Flat car identification - please help!

[VAPEURCHAPELON]

Hey guys,

please have a look at ebay item #140002500121. I am the buyer. I bought because in my eyes it looks very nice - although I do not have any info about it. Does anyone of you know something of its prototype:
- Road name
- how many built
- when built, retired
- paint schemes and lettering
- used with wooden deck or without?

Does it fit into an average late 1940s/ beginning 1950s mixed through freight train, or was it a special duty car?

Please help me.

Many Thanks

[TomDiehl]

What you bought there was a flat car frame. You didn't get trucks or couplers with it. Flat cars can be pretty generic, especially a model of just the frame, so just about any roadname would look good on it. By the rivited construction (although the picture isn't very clear, it seems to be rivited) this would probably fit into your era once the kit is finished. And it most likely would have a wood deck, and doesn't look like a special duty car.

[VAPEURCHAPELON]

Tom,

have many Thanks. A few days ago the seller answered the same question concerning the wooden deck, and he thought this car was designed to be used without a deck. But I couldn't really believe that - that's why I asked here again. But is there no chance to run it without deck? Perhaps for logging transport?
The seller also wrote it comes with sprung trucks - I can't see them, but they are very easy to add, of course.
Probably I will paint it box car red and decal it for C&NW, or GN.

Greetings from

Johannes

[7j43k]

From the photographs on the auction site, I cannot determine what railroad might have owned the car. I note that it has a K style of brake system rather than an AB type. If it were to be used in interchange with other railroads (as a typical railroad car would be), I doubt it could be used in the time period you describe. Of course, since it's your railroad, you may do what you wish.

I find the car very interesting. I wouldn't mind owning it myself. It would be quite attractive to avoid applying a wooden deck. I think you could easily use it as a logging car except that usually there would also be added what are called "logging bunks". These are typically u-shaped steel assemblies that cradle the logs. Stakes in the stake pockets would not be a very reliable way to hold logs onto a real flatcar. I suggest doing some sort of internet search for photos of these logging car adaptations. I would also suggest that you consider running the car empty so that the frameing will show.

Another option might be to use the car as a railroad maintenance car, perhaps one that carries "track panels"--pre-assembled emergency repair items. You would not have to have the track on the model. I am sure there were occasions when the cars traveled empty.

If you choose either of these options, the car could have shown up in your time period because the cars WOULD NOT be used in interchange (or could not, more properly).

Looks like fun, Ed

[TomDiehl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by VAPEURCHAPELON

Tom,

have many Thanks. A few days ago the seller answered the same question concerning the wooden deck, and he thought this car was designed to be used without a deck. But I couldn't really believe that - that's why I asked here again. But is there no chance to run it without deck? Perhaps for logging transport?
The seller also wrote it comes with sprung trucks - I can't see them, but they are very easy to add, of course.
Probably I will paint it box car red and decal it for C&NW, or GN.

Greetings from

Johannes Markwart

You can always run it without a deck. I have no idea what a real railorad would have used it for without a deck, though. We just pulled an old steel flatcar frame out of the weeds at the East Broad Top railroad in Central Pennsylvania, and it had no deck. Of course it was back there so long the old deck rotted away and there were trees growing through the frame. We're putting a new deck on it to be used.

[GN-Rick]

A good assignment for an old flatcar with no decking might be as an idler car.
Often used on car ferrys or carfloats, these were used to extend the coupling
reach of the locomotive in places where it might be restricted from traveling
due to weight or other restrictions-like on the docking ramp of a car float.
Or, perhaps, onto a weight restricted pier. Or into an enclosed building where
freight cars are loaded-the loco might be restricted from entering due to
safety concerns about its exhaust.

[VAPEURCHAPELON]

Have many Thanks for your great answers. I consider to build a removable wood deck for use in branchline trains, and when I remove the deck I will run it empty, of course. GN-Rick and 7j43k explained some very good prototype situations. And of course I will weather it heavily.

Thanks again

Johannes