coal car", "Pratt pat. coal car", "side dump coal car", "Pratt Patent Coal Car, 36 Ft Pratt Coal Car" and "Pratt Dump Car". The subject car started with one patent (folding sides) and later had a second patent incorporated (sliding doors in the deck, dropping the load through the bottom). The patents are for the folding sides and bottom components themselves, and could be applied to any flatcar of the era. Pats. were issued in 1893 and 1898 , but the cars popularity on a certain eastern railroad was in the ~1898-1905 timeframe. The assumed date of the construction of these cars for the K&T Coal Co would mean these were folding sides cars only, NOT cars with the sliding bottom doors.

This car is defined with drawings and a photo (lettered for the NYNH&H) in the 1903, 1906 and 1909 Car Builder's Dictionary. See drawing and photo from the CBD below. Spotting features for the car in question are the heavy iron hinges and straps on the sides, and what at first glance would appear to be truss rods on the sides and ends but is actually the hinge bar.

Here's the ask: does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? Any info on if these cars actually existed on the K&T Coal Co? Any photo or other documented proof?

Happy to exchange everything I know and have documented about their inventor, the patents, etc., in exchange.

Thank you!

Eric Vandiver
Norwood, MA
NHRHTA # 5645

 

Thanks Chris. I found that thread a few months back but, unfortunately, Manny's scratch build project of the #400-series coal cars (side note: WOW!) are not the Pratt cars. The company history WITHIN that thread is what brought me to this forum in hopes someone had additional info.

Pratt cars are between 30 FT and 36 FT long; sides are always depicted as four 12" boards high, so 48" total. Sides are sectioned into 2-board panels usually depicted about 8 FT long, and hinged horizontally at 24" above the deck (1/2 way up the side) so that you can fold the bottom sideboard panel (bottom 24") up or the top sideboard panel (top 24") down. I've only ever seen the car with 6-underbody trussrods on a wood frame and fox pressed steel trucks. I pasted the CBD photo of NYNH&H coal car#28450 below. This car has 8 side panels (1 upper and 1 lower, each measuring 24" x 8') arranged in 4 sections. The hinge bar runs longitudinally along the side; the hinges are the heavy metal straps roughly arranged like a triangle.



P.S. somewhat embarrassingly, I misspelled my own name by adding an "a" to the end in my OP...it's Eric, not Erica.