One of life's great joys, model train department, is when you find something at a train show that you have been looking for for years. When it is cheap the joy is compounded. For years (actually decades) I have looked for the AAR's publications on how to brace and ship large loads on open top cars (flat cars and gondolas) and this last Saturday at the TitleTown train show in Green Bay WI, next to a box of trainset freight cars -- there they were! The AAR Rules Governing the Loading of Miscellaneous Commodities On Open Top Cars (1951) and the Rules Governing the Loading of Steel Products Excluding Pipe on Open Top Cars (1950). About 250 pages each. There is much technical information as well as clear drawings showing bracing and other requirements. For example, when (and how) a load must be actually fastened to the car, not merely braced.
You might recall an excellent article on these rules in the June 1995 Railroad Model Craftsman - these books are the original resource for that article. Interestingly it does not seem that the AAR ever did much updating of the information as even the 1995 article cited the same sources.
The guy selling them usually charges rather hefty prices for stuff but these were marked at a buck each perhaps because they are worn looking. I was fully prepared to pay $20 or more for each if I could have found them.
I have since learned that another useful resource for those of us fascinated by open loads and how they are shipped is on its way. This is taken from an email that was forwarded to me:
The RP CYC Publishing Company is pleased to announce the upcoming release of RAILWAY PROTOTYPE CYCLOPEDIA, Volume 20, scheduled for distribution beginning in mid-May 2010. Volume 20 contains much useful prototype and scale modeling information: 175 black & white and color photographs, 48 diagrams, and 2 tables for a total of 113 pages comprising two in-depth articles on the following subjects:Flat Car Loading Practices by Patrick C. Wider (85 pages). The article contains 46 diagrams that show how many types of loads are restrained and tied down to flat cars. Also included are 126 photos of flat cars with all types of loads such as various steel products including pipe, auto frames, road construction and farm machinery, transformers and circuit breakers, boilers and vessels, rolling stock underframes, trucks and wheels, forging presses, locomotives, damaged freight cars, street cars and busses, lumber products, stone, containers, military equipment, and trailers on flat cars. Captions describe the flat cars photographed including the cars' histories (car number series, builder, and build date). Additional text details the A.A.R. rules for securing the various commodities. This article was several years in the making!
. Dave Nelson
Indeed a great find and at a great price too. We probably all have something on our "wish list" that we are always looking for, but don't really expect to find (st least reasonably priced).
Sounds like the reason they haven't changed the rules is that they did them right the first time, unlike so much done these days. Sometimes I think the higher ups change the rules over and over, just to justify their existance. Several things at my outside job have gone in circles over the years. Expect they will change again in a year or two.
Have fun,