I got this Authenticast depressed centre flatcar in the mid-'50s. A cast-metal car, it came with wire grabirons and sill steps (I replaced the latter with A-Line parts).
The rivet detail is well-rendered for its time, and the end platforms have board detail cast into their decks, while the drop portion has three dimensional details representing, I think, holes or pockets for tie-downs.
I also replaced the original cast metal trucks with Delrin ones.
Wayne
Yes, alot of things on my wish list are out there, but poorly done, or a compleat build up of sticks (can do but would rather not). Took me awhile to collect my poultry cars and I have only one container car (a compleated wood kit). Everything I buy has to end up being close in quality to todays RTR from Intermountain etc. Found one company called Concept Models that has kits, but the quality is, to be PC, not up to my standards, by a long shot.
The kit looks like it is a model of a car from the late '30s, early '40s. It looks to be a casting that would require detailing with grab irons and such. This car looks short,riding on four wheel trucks. A highly detailed four axle car is available from Exact Rail but it is a modern car from the 1980s/1990s. A six axle car is/was available from Bachman but is at the lower end of the spectrum of models. At one time there was a metal kit for a six axle, depressed center flatcar made by Howell Day and sold under the Red Ball label. Model Railroad Warehouse in Indiana has/had a lot of the Red Ball stuff available so, if it is a six axle car you want I would check with them. If it is a four axle car, a plastic one was available from Eastern Car Works a few years ago. It may fit the bill as a four axle car. Good luck.
Devore goes way back and there are instructions and a picture of the car on the HO Seeker website which I assume you are familiar with. It looks to be very similar in prototype to the Red Ball (later Canonball Car Shops) 40 foot four axle depressed center flatcar kit. Both kits have the rounded steel molding leading down into the depressed center with vertical steel plates to permit the load to be secured with rods. But it looks like the Devore kit has fewer separate parts than the Red Ball/CCS version which is good news because those separate parts never fit together terribly well.
I suspect if the kit was cleaned up carefully (with due regard for the rivet detail as warned in the Devore instructions) and some details replaced with the current after market parts it could look OK. And being metal it should track well even if underweight.
Cars like that had a pretty long life span and I recall seeing similar flat cars into the 1980s. Both the Devore and the Red Ball originals probably date to the late 1940s as kits so I am sure the prototype car they followed is of your era or close to it.
Model Power had or has a nearly detail free depressed center flat in plastic in their trainset line and perhaps rivet decals could improve it. Roco offered a six axle depressed center flat that they offered in DODX lettering as well as railroad lettering and it may indeed have been a DODX prototype. Bachmann offers a similar looking car that may be the same tooling, also with military loads. Walthers seems to have allowed its depressed center flats to go out of production.
So pickings are slim for 40' four axle depressed center flatcars at this time.
Dave Nelson
This one?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HO-Scale-Devore-500-Undecorated-Depressed-Center-Flat-Car-Y1413/401621854706?hash=item5d828729f2:g:vYAAAOSwvx1buWNW:sc:USPSFirstClass!94043!US!-1
Need a depressed center flat car for the late 1930's. Found one of these offered but don't know anything about the time frame it represents or the length. I want a highly detailed model but that just dosn't seem to be out there so I thought with some work, this might work? Don't want to start from total scratch.