[Eastern Roads]

If ever there was a RR car that was plain and simple, yet could haul the most interesting loads, it would have to be, hands down, the lowly Flatcar. These babies haul unconventional, inconvenient, over-size, over-width, odd-shaped, even rare loads of things you'd never think of. Here's a few examples, (warning: this thread will be photo heavy)..We start with a forty foot car with a wrapped lumber load. It was an experiment I did to see if the load parts would land as advertised.


Flatcars haul other RR cars:



They haul odd loads as well:


And they haul the common commodities also.


And one more load pic of new tractors:


Flatcars look great with something on them, and they really catch the viewers eyes when they're around. But what about when they have nothing on them?? They're not much to look at.


So what is to be done with this dilemma?? We have come to the point of our discussion here and some things I've done with my flats. You may have seen my MOW flat I use with a Burro Crane, it hauls the extra rail, and the electro-magnet for the crane when it's out on the line working:



Here's a closer look at the deck, with and without the load:



You can see the decking has been worked over, and it looks like something you'd see on a real flatcar, since it's wood, it takes a beating more than steel. It's missing some of the stakes, and it looks like it's been forgotten out in the rottenest weather imaginable! (Kind of like Canada! Sorry CP, CN! )

Here's another example on a regular revenue car:



Since this thread is going to be a killer for our dialup friends, I'm going to make a second thread, and it will be on what I did to achieve the results you see here. The Western Maryland car I already showed will be our "victim". Stay tuned!!