Loads for flat cars and gondolas.

[Bruce LA]

 I want to be able to add loads to my flat cars and gondolas. Can anyone recomend their favorite places to get them? Want them as realistic as possible. Do any of you scratch build loads? Any direction would be much appreciated.

[MisterBeasley]

I have a couple of Chooch gondola loads for scrap metal.  They look pretty good right out of the package, but they could be weathered a bit and made more realistic.  These particular loads are specifically made for the dimensions of Athearn 50-foot gondolas, so make sure you get the right ones to fit your gons.  Also, these are resin, and fairly thick.  They're heavy enough that I removed the weights from the car underbodies when I installed them.  I don't use them as removable loads.

This isn't a load, but in this picture...

...I used a number of commercially-made junk piles to create a scrap yard.  These could also be cut up a bit and turned into loads.  Here, I did spend some time painting and weathering each of the junk piles, so they looked more like an assortment of refuse and less like a resin casting.

[BRAKIE]

While not cheap these are nice loads..

http://www.jwdpremiumproducts.com/servlet/StoreFront

Now for pipe loads you can use drinking straws or IMHO better would be ABS round plastic tubing from Evergreens or Plastruct.For these loads I use scale lumber for bracing and spacers..I use 1/16th chart tape for banding.

This may help as a guide.

http://www.toytrainheaven.com/.sc/ms/cat/HO%20Freight%20Car%20Loads

--------------------------

Now and if I may..If I must pay today's prices for gons and flats I 'm not going to scrimp on loads since I want the best possible store bought or home spun loads in those cars but,that's just me...

BTW.There's a fella on e-Bay that sells great looking rebar loads for reasonable prices.

[doctorwayne]

I generally prefer "live" (loose) loads for coal, gravel, and scrap, and usually make my own built-up loads.

This load of automobile frames is from JJM Railroad Enterprises, but you're required to make your own blocking and racks.  As shown in the link, you can also assemble them stacked for flatcars.

This load of a bagged commodity is from Tichy, but they're individual items which need assembly into stacks and then, possibly, painting:

This load of plate steel is sheets of grey Plastruct ABS, with prototypical blocking.  Like all of my loads, it's removeable:

Old rail (in this example, code 100 brass, stripped from Atlas bridges) makes a good gondola load.  The blocking is strip styrene:

This pole load, with an idler flatcar for the overhang, was made from dowelling.  Tapered using coarse sandpaper, they were stained, then cemented together with yellow carpenter's glue:

Lumber loads for flats, gondolas, and boxcars can be made from stripwood or strip styrene:

To save material (and money), these loads are hollow:

This load of industrial tanks was made from plastic tube left-over from rolls of Telescript paper, while the blocking is stripwood:

Coal (loose):

...and coke (loose):

Scrap wire load, made from armature wire from scrapped open-frame motors:

Various scrap loads (all loose)...this one is scrap axles and broken truck parts:

This one uses the metal stakes which came with Athearn Blue box flatcars.  The chemical blackener turned them somewhat greenish, probably due to a high copper content:

Couldn't let those now-wireless armatures go to waste:

This multi-part load is an overhead crane, which will be assembled on-site.  I built it using sheet and strip styrene:

Of course, most empties, especially gondolas, are seldom truly empty:

Wayne

[mbinsewi]

Nice work Wayne.  I remember an article in MRR about how a guy made individual flat cars loads, and put them on "removable" wood decks, so they could be removed as one piece.  Seemed like an interesting idea,  considering the time it takes to lash a load down, so it looks prototypical.

Mike.

[steamage]

My last load project was building these lumber loads on old Tyco flat cars that have been modified with grabirona and sturrip steps.

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Wayne ..... That certainly is an impressive series of photos with loaded freight cars.

My utility polls were made from bamboo skwers from the grocery store. They are already tapered. I cut to a scale 40' and colored them.

The carloads of scrap are made from scrap paper from a paper shredder which were colored and placed in the gondolas. The load of scrap coupled to the locomotive are bails of scrap meteal and are commerically made from the hobby shop. In the background are loads of structural steel made from Plastruct channels.

The scrap metal in this gondola as well as some of the scrap metal in the scene are made from miscellaneous scrap pieces left over from various model railroad layout projects.

[doctorwayne]

Thanks to both Mike and Garry for your kind words.

Garry, those pole loads look like they'd be perfect for my Telegraph Dept. maintenance crews and I like the idea of using coloured paper for a scrap load, too.

Heartland Division CB&Q

.......The scrap metal in this gondola as well as some of the scrap metal in the scene are made from miscellaneous scrap pieces left over from various model railroad layout projects.

Garry, that's a really nice scrapyard scene, and one of the things which makes it so convincing is the scrubby-looking bushes growing along the fence line between the yard and the tracks. 
Nicely done. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Instead of buying ready made loads I prefer to make mine from things I already have on hand. In the following three photos are simple examples. Two depressed center flats of Caterpillar equipment and a simple container on a 50' flat car.

[BRAKIE]

Jeff,One of my planned projects is a crawler crane on a flat car with 2 crates..

Here's one of my crane boom loads.These are made by N.J.International.

I doctored up this Athearn pipe load by replacing the plastic spacers with scale lumber.