Some freight cars for a 1940s Pennsy layout

[Russ Bellinis]

Next up are some more P2K mill gons with rolled steel loads (Walthers), seated on a wooden carrying frame. Can anyone clue me in to how they were actually transported?












Jon

Jon, each roll weighs about 10 tons, so they are usually carried on very short cars. If hauled in a mil gon, or long flat car or when being hauled on semi-trucks, one roll would be loaded above the trucks on each end, or in the case of a truck a roll over the rear wheels and fifth wheel of the truck and a roll over the rear wheels of the trailer. If you look at Walthers steel coil cars, on those cars the under frame is extremely heavy duty, so the coils are distributed full length in the car. I've seen BNSF hauling steel coils out of the Harbor here in Los Angeles on open but heavy duty flat car @ 30 feet long without covers. I'm not sure where the destination is, but since the cars are open, I would presume to some dry location. The covers seen on the Walthers cars are there to keep the steel dry and rust free when being hauled through rain storms.