A very special freight car

[FJ and G]

What very colorful modern freight car rarely, if ever, is festooned with graffiti?

Bulkhead center-beam flatcars.

There are quite a few of these long beauties in my area because construction is booming here and these cars carry lumber, often wrapped in very colorful plastic.

I have just one of these cars on my pike. A Weaver car, that uses cardboard to mimic the load.

I have an idea on modifying it.

First, I'd like to print out a new covering using real plastic. Examples of countless patterns abound on the web. One site is: http://millennium.fortunecity.com/rover/96/bhflat.htm

Secondly, I'd like to attach separate bands, which hold the load together.

Third, crinkle the plastic a bit. The cardboard Weaver load looks way too artificial.

Fourth, perhaps remove a small section of "lumber". Oftentimes, these are not fully loaded.

Would be nice to make an entire train of these, using different colorful techniques and perhaps one without any plastic covering at all, using stripwood.

Dave Vergun

[cnw1995]

Nice ideas, Dave. The UP usually have one or two of these in North Ave. yard as I pass on my way into Chicago. The board lumber is banded but uncovered. Sometimes it looks like it shifted a bit too. They add them to a train of hoppers and newprint cars - they belong to a lumber yard, one of the few loose-car customers left on this line.

[FJ and G]

Doug,

There must be a science to loading these; as if you loaded too much on one side, it would probably give a good sway. Shifting load would also be dangerous or if one of the bands broke or were cut by bad people, you could get knocked in the head by a 2X4 if you are in a passenger train on an adjacent track.

I've noticed to that there seem to be 2 main styles to the center beam. I wonder how long these types of cars have been around. I'd guess late 60s?

dav

[lionelsoni]

Dav, look at the inside surfaces of the end bulkheads of an empty prototype car. Every one I have seen has warnings against loading or unloading only one side at a time.

[cnw1995]

Bob is right. I've watched one of these get switched into a lumber yard in Arlington Hgts (IL). What a pain for the UP. This relates to the car weight thread. The car is pretty close to the head-end of the train. The train is uncoupled by the car, and the whole string - car at the end is backed into the siding, with the car uncoupled and the string of cars moved out again. The siding comes off the main line across two very busy roads and then along the back of the public or customer part of the yard into a section which looks like the Walthers kit - with the car accessible by fork lift from both sides. Both roads are blocked during these manuevers. There seems to be an art to unloading these center-beams. The unloaders balance what they remove - first one side and almost immediately from the corresponding opposite side, upper banded loads first. (they use two forklifts). The car visibly shifts or rather leans away as the loads come out.