Flatcar rant

[sirenwerks]

While everyone's going on about their boxcars not being right, I thought I'd open another floodgate - about flatcars.

MT makes beautiful 50' fishbelly and straight side flatcars. Well, kinda. The vast majority similarly designed proto flats out there DON'T have a side mounted brake wheel like MT's nor that odd spacing of stake pockets. Those two aspects are hard to get around if you need lots of flats for your road. I have never actually seen a pic of a car that comes remotely close to what they used for their prototype, but that's beside the point.

Walthers has a beaut of a GSC, but it's too new a design to be prominent on my line, same with Athearn's. The dainty proportions of those cars are perfect for their prototypes but not much else. Atlas's Trainman 50-footer is spot on in terms of its meaty fishbelly  proportions, brake wheel placement, and stake pocket layout for the 'average' flat. And it's well suited to splice into a host of other, longer flats (and it's easier to turn a fishbelly into a straight side than vice versa). But if you pay attention to the stake pockets (which I can't help but do now that I have noticed) they have the dimensions of a tree trunk. Older dies used by MP, Con Cor, etc. show the same problem.

As someone who wants to model a Western road (WP) in the early 70s and needs 30 to 40 flats for his home road alone, and another 20 to 30 for neighboring roads (BN, GN, NP, CB&Q, ATSF), I'm looking at a daunting/depressing situation. I can accept the quarks of the MT cars (which are more noticeable as you try to decal around the weird 5-2-2-5 stake pocket rhythm and the brake wheel mount); conveniently forget that older cars existed and run with the Walthers and Athearn cars; or either figure out a way to retrofit the Atlas cars with new stake pockets (and I'm not thinking just blocks of styrene, but semi-real usable stake pockets) or pay for the therapy to live with them.

Any ideas? Any hope MT will bust out a beautifully cast more normal design in the near future? Or better, that Atlas will upgrade their flat from Trainman quality to that of its newest gondolas?

[asciibaron]

get an ORER, do your research, don't ask here, are you stupid, bash it, the foobies are fine, you don't have a layout, and you knew that before you got into N scale.

did i miss anything?

[Philip H]

get an ORER, do your research, don't ask here, are you stupid, bash it, the foobies are fine, you don't have a layout, and you knew that before you got into N scale.

did i miss anything?

Touche'!  ;D

[asciibaron]

Touche'!  ;D

try the veal.

[Sokramiketes]

Agreed.  GHQ/Deluxe did small runs of a cast metal 50 ton (53'6") AAR flats that are about the perfect "typical" flat car of your era.  Would be nice to see this car out in a die cast/plastic composite model with availability.

Ascii- The differences between this inquiry and yours are too numerous to mention.  

[asciibaron]

in all seriousness, i think you are going to have to bash some models.  i wouldn't want to bash 40-60 cars, but if you can do it assembly line style, it might make it less daunting.  

do you have a picture of a prototype you are thinking about? anything you need from this list? http://www.nscaleintermodal.com/railcars.html

i need to do trailer flats so i feel your pain.

[sizemore]

get an ORER, do your research, don't ask here, are you stupid, bash it, the foobies are fine, you don't have a layout, and you knew that before you got into N scale.

did i miss anything?

Sand in what part of your anatomy?

[sizemore]

As someone who wants to model a Western road (WP) in the early 70s and needs 30 to 40 flats for his home road alone, and another 20 to 30 for neighboring roads (BN, GN, NP, CB&Q, ATSF), I'm looking at a daunting/depressing situation. I can accept the quarks of the MT cars (which are more noticeable as you try to decal around the weird 5-2-2-5 stake pocket rhythm and the brake wheel mount); conveniently forget that older cars existed and run with the Walthers and Athearn cars; or either figure out a way to retrofit the Atlas cars with new stake pockets (and I'm not thinking just blocks of styrene, but semi-real usable stake pockets) or pay for the therapy to live with them.

Any ideas? Any hope MT will bust out a beautifully cast more normal design in the near future? Or better, that Atlas will upgrade their flat from Trainman quality to that of its newest gondolas?

*using my Jedi mind tricks that were once used to get you to try the IM F-Units...*

I'd match them as close as I could with current production models; then roll my own decals for the inadequacies of the car itself for WP (or any other roadname). That way you're not stuck building 20-40 cars and you still get usable pockets.

Speaking of flats I wish MT would make the speedscript version of the WM fast freight flat they do (I mean come on how many reissues are you going to do of that thing!). Help me out Joe! Yeah I know...roll my own.

The S.

[wm3798]

Mmm.  Jumbo stake pockets indeed.  The trick is to keep 'em moving and put dazzling loads on top to distract the eye!

Lee

[wcfn100]

Mmm.  Jumbo stake pockets indeed.  The trick is to keep 'em moving and put dazzling loads on top to distract the eye!

Lee

Then maybe video would be a better option. 

Jason

[wm3798]

Lo res, too!

[sizemore]

The trick is to keep 'em moving and put dazzling loads on top to distract the eye!

Lee

What if we just launch them into orbit?

[davefoxx]

The trick is to keep 'em moving and put dazzling loads on top to distract the eye!

Lee

What if we just launch them into orbit?

Blender?

[wcfn100]

The GHQ/Deluxe car is nice but does need new stirups.  Fortunately, the pewter is soft enough to remove with a new blade.



I would love to see these cars cast in plastic so I could actually load them.  

I have the same problem with th IM 60' flat.



Jason

[cv_acr]

get an ORER,

ORER's are pretty helpfull, but they only give you overal dimension information. Wouldn't tell you builder, stake pockets, fishbelly etc.

Some (most) things you need photos for.

It's good for checking that the car matches a number series that is at least the right size/capacity and getting the entire number range for that car type. It can't tell you if the model or paint scheme is accurate. They're also great if you have one for the specific year you're modelling, you can at least verify that the number series existed and was in service at that time. Great for checking if the era of a model is correct.