NILE I have not found DODX cars that I like. I found a Walthers humongutruck that I could use to make a load. How many mining trucks could one flat car carry? I am thinking a truck without wheels on one end of the car and then the wheels would be stacked on the other end of the car. Would this need to be on a depressed center car due to the height?
I have not found DODX cars that I like.
I found a Walthers humongutruck that I could use to make a load. How many mining trucks could one flat car carry? I am thinking a truck without wheels on one end of the car and then the wheels would be stacked on the other end of the car. Would this need to be on a depressed center car due to the height?
The trucks I'm talking about are a load for six flatcars - for one truck, that is. The bed fills two, the main frame fills two, the engine and cooling system is a carload by itself and the wheels and tires need at least a 50 footer all to themselves. Everything has to be assembled on-site, and it isn't a quick process.
Saw it on one of those Discovery Channel semidocumentaries about humongous machines.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with underground mines and street legal trucks)
If the load is over 12 ft wide or the load on the car is over about 18 ft tall its high.
The truck weighs way more than the tires. So the tires may be on one end, but the truck will still be more toward centered, than on the other end.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
If you are thinking of a piece of modern military hardware, be aware that most such are moved on DODX cars - cars owned by the Defense Department (Duh!) If you want something more general in nature, stick to civilian loads.
If you have a half-dozen cars you might consider a disassembled humongutruck - those 250 < 300 ton capacity on four wheels monsters used by the mining industry. Assembled, you climb a ladder two stories high and enter a cab, then drive something the size of a town house from the equivalent location of an upstairs bedroom. Not exactly street legal.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a gyratory crusher load)
http://modeltrains.about.com/od/railroads/ig/Flatcars/
These are all good ideas, however I would like to "show" what is on the load. I am thinking about a large piece of military equipment. I should have noted that I am looking for modern era loads, I did see that a model company has a battleship cannon. While that isn't modern, I could say it is a move for a museum. Are there any other ideas?
I'm going to go in the diametrically opposite direction.
Why not a couple of humongucrates - heavy boards with outside frames, heavy steel banding, lift lugs on all four top corners.
Or something under a big tarp. The something can be assembled with odd bits of scrap, then tarped with thin opaque-colored flexible plastic lashed down to the stake pockets with black or tan thread. If you can print some commercial logo on the tarp, so much the better.
What's in the boxes or under the tarp? Consult the waybill in the car card to find out. Incidentally, making the loads removable will double your fun - especially if they can be fitted to different cars at different times.
My own flat cars are steel, so a refrigerator magnet base keeps the loads in place.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have found that the RC car section of the hobby shop has some interesting flat car load opportunities. RC car suspensions have various intricate castings that can be used to make cast metal flat car or gon loads. They look like castings for some huge piece of machinery that would be found in a mine or a steel mill. Paint then up with a nice steel grey color and a touch of rust (not too much, they are brand new castings) with maybe a few chalk marks or a company stencil and its reading to be chained to a flat.
the March issue of Trains has pictures of several interesting and unusual flat car loads
But the ultimate photo essay is Keith Kohlmann's two part article on the Bucyrus Erie plant in South Milwaukee, April and May 2006 RMC. I found both online!
Try this: http://12.163.65.33/media/24690/rrmc%200406%20pgs74_83.pdf
and this
http://12.163.65.33/media/24687/rrmc%200506%20pgs74_77.pdf
Dave Nelson
I am scratch building a jaw crusher for a rock quarry to go on a shorty flat. One of these would fit on a sixty footer. http://www.rgspemkt.com/215-P1.html That would make a real interesting load.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
The current RMC has an article on shipping Case tractors by rail. I believe it said in recent years, tractors were normally shipped on 60' flatcars.
I have just ordered two 60' flat cars and I have two heavy duty 66' flat cars that I would like to put semi-perment loads on. I would like to build a model that is unique but possible. What are some ideas that are out there?