Greetings All,
Freight Car Spotlight #5-2023
C&NW Depressed Center 75'
Four Truck Flatcar #48019
Welcome to another freight car spotlight. Today's spotlight will shine on the Chicago & North Western Railway and a Walthers model of CNW depressed center flatcar #48019 that I recently purchased during the Train Store Haul in May, 2023. Let's take a look at the CNW first.
Chicago & North Western Railway
The CNW was a class one railroad that was chartered in June of 1859. The CNW purchased and merged several other railroads between 1959 and 1893 serving the upper mid west and accumulated large tracts of land in the upper peninsula in Michigan.
By 1899 the CNW had rostered 1,380 locomotives. 1,176 passenger cars and 49,484 freight cars. Changing traffic patterns into the mid 20th century eroded the CNWs rail traffic. After nine years in bankruptcy the CNW reorganized and rapidly dieselized their locomotive fleet.
The CNW opened Proviso Yard in 1929 which was the largest freight yard at the time with 260 miles of track and a 20,000 car capacity. Potatoes from the west were the main loading along with sugar beats and huge amounts of wheat and corn.
In 1972 the Chicago North Western Railway was sold to its employees and became the Chicago North Western Transportation Company but retained the CNW reporting marks.
The "employee owned" heralds started to appear during this time.
In 1985 the CNWTC transferred their stock to the CNW Corporation which took over operations. More stock acquisitions followed and ultimately the CNW was purchased by the UP in 1995. UP commemorated this with the EMD SD70ACe CNW heritage unit #1995
Depressed Center Flatcars Prototype Info
Since their inception railroads have been called upon to carry extremely heavy and oversized loads often using specialized equipment like this Schnabel car. Note the tree trimming this car did along the way!
In service, the smaller four truck 75' depressed center flatcars are used to carry large and bulky loads such as transformers, machinery and military equipment. All of these loads would exceed clearance restrictions if moved on standard equipment.
Loads of this type are also extremely heavy and the load limit for these cars(combined weight of car and load) is almost 200 tons. The cars are built with high strength low alloy steels to help conserve weight and spread the weight among the two high capacity four axle trucks at each end of the car.
With little to no room beneath the car, each set of trucks has its own air and hand brakes which are mounted on platforms at each end as seen on this well done model.
Depending on the types of cargo the car may be subjected to numerous restrictions while in transit. Speeds are kept low, usually 25 to 35 mph and the cars cannot be humped. With some types of cargo idler cars(generally empty conventional flatcars) may be placed at each end to improve train handling or increase clearance between the depressed center car and the others in the train.
The Walthers Model
In the recent train store haul in early May I found the below Walthers kit of a C&NW #48019 four truck 75' depressed center flatcar that was sealed in the box.
The Build
As reported in a prior post the Layout Standards used for my model railroad rolling stock will be used for this model. This includes adding metal wheelsets, painted wheel faces, painting the trucks flat brown, Kadee knuckle couplers, Testor's Dullcote, touching up the paint as needed and a roll test. I won't be able to add additional weight to the car but may address that with the loads.
The kit comes with some prototype information. Note the kit includes plastic wheels, black trucks and horn hook X2F couplers.
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The car is basically assembled. If you look closely there are "dots" of unpainted styrene from cutting the parts from the sprues.
To better secure the coupler box lid and eliminate the coupler sag I cut off the little push pins that held the lids in place. I then drilled a small hole and used some little screws that once held my talgo mounted Bachmann couplers in place.
Much better!!
Good thing we verified this load with the Clearance Bureau in Philadelphia, PA to make sure it would fit thru the tunnel!!
Building and securing the oversized crate
A few months ago I purchased two packages of 1:87 scale lumber from an ebay seller in Hungary with the intention of using it for an oversized load on a depressed center flatcar.
However, the Hungarian wood as it has become known, was too long for the three PC depressed center flats in the fleet. With the purchase of the C&NW car the laser cut lumber strips could be built as is and it would fit the car without a lot of cutting.
Checkout this electric transformer move!
Final Thoughts and Comments
The addition of this "specialized car" to my fleet and the associated loads allows me to run what are known as High & Wide or Dimensional Loads. Movements of this type are visually interesting, move slowly in most cases and would require some careful handling and dispatching during an operations session.
Adding and building two new transformer kits from Walthers gives me the option to run trains like the one in the video with all of the necessary components needed to get the transformers up and running. The wire loads from PC Ralph are perfect for this train.
Additional Reading and Links
CNW 48019 at Marshalltown, Iowa.
CNW Depressed Center Flatcar at Minneapolis, MN Note the ACI label and incorrect date and car number.Chicago & North Western Railway history from wikipedia.
Another great project Sir John! You put a lot of time and effort to bring this H&W freight car to perform on the layout. I like the way you built the wood crate for the car, especially adding the magnet to hold it in place, very creative. Looks like you have a lot of options for loads to be added to the freight car for the op sessions.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next freight car spotlight!
Thank you very much 1:1 Sir Neal!!! The new car does have several options for loads as you noted and can be run in a train or alone with idler cars for more interest..
DeleteThat is a very cool car and you did a nice job making it railworthy on the N.Y.C.T.L. The oversized loads look great on this car and the special high and wide train was a treat! I used to see Chicago Northwestern action at the yard in Marshalltown, IA when I lived the for a year in the early '80s.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Ralph!!! Marshalltown, Iowa was a rail hotspot for sure. There are some really good photos online from the railyard there.
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