Fooling Around with Flatcars

Greetings All,

Fooling Around with Flatcars

Another Purgatory Box Project

The Flatcar

AAR code FM. A simple piece of equipment and a railroad rolling stock staple from the beginning. Anything that doesn't need weather protection can be hauled on it. Most of the loads will add visual interest and I have enough industries on my layout that could use them. So the question here is, why don't I have a good number of them in my 1:87 scale fleet. Today that will be corrected using rolling stock from the purgatory box.

"Western Pacific Maintenance Of Way Flatcar #8522 07" by Jack Snell - Thanks for over 26 Million Views is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

This current purgatory box project actually began in October 2011 when I repainted four Life-Like Bi-Level auto carriers as Turtle Creek Central auto racks using Microscale decals that came in a Model Railroader magazine. I described the project in this blog entry.

The TCC auto racks looked pretty good and were upgraded with body mounted Kadee couplers and metal wheelsets. They are very free rolling and track very well. However once the novelty wore off they headed to the purgatory box for most of the next thirteen years.

In October 2023 I experimented with de-racking them and putting them into service as standard 50' Flatcars. I reported this in a Purgatory Box Rescue blog entry.

In early June 2024 the Turtle Creek Central flatcars finally went to the Patti-O Paint Shop for repainting and lettering. Here they are fresh out of the shop.

Empties

The local pop group "The Facades" are on the East Bedford train platform waiting for the train to their next gig and checking out the newly painted and lettered MEC 1442 and BAR 1250 flatcars.

The group checks out the BAR 1256 and BAR 1256 flatcars. In a teen magazine "The Facades" later credited seeing the three BAR flatcars coupled together for inspiring the lyrics to their hit song Barbara Ann that was later covered by the Beach Boys.

The main issue that stalled this project was how to cover the six holes in the decks that held the auto racks in place. Some leftover 1:87 scale lumber did the trick for the most part.

Steel

Now in general service the four new flatcars come into Terminal Yard loaded with steel slabs.

A close up of the steel slabs made with wood strips. Decals are from Highball Graphics.

I like the way these cars look with these loads. The 1:87 scale wood strips on the deck covering holes that held the auto racks in place don't look bad with a load. 

Pipe

Four flatcars of pipe are another load that looks good.

Three oversized pipe loads span the four flatcars.

These flatcars as loaded handled the minimum radius 22" curves on the layout with ease and looked good doing it.

Electrical Components

On another day electrical components either make their way to the Long Island Lighting Company or head towards a Northeast utility.

Wrapped / Crated Machinery

Chooch wrapped machinery makes for a good flatcar load.

Wrapped and crated machinery traveling to their next destination.

Heavy Equipment

This is one of my favorites. Caterpillar Equipment to or from Empire City Caterpillar. 

A small bulldozer, heavy equipment tires, crated parts and two diesel engines add to the visual interest of the four car block.

Various loads are on the move.

Final Thoughts and Comments

These four realistic looking flatcars fill a hole in my rolling stock roster and will see much more layout time than the Turtle Creek Auto Racks ever did. 

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!