Drawing Services page for Canal Car Company

Canal Car has all of the drafting and rendering equipment necessary to generate car drawings of all sorts. In this section you will find some samples of elevation drawings, floor and underfloor plans and conduit drawings.

If you would like us to create for you a car drawing of any type, please email Canal Car and describe the kind of drawings that you are looking for, along with your contact information.

Drawings are useful during construction or upgrade work as well as for documentation purposes. You just can't beat a full set of drawings when your car breaks down on the road and you are in need of some quick repairs. How do you explain how things work? Just hand 'em a drawing.

Clearance drawings are an Amtrak requirement for operating your car. A correct clearance drawing must always be on file with Amtrak before your car can move and it must reflect any modifications that you make which affect clearance. A computer generated drawing can be done from car measurements and always kept up to date as changes are made. It can show cross sections of all of the underfloor equipment to quickly prove that your car is in compliance and ready to move.

Generally, we can work from sketches, photographs and measurements. We will even be happy to photograph and measure your car, prepare the sketches and create the drawings from them.

Canal Car can also design and write operations manuals to accompany your car on the road. Along with good drawings, clearly written, descriptive text may prove invaluable to people unfamiliar with your car's systems when diagnosing and repairing problems.

Elevation drawings can contain several layers, including basic features (side and cross section), dimensions, lettering, lettering dimensions, paint, glass, clearance, and so on. Generally, each layer is rendered in a different color so as to plot nicely. Plots may contain some or all of the layers (in this example, the features, dimensions and lettering are rendered).

A simple floor plan can include walls, doors, windows and other fixed partitions or objects. Additional layers can include permanent fixtures such as seats and toilets. Pullman was even known to put signage locations on their floor plans.

A basic under floor plan will show all of the cross members as well as the center sill and other structural members. The equipment hung from the underframe can be blocked out to show its location. An outline of the floor plan can be superimposed on a separate layer to assist in routing plumbing, etc. between the rooms above and the obstacles under floor.

A drawing of interior and under floor conduit is very handy in determining what routing to use for new wiring when trying to connect points A and B. A wire list can be used to list the routing of each and every wire, based on the conduit drawing.

Once a drawing is done, it can be rendered in up to eight colors on our HP 7580A pen plotter.

	Elevation drawings can contain several layers, including basic features (side and cross section), dimensions, lettering, lettering dimensions, paint, glass, clearance, and so on. Generally, each layer is rendered in a different color so as to plot nicely. Plots may contain some or all of the layers (in this example, the features, dimensions and lettering are rendered).
	A simple floor plan can include walls, doors, windows and other fixed partitions or objects. Additional layers can include permanent fixtures such as seats and toilets. Pullman was even known to put signage locations on their floor plans.
	A basic under floor plan will show all of the cross members as well as the center sill and other structural members. The equipment hung from the underframe can be blocked out to show its location. An outline of the floor plan can be superimposed on a separate layer to assist in routing plumbing, etc. between the rooms above and the obstacles under floor.
	A drawing of interior and under floor conduit is very handy in determining what routing to use for new wiring when trying to connect points A and B. A wire list can be used to list the routing of each and every wire, based on the conduit drawing.
	Once a drawing is done, it can be rendered in up to eight colors on our HP 7580A pen plotter.