flat car senery ideas

[Anonymous]

i baught a centre depressed flat car a long time ago. it was un assembled with alot of small parts, i wasn't that good at building stuff at the time[V] so i got my friend to build it. He did a horrible job on it,[:(!][:(!] the trucks were slanted so only 2 wheels on each truck touched the rails causing it to derail on turns[:(!] so i decided to take the trucks off, but he had glued them on, so i had to rip them off with pliers. now i have a flat car with no trucks.[:(][:(!]

So here is my question; does anyone know what other uses this car can have? I have seen a bridge made from on, but this is a centre depressed car, and i don't have a river on my layout. Any suggestion?

[Anonymous]

Hi
Use the trucks to start a scrap yard serviced by rail of course.
The depressed centre put up on stands in a suitable place in the yard for a repair shop having made it look well and truly used
Put some figures underneath it with one of those arc welding flasher ctts
regards John

[Anonymous]

There doesn't have to be a river to cross - it could just be small ditch. But usually you see standard flat cars, not depressed centres...

Other ideas - a loading dock, or an unloading ramp - one at then end of a siding so trucks can be driven off. You might have to modify the flat a bit for this though - maybe use just the "depressed" part.

Andrew

[jrbarney]

Or, you could put trucks back under it, buy an electrical transformer or boiler load for the car, and put the car on a siding next to a power plant or transformer "farm" under construction - complete with signage. The background story would be that "just in time" inventory delivery hadn't worked for the construction contractor ! [:)]
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[pmsteamman]

Why not heat the ends up and make it look like a wrecked car and place it next to the track somewhere.

[cwclark]

I don't think i've ever ripped my trucks off of my rolling stock with pliers before

[DSchmitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by pmsteamman

Why not heat the ends up and make it look like a wrecked car and place it next to the track somewhere.

Probably the best idea since a depressed center car is not suitable as a bridge or ramp. Alternatively do you have a scrap yard or car rebuilder on your layout.

[dknelson]

rust it up, run it off the rails, surround it with weeds and scrub trees. A big factory in South Milwaukee WI, the Bucyrus Erie Company, used to have a lot of unusable flat cars and gons that they would just shove off the rails waiting for the day when scrap metal prices would make reclamation worth while. Some of those cars had arch bar trucks in the 1970s.
Dave Nelson