What happened to Flat cars??

[trainnut57]

I have been looking all over for 1950 era flat cars. Not depressed center flat cars, not center beam flat cars, not puplwood style flat cars, but good old 40 to 50 foot flat cars used by the railroads in the 40's through ?????. I found a couple on e-bay but they are horn-hook couplers with no (easy) way of converting. They also are limited to 40 feet or less. I know railroads ran them, in fact I still see them on occasion, although granted mostly military and hauling military paraphanalia. Can anybody steer me to some good old AT&SF, SP, UP or D&RGW actually any road name will do FLAT CARS in HO scale, PLEASE!!!

[dwRavenstar]

1stplacehobbies.com

Not many but they're 50 footers [8D]

Dave (dwRavenstar)

[Anonymous]

I keep hearing that Tichy Group is not out of business. If they are in business, they produce one of the nicest 40 flatcars ever available (ex Gould flatcar). And if they are in business, would someone get the word out? They produce, did produce, many things for HO that are (were) exceptional.

Tom

[Anonymous]

I would think that no one wants them anymore since they are not heavy enough to stay on the track.

Good old fashioned PLAIN jane 50's 40' or shorter flats would be very welcome, but they need to be made out of metal to weigh at least 4 ounces and have kaydees, metal wheels.

[DavidBriel]

50' Straight Side Flatcars should be produced by a HO manufacturer. There are some in N scale but none in HO scale. I would buy a Spokane, Portland & Seattle 50' Flatcar if it was available in HO. David Briel

[alcodave]

Athearn makes nice 40'and 50' foot flats.I have a few of them in my collection. They are easy to put Kadee couplers on to.

[Anonymous]

I also have several Athearn Blue Box 50' flats, as well as a couple 40' BB flats. Any LHS that has a good stock of Blue Box kits still in inventory should have a few. Train shows are good places to find them.

[jrbernier]

One of the best 50' flat car models is the P2K car. Even the Model Power 'heavy' 50' flat car os very good. Stop wasting your time on eBay and look at several good Internet/mail order dealers - they should have these cars in stock, and you do not have to pay individual shipping on each item. Even the Athearn 40' & 50' flat cars are not too bad after putting on a good laser cut wood deck......

Jim Bernier

[dehusman]

Actually 40 ft flatcars were fairly rare. Most prototype flats from the 50's were in the 53 ft range. There are at least 2 manufacturers that sell s of GSC cast flatcars (very common prototype design) Walthers and Tichy. In addition, Athearn, Concor (Revell) and some of the craftsman manufacturers sell the riveted designs. Bowser sells a 50' PRR design. Red Caboose and Athearn make a 40 ft fiveted design.

Dave H.

[Roadtrp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jrbernier

Stop wasting your time on eBay and look at several good Internet/mail order dealers - they should have these cars in stock, and you do not have to pay individual shipping on each item.

Yes... it is easy to find 50' flat cars at internet sites, and even 40' flat cars are out there occasionally. I have no experience with the link listed below, but give it as an example of a place with 40' flat cars on the net.

http://www.traindoctor.com/webstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=42&cat=HO+Scale+Rolling+Stock

[cwclark]

As mentioned above..Athearn makes a variety of 40 and 50 foot flat cars in lots of road names...I just purchased one form www.internettrains.com and www.discounttrainsonline.com chuck

[WilmJunc]

Trainnut:

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that was wondering where all the flat cars went. I picked up one by Ertl on ebay a few weeks ago. It looks ok but is very light. I installed Intermountain wheels and plan on setting a weighted load onto it.

[nickinwestwales]

hi-model power have recently introduced `Metal Train` flats in,I think, 4 different liveries. not sure about coupling conversion as I havnt had sight of one yet,but all die-cast metal construction so should be o k as long as you dont stick them at the front of a 100 car hitch,regards,nick

[ericsp]

If you choose to go with Athearn, 50' and 40' flatcars are on Athearn's production list for this year. My experience with last year's production list is that they are running from a few months to several months behind, so just keep checking Horizon's website for availability.
http://www.athearn.com/Media/2005kits.pdf
http://www.horizonhobby.com/