More Open Car Loads

 Greetings All,

Work continues on creating more open car loads for visual and operational enhancements. 

Heavy Equipment

A brand new Caterpillar Road Grader from the CAT Plant in North Little Rock, Arkansas sits on a New Haven flatcar waiting to be interchanged with the Empire Belt RR for movement to Empire City Caterpillar.

Two Caterpillar bulldozers manufactured in Athens, GA with two crates of parts from the Atlanta Distribution Center sit atop an ATSF flatcar at Terminal Yard waiting to be interchanged with the Empire Belt RR for movement to Empire City Caterpillar.

Or Three Caterpillar bulldozers manufactured in Athens, GA sit atop an ATSF flatcar at Terminal Yard waiting to be interchanged with the Empire Belt RR for movement to Empire City Caterpillar.

A very large Caterpillar Scraper has come up from North Little Rock, Arkansas on a PC depressed center flatcar and has been delivered to Empire City Caterpillar.

Blocking for the Scraper to ride on this NYC heavy duty flatcar worked very well but the Scraper did not clear the crane I placed at Empire City Caterpillar.  

Now it does! 

On another day two crated diesel engines and a crate of parts from the Atlanta, GA Distribution, have been delivered to Empire City Caterpillar atop an ACL bulkhead flatcar

Lumber

Wrapped lumber from Boise Cascade in International Falls, MN on three MDW bulkhead flatcars was lensed in Terminal Yard. The three car shipment is waiting to be moved to University Millwork in Bedford NY.

The wrapped lumber loads were made from available online images and foam core. I'll put a link to them below.

Six foam core strips were used to get the width needed to fill the MDW bulkhead flats.

Large Cement Pipe

An Athearn 50' gondola with newly painted plastic concrete pipe has arrived in Terminal Yard for interchange with the Long Island RR and movement to New York State Department of Transportation District #10.

Simple blocking keeps the pipes in place.

More Scrap Wheel Loads

On January 01, 1958 cast iron wheels were banned from new and rebuilt railcars. From January 01, 1964 no new cast iron wheels were allowed on existing cars. From January 01, 1968 all cast iron wheels were banned from interchange. Add to that regular wear and tear and we're in the sweet spot for gondolas of scrap wheels.

A crane at the Terminal Yard engine terminal loads scrap wheels into gondolas for movement to Kings Port Steel on Ralph's Kings Port Division layout. Looks like another spotlight series is in the making in the background!😉

A pair of buttons and some wire hold the wheels to the "magnet". 

Three loaded gondolas of scrap wheels are ready for movement in either a Penn Central Car Movements series or my own operations.

APRR and EBRR gondolas are loaded with wheels and axles. 

These loads were inspired by this similarly loaded gondola.

Steel Slabs

Two of my Walthers gondolas came with separate bulkheads that are seldom if ever used. Today a pair has been inserted in PC gondola #525702 loaded with steel slabs from Ralph's Kings Port Steel for a non PCCM move to Mid Island Steel in Medford, NY that I use modelers license to have served by the LIRR .

Steel Coils

A dozen steel coils came my way courtesy of PC Ralph who makes the best looking steel coils I've seen. These are perfect for both PCCM and non PCCM traffic from Kings Port Steel on Ralph's layout to various industries on my layout and off layout connections.

New York Central Proto 2000 mill gondolas get the honor of first loading of these very impressive looking steel coils.

Steel Ribbed Cable Reels

These fine looking Chooch open car loads were gifts from PC Ralph. These are really good looking cast loads that have a good amount of weight and detail to them. A nice surprise is the packaging has a deck for use in a gondola or on a flatcar.

The reels look right at home on these bulkhead flatcars.

The reels will also work well as gondola loads. The reels will be eye catching loads coming in and out of Bruce Electric Equipment in the East Bedford / Terminal Yard area of the layout and in bridge traffic between off layout connections.

Heavy Equipment Tires

Another good looking open car load from PC Ralph are these Chooch heavy equipment tires. The tires are perfect for traveling to and from Empire City Caterpillar on the layout as well as the aforementioned bridge traffic.

This is another fine looking cast load that comes with a deck, fine detail and a good amount of weight.

An Atlas 52'6' Empire Belt RR gondola will get the honor of moving these tires to Empire City Caterpillar. The tire load out of the package does not fit in an Athearn 50' gondola but some careful cutting might rectify that. I don't plan on that and will use them in the many 52'6" gondolas I happen to have on the roster.

Final Thoughts and Comments

As I noted previously model railroad gondolas had been referred to as the Rodney Dangerfield's of freight cars. With this latest batch of additions these are Rodney's no more!!

The minimal blocking for some of the loads is not meant to be prototypical but is meant to hold the loads in place and for easy removal.

Special Thank You

A very special thank you to PC Ralph for his generosity in helping make my open cars visually and operationally interesting. Thank you very much Ralph. Your thoughtfulness and generosity is much appreciated. 

Additional Reading

Caterpillar Manufacturing Information

Lumber wraps for printout from the Algoma Central Blog 

Bulkhead Flatcar with Heavy Equipment Tires

Steel coils in gondola

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!