P&LE RR Heavy Duty Flat Car

[Anonymous]

I am looking for a picture of a Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rail Road heavy duty 36' flat car with six-wheel Buckeye trucks, Class R-1, no.'s 6885 - 6889. The New York Central also had one as their class L.S. 105, no. 499019. Plans were published in Model Railroader in the thities and Howell Day made a kit of it in the early fifties, but both were devoid of markings. Any help out there? Thank you.

Sherman Stevens

[jrbarney]

Sherman,
Welcome to the forums !
I can't help you directly on the markings, but if you are looking for another drawing of that 1912 era car, it appears on page 67 of :

100 Years of Railroad Cars
Walter A. Lucas
1958
Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation
LCCN 58-14002

which contains drawings from Car Builders Cyclopedia and Railway Age, so it shows every rivet. You might be able to borrow it from your local public library via Inter Library Loan, since it is probably OP.
For the markings, you might want to contact the NMRA's Kalmbach Memorial Library
http://www.nmra.org/library/
to see what they estimate it would cost for them to research their holdings.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Bob,

Thank you for your help. Our downtown library is fairly complete so I will take a look for the book there. I have already tried the Kalmbach Memorial and they couldn't find anything. Please let me know if you think of anything else. Thanks again.

Sherman

[jrbarney]

Sherman,
You might want to spend some time browsing the decal vendors, including Art Griffen, at:
http://www.greatdecals.com/
Some decal and dry transfer vendors include paint schedule details.
Another possible source would be to do a Google image search:
http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
Good luck !
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[jrbarney]

Sherman,
I did a Google search on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie. Among other hits was
the Web site for the P&LE Historical Society:
http://www.plerrhs.org/
You could search their picture gallery or try an Email note. Another hit noted the availability of Morning Sun Books volume on the PL&E. You might look up its title, etc., and try to obtain it through Inter Library Loan at your local public library.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[phillipscharf]

I am another modeler looking for pictures or lettering diagrams of the P&LE R-1 HEAVY FLAT CAR. I need to know what color they were painted also. The kit that I have in HO is an old Red Ball re-released by Wabash Valley Lines some years ago. Photos or diagrams of the NYC car would do also as I can letter either one. I read that all NYC flats were painted freight car brown after 1941. Phillip Scharf

[orsonroy]

Fallen Flags has a photo of a short P&LE DC flat:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ple/ple950amh.jpg

The Canada Southern site doesn't have any P&LE flats, but it does have a few photos of P&LE cars, as well as lots of links to other useful NYC & subsidiary road sites:
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/photo.htm
The site DOES have scans of almost every single NYC freight car class diagram on it, which may be VERY useful.

The NEB&W site doesn't list any P&LE DC flats, but it DOES list many NYC and B&A DC flats, and has almost a dozen photos:
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/rolling-stock/Flats/95-2-depressed-center-flats.asp
(it's a pay site, so you probably won't be able to get in via the link. Sorry)