A good load for flatcars is lumber:
There's no point in wasting a lot of expensive stripwood just for making the load, though, so here's one method of making it go further:
Another common flat car load is plate steel:
I used Plastruct ABS for the steel plates - mine came in 2' strips, about 1.25" wide, perfect for HO scale. The last picture, above, shows one prototypical method of securing them on the car: the side stakes (and additional blocking for narrower sheets) prevent shifting, while the longer sheets are stacked atop the shorter ones. When the cross blocking is added atop the ends of the longer sheets, then secured, the ends are drawn down towards the car's deck, trapping all of the pieces and preventing them from moving endwise. The cross blocking has a rod or bolt installed through each of its ends, which extends down into the stake pocket. A rod usually has its top end bent-over (like an upside-down "L") with a small plate welded onto its lower end where it extends below the stake pocket - this prevents it from lifting out of the pocket. A torch is used to remove the rod when the car reaches its destination. For my load, I used a nbw castings to represent the top end of threaded rods which extend down into the stake pockets. On the prototype, the bottom of the rod is shaped like a "J", and hooks around the lower edge of the pocket - the washer and nut is then added to the threaded top end and tightened down to secure the load.
Not all flatcars used for a shipment are loaded, either. The one shown below is acting as an idler car for a load of over-length poles in the accompanying gondola:
Here, multiple flat cars and gondolas are used to ship a number of related loads, in this case an overhead electric crane which will be assembled on-site at its destination.
Note that the flatcars do double duty, both carrying a component and acting as idlers for the over-length main bridge girders carried by the gondolas.
The empty gondolas on either end of this train provide space between the large loads and the crews on the loco and caboose and also offer extra braking ability.
This gondola is carrying a couple of industrial pressure vessels, probably destined for GERN. I made them from plastic rolls from office machine paper, plus some sheet styrene for the ends. The fittings are from the scrapbox, while the bracing is built-up from strip styrene "lumber":
Not all cars which appear empty from trackside actually are:
Some photos from the air (courtesy of Secord Air services) reveal more:
A load of crushed stone, a dense material which usually reaches the car's weight capacity before the car is physically full. The load shown is a loose load, which will be dumped back into its container once the load has been delivered:
Some new freight car wheels (so new I haven't yet painted them
):
These are from a Tichy kit for a wheel flatcar, although they're also available separately:
A load of rail:
This is otherwise scrap rail, often brass, but it could also be short leftovers from tracklaying. I usually pile them by size - these are all code 100 brass, stripped from Atlas bridges that have been seen here many times:
While I now doubt that these two loads are prototypically-braced, they were cheap and easy to build. The first was made from the barrels of Bic "Round Stic" pens - (the pens are placed to hide their raised lettering):
This load used the ink cartridges from the same pens - simply slice of the tips with your X-Acto:
Here are some various scrap loads. All are made-up of loose material, leftovers from modelling projects or just "interesting" junk from around the home or workshop:
Scrap axles and tires from Rivarossi passenger cars, blackened with Hobby Black:
Blackened stakes from Athearn flatcars:
Coils of scrap wire, reclaimed from open-frame motors left over from re-motoring jobs - this wire is coated with shellac, so the blackener won't work on it. Instead, after coiling the wire around the shaft of a screwdriver, I placed them all on a metal sheet, then played the flame of a propane torch over them, burning off the shellac and discolouring the wire:
These are what remains of the armatures after the wire has been removed. Once they'd all been separated, I threw them in some blackener, then used them as a scrap load. I'm not sure what they're supposed to be, but they looked very "industrial" to me
:
The loads in my hoppers are removeable, too, although, like the crushed stone, they're "live" loads - granular material that's left loose. It's poured into the cars using a paper cup and simply dumped back into the container once the car has been delivered to the customer.
This load, made with locomotive traction grit picked up at work, is meant to represent Anthracite coal:
This one, industrial coke breeze (fines), also from the same source, is my version of bituminous coal. I use it in my locos' tenders, too, as a "live" load:
Continued in the next post...