I'm looking for ideas for flat car loads. I have lots of flat cars in my collection to include 50', 60', four truck heavy duty depressed center, and one four truck heavy duty flat. I'm looking for unquie loads. I have a couple of farm tractor loads, a semi tractor truck load, and a MOW load with a bulldozer and parts. What are some of the unquie loads in your layout? I am really looking for heavy duty loads, that are not a larger transformer. Please post pictures, I'd really like to see your flat car loads to help give me ideas.
Pulpwood. Real wood off real trees in my yard.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I have a kit for the large navel gun barrel load. I haven't built the flats yet.http://www.rgspemkt.com/215-P1.html
For my sand and gravel company I had scratch built a jaw crusher with fly wheel. It's in storage until the grandkids move out.
Another idea seldom modeled is an empty with scraps of timber and banding nailed to the floor.
Pete
dstarr Pulpwood. Real wood off real trees in my yard.
Did you shrink wrap the wood? I want to try that for myself.
Someone gave me the idea of using unwanted rails (without the ties) cut up and stacked. I like it! Who doesn't have leftover small pieces of track?
Pulpwood and lumber are features on my railroad:
Steel plate loads are also easy to do with sheets of styrene painted a steel colour, stripwood spacers between levels and thin pinstripe tape for banding.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
No shrink wrap. That plastic gleam comes from the lights and the dried white glue I used to hold the twigs together.
Hello All,
In the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) magazine, available to members only, is a column titled "Love Those Loads".
This column focuses on oversized loads.
Being a big fan of flatcars this column is right up my siding.
The latest issue features a wind turbine blade on an 89' flatcar with idler flats on each end.
Past columns have featured scratch-built boilers from PVC plumbing fittings, loads of tires for mine dump trucks, a nuclear waste container; fabricated from a rubber plug found in a parking lot, scrap metal loads for gondolas made from toothpaste tubes and coils of steel from wire.
Two related flatcar loads of a combine harvester broken down for shipment with the combine and tires on one with the cutter heads in open-framed crates on the other.
Various oversized structural beams, some with pivots.
Components used in foundries- -slag pots, mining equipment- -crushers, rollers, reels of conveyor belt material.
Different kinds of storage tanks- -again, made from PVC, brass & copper tubing and spent "Scotch" tape cores.
A turbine fan made from a harvested cooling fan from a computer.
Tarped components of the space shuttle and other aerospace vehicles. Tanks & armored vehicles.
Loads of stacked passenger car/truck frames.
Parts of a rendering plant.
Oversized load kits from Precision Design, CO., Dimensional Modeling Concepts and Concept Models.
And, yes, oversized transformers, pipe loads, steel beams and plates along with wrapped lumber.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
How about boats? Lionel still sells a 4-pack of boats labeled for O gauge but are actually the exact same boats Athearn used to provide as a load for one version of their HO scale 40' flat car (with molded on support skids on the flat car deck). Detachable skids are easy to fabricate and allow these boats to be used as a flat car load or for storage in a boat yard.
As sold, these boats are a little toy-like. However, painting the wood portions of the decks tan or brown, highlighting the various rail and fitting details with silver Sharpie pen, and painting the hull bottoms with anti-fouling paint, significantly improves the appearance of these boats. Visitors to my layout don't even recognize them as the toys Athearn (or now Lionel) originally supplied as a flat car load.
Hornblower
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I enjoy adding loads to flats and gondolas. I strung my cars together, the flats in the first 3 photos. A number of the loads are Chooch castings. The blue motors may be a LaserKit or similar. The EMD 567 motor may be a Walther kit, as is the transformer.
20200619_164745 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200619_164756 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200619_164807 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
And the gondolas. Some of those loads could go on flats. I don't study what is prototypical so some may be unusual as per car type. The I-beams are just styrene shapes. The rails are just code 83 pieces. The pipes are soda straws.
20200619_170418 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200619_170430 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200619_170445 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
While I don't have pics of mine handy, I have purchased several large steel plate loads at the Springfield train show from Loadman, A.K.A. "maxman", as he is known here. He makes great steel loads including large plates that stand on tall angled brackets, stacks of plates, beams, etc. Each one is weathered, hand lettered (looks like chalk), and usually decaled, too.I just checked online, and found a pic of a Loadman steel load just like the ones I have:https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r1PXgsd3xrE/WH70SmYRohI/AAAAAAAAAXs/loEezaEPlP0JlWcgFKcmLEHCUM8-VZsgACLcB/s1600/PRR%2B387855%2BLehlbach%2Bweb.jpg
The included frame can be seen here:https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-39UsfHD1C4g/WH74JTI2wwI/AAAAAAAAAYc/dVWgi2sTXjAlJvqV7SkCxgREERhoy9TRgCLcB/s1600/PC%2BPRR%2BG43s%2BLehlbach%2B2%2Bweb.jpg
You should look outside the world of model railroading for really great flatcar loads.
Here the rusty remains of the hull from an Incom-FreiTek T-65C-A2 is being hauled away for scrap. This one was probably badly damaged in the Battle of Endor.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I got some of these transformers for my depressed center flat cars.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HO-Scale-Hamilton-High-Voltage-Transformer-Base-for-Model-RR-Flatcar-Load-BLUE/303331790838?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Wow, where does one start? APC M113, M-55 Sheridan, M-151 MUTTS, M-88 Recovery Vehicle (going off to a foreign land). Bridge beams, I beams, 24'' diameter green pipe with rusted ends as long as the flat car, truck cabs on long frames without bodys, tractor trailer cabs on short frames all loaded piggy back style.
Caterpiller Moto-Scraper (by UMEX MADE IN AUSTRIA), wooden chopsticks (from local Chinese restaurant) (dyed rail brown or "creosote") make good long electric poles, PennCentral Caboose from a derailment (being shipped by rail for repair),
Impellers from small residential hot water circulators, chain saw carburetor (small aluminium block, looks really neat), cutter heads from free or dirt cheap yard sale hand crank pencil sharpners (two heads in each sharpners).
Matchbox #69 Tractor Shovel, Lesney #1 and #9 coal fired steam tractor (being moved by rail to a West Coast Museum), cast metal centrifugal weights from residential food desposers (two from each motor)(other electric motor may have weights also), the sliding stainless steel internal parts from Delta tub/shower faucets.
Now comes the hard part, Blocking and Chocking. I forget who makes really good (plastic) chain and turnbuckle. I think I have chain and turnbuckles made in that super thin photo etched brass also.
Oh, I forgot those kids little toy trucks with big tires I find at flea markets/yard sales (must be cheap, look in the ''free'' box first, maybe have one or two wheels/tires missing) I only want the tires, to be shipped out to a Quarry or Strip Mine.
Oh, Walthers ''Scenemaster'' makes a nice ''Drag Line #949-11006'' and a ''Terex HD Dump Truck #949-11000''. I have not mounted these in whole or in part on any flats yet, so I do not know how they will fit/look.
Oh, Many pieces of Heavy Equipment would be shipped, (I hate using the word ''Shipped'' for rail transportation), with the rims/wheels attached to the equipment and the tires off for height clearance.
Oh, do not forget to have the loaders place plywood over the window glass of the equipment. You know how those rock throwers can be.
Photobucket appears to be hiding lots of my photos, but here are a few flatcar loads...
Steel plate...
...pipe...
...castings...
...parts for overhead cranes...
...processing machinery...
...lumber...
...more lumber...
...flatcars are also useful as idler cars, for oversize loads...
Wayne
Depressed center flat cars were also used to haul oversized loads that presented clearance issues like this large crate.
There are a lot of good idea's being posted here.
Here's my Two Cent's. A few year's ago (1987) I stumbled across a hobby shop that was closing. I bought out every piece of Plastistruct in the place for a song ( I could have gotten the revolving display too, but my car was already pretty full.)
I also bought EVERY Titchy Train/Gould package of lattice trusses he had. Now I have "load's for life"!
This first load is Plastistruct H - beam's.
This carload, I just finnished, using the aformentiond trusse's.
This is a carload of ship windlas's. I bought these 1/96 scale parts from a "popular" model ship site.
There are all kind's of load's you can get from Woodland Sienics. They have a road grader, and a Insly excavator that I have used for load's on flatcar's . And Rio Grand model's make's some good load stuff too...( if you can find them .... and are willing to pay the price,
For depressed center car's I have used the following...
Good luck with you'r modeling. Hope this help's
Rust...... It's a good thing !
A few ideas:
A 'naked' boiler being readied for shipping:
Boiler_on_flatcar1 by Edmund, on Flickr
A stationary steam engine, AMB Laserkit, IIRC:
Team_track by Edmund, on Flickr
A detail of some NBW work on the timbers of another flanged pipe kit from AMB:
dunnage by Edmund, on Flickr
a pair of slag ladles being shipped out for relining:
Ladle_load1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Another AMB kit, the motor or generators, crated:
IMG_6707_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
AMB again, the fabricated box beam:
IMG_6701 by Edmund, on Flickr
Various prime mover hulks:
Alco_engine by Edmund, on Flickr
The ubiquitous transformer load:
IMG_9716_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_9723_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr
Here's a few photos of 1:1 loads,
Shovel_crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Tank by Edmund, on Flickr
MESTA rolling mill parts:
MESTA_forge2 by Edmund, on Flickr
C-A_w_Trucks by Edmund, on Flickr
Extra long beams:
PRR_Flat_load by Edmund, on Flickr
16" Naval guns:
PRR_F22_W-vleit-NY by Edmund, on Flickr
Hope these ideas may help —
Cheers, Ed
hornblowerHow about boats? Lionel still sells a 4-pack of boats labeled for O gauge but are actually the exact same boats Athearn used to provide as a load for one version of their HO scale 40' flat car
The Athearn boats still come up on eBay from time to time. In addition to the boat on a flat car kit, they also sold the boats themselves in 4 packs or individually.
Here is the original Athearn boat:
Here is a remodelled Athearn launch that I did a few years ago:
A second one in production:
I messed up the paint job on the second one so it currently sits as a derelict hull:
The deck is grooved 0.010 styrene. The stern has been chopped to reduce the height and curve the sides of the hull in a bit.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Very nice Dave! I didn't go anywhere near that much work on my boats. Most of the Athearn/Lionel boats I have came with white hulls and cabin/decks in different colors. Thus, I simply masked and airbrushed the bottoms of the hulls red to simulate anti-fouling paint, brush painted the "wood" sections of the deck tan or brown, then used silver Sharpie markers to "chrome" the various fittings, rails and antenna. I also made sure the deck perimeters were completely glued down to the hulls. They now look significantly better than the original boats.
doctorwayne...parts for overhead cranes...
Great use of drop end gondolas and a single flatcar for oversized loads.
My pike is a mining operation set between the 1970s-80s. Lots of options for mining and maintenance equipment- -big stuff.
Unfortunately, the curves are as tight as 15-inch radii.
Loads to the mine that could be carried on a single 89-footer need to be broken down onto smaller cars.
At the last train show, I was able to attend, I found a pair of 30-foot flatcars along with a 48-foot, 4-truck, "heavy-duty" flatcar (all from separate vendors). The "heavy-duty" flatcar is not depressed.
The 30-footers will act as idler cars for the overhanging load of the H.D. flatcar.
For longer, "light" loads I am scratch building a converted skeleton log car to act as an idler car between the two smaller flatcars with an articulated load.
I know these will run as an "oversized" units, but I haven't decided on what it will carry.
Thanks for the photos and inspiration on loads.
We seen the more common loads.. Let's take a peek outside of the box what say?
1. Bobcat endloaders
2. John Deer Farm equipment.
3. Extra long steel beams or pipes requiring three flat cars.
4.Strip mining Truck dump Beds.
5.Construction crane and two extra flats carrying the long boom.
6. Concrete bridge beams.
7, Plastic pipes
8. wooden caboose going to a museum or private owner.
9.Passenger car trucks
10. Diesel locomotive trucks.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
This is not my photo. This came through my hometown, but I didn't have a camera with me. We get these coming through every-so-often on BNSF.
Kent Johnson’s photo for the Trackside with Trains.com Vol. 110 voting competition. Canon EOS Digital Rebel. 1/400 sec. at f11, ISO 100, 28mm. May 21, 2006, in the Nebraska Sand Hills, east of Alliance, Neb.
https://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/trackside/2009/03/trackside-with-trainscom-vol-110-recap
(If this is against any rules, I apologize and I will remove this post.)
York1 John
How about a mystery load? Simply glue a bunch of scraps of plastic together then cover that with a thin piece of plastic. Our newspaper comes in a thin blue plastic sleeve/bag that works just fine.
A friend salvages gears from old computer equipment; they make some nice H/D loads as well.
At one time, Airfix made plastic models of small, very old steam engines. I think mine is The Rocket which looks right at home on a flat car with rails and plenty of weathering.
Someone mentioned naval gun barrels. I made my own from Evergreen plastic tubing. Note that every other part number fits inside of a larger one... I don't know the exact numbers but for instance, 2 fits inside of 4,m 3 fits inside of 5, etc. you get the idea.
When I wass in high school, I read about the telescope mirror blank that was cast in New York and shipped by depressed center flat car to California. It would be simple to model a big disk (about 2 3/8" in HO) up on edge covered on both sides with sheet metal as they were afraid of vandalism along the way.
If you want a fantasy load, how about a UFO? A friend made one from a football- shaped Christmas ornament complete with flashing LEDs.
Model railroading is fun; don't let others tell you otherwisd. :)
dlm