I recently saw some old video of a World War Two era train that consisted of nothing but Sherman tanks on flat cars. I was so taken by it that I decided to model it. Luckily Walmart is now carrying 1/144 scale World War Two tanks including Sherman’s that worked real well for my purposes. So I ran out to every Walmart within fifty miles around and bought up all the N scale Sherman tanks I could find. I then bought several Atlas flat cars of mixed roads all with built dates before 1945. I paid an average of $1.97 per tank plus tax, some of which I got for $1.00 out of the clearence isle. Then I see some yo yo on ebay trying to sale these same tanks for $5.00 each… Anyway, I’ve got a really cool looking train that was a little bit of a challenge to assemble.
Sorry, my camera died about a year ago, but it looks almost just like the picture provided by river_eagle except that there are wooden posts laying across the front and back of each tank as it was on the real thing. I also painted a tan muzzle cover about 1/16 of an inch back from the tip on the gun of each tank. I was also told that the guns were always pointed toward the caboose rather than toward the loco for safety reasons - but I’m not sure how true that is…
So tell me river_eagle, did you have a hard time finding your tanks?.
I think the procedure was for the turrets to be rotated towards the rear of the tank for clearance purposes. Also, @35 tons each, those Shermans had better be on 70 ton capy flats (quick Watson! the magnifying glass!) If it wasn’t for it’s being Christmas Eve and a quibling moritorium being in effect, I might have something to say about those 1944 era tanks being across the tracks from some 1980 era covered hoppers but it’s probably due to some warpage in the time/space continuum or some equally handy explanation.
I never can find any 1-87 tanks that are NOT roco or 1/72 scale. Im always sitting in walmart toy line eyeballing a diecast tank trying to measure it for scale match to HO.
You N scalers have all the luck =) I may just put together a platoon of M1a1’s onto modern era flats and call it done instead of beating my head on the WW2 tank wall.
I would think those shermans need to be one per flatcar. They did have light Stuarts two to a deck with half tracks, trucks etc…
Actually Mr. Safety Valve, I’d really like a mixture of tanks, half tracks, jeeps and portable guns, but the tanks were all I could come up with at a reasonable price…
As for one tank per car. The video I saw had two tanks per car which is why I went with it that way.
While buying the flat cars, I accidently bought a couple of old Atlas cars with built dates of 11-15… You can imagine how elated I was when I discovered this because I have very few pieces of rolling stock that go back that far. They were made in the late 1960s according to the boxes they came in. I got them both off ebay for $5.00 plus a couple of bucks shipping. That’s the best deal I’ve gotten on anything all year. They’re going to end up with tarp covered loads on them.
i remember once seeing a picture of a consist of general lee’s on flat cars and i believe they are bigger than a sherman and they are one to a car. i have been trying to find those tanks but i think im going to have to scratchbuild them.
Maybe in that picture of the sherman’s they are going to museums somewhere?
since we’re talking about 1/144 scale tanks on 1/160 scale flats, pure accuracy is out the window from the start.
yes, the travel lock support for the barrel is on the rear of the tank, so the turrent should face the rear of the tank.
the tanks would be driven on to the car via ramp, and that determined direction of tanks on the train, would not be backed onto car to set direction, if fact in pic you can see I accidently mounted one tank the wrong way (since been corrected)
time warp partially due to the Ntrak factor, but Shermans stayed in US service late into the 50’s, and with some gaurd units, as well as allied countries thru the 60-70’s
You’re not looking hard enough. Walthers lists Shermans in HO scale made by WKW, Bloey, EKO, Heiser’s, Model Power, Roco and Selly. This site: http://home.houston.rr.com/diecasttanks/Sherman.htm Shows Shermans also being made by Corgi, Matchbox, Zlymex and Yat Ming. This site: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/NewHO.html Shows a new 1/87th Sherman by Armourfast. And what’s wrong with the Roco Shermans? Their basic Sherman is a good representation of an M4a2 with a cast hull. The detailing is decent, and it’s pretty affordable. All you need to do is add a few towing staples to the hull for the tiedown points, and you’re all set. I’ve got 20 waiting for the day I finally assemble my “tank train”, and I’ve prepped them by adding the staples, tool crates, and 1/2 ounce of weight to each.
I’ve got several photos of TWO Shermans (or Lees) per flatcar, and three Stuarts per flatcar. It all depends on the capacity of the cars (40, 50 or 70 tons?) and where you put the tanks. If you notice in most of the photos, the Shermans are right over the truck bolsters, meaning that you can add weight right up to the car’s capacity. If all of that weight was in the center, there’s no way the cars could carry more than one Sherman apiece.
I see this arrangement for “military trains” all the time at train shows, and cringe every time. Unless you’re modeling 1940 and early 1941, you would NOT see this rolling through the countryside. In '40-41, the Army sent various National Guard regiments, brigades and divisisions to one of two training centers to train up for impending war. The largest maneuvers happened in Louisiana, where several divisions were sent for wargames. In those cases you’d see vehicles and equipment of several types in the same train. Byt diring and after he war, all you’d see would be one type of vehicle heading from the factory to the embarcation points. So to make a truly accurate military load you’ll only need one type of vehicle. And don’t mix vehicles and troop cars: they travelled in seperate trains.
Actually, the Lees were a ton lighter than the Shermans. They were just taller, which makes them look bigger. As for HO scale Lees, try Roco and Heiser’s Models. Both make M-3’s.
With all this discussion of military equipment, does anyone have the complete story about Roco Minitanks (HO scale) Apparently they are still alive and well (I visited what I guess is their main website: http://www.minitanks.at (I kinda figured out the various links, although I don’t speak German and didn’t really feel like using Babelfish over and over), although awhile back I heard they were out of business, discontinued, history. Re-inforcing this was the fact that the Roco mini-tanks pages were gone from the current Walthers Catalog (this spread used to be maybe 5-7 pages in earlier editions), although perhaps that’s due to distribution issues vis Horizon Hobbies. Probably I should find out what the support equipment for a tank platoon (in the US has 4 tanks) and for an artillery battery, and order a modern-era US set before Roco discontinues more stuff (I notice some items from the past are gone already).
I got run over but good in this thread! Gimme a sec to peel this flat penny off the rail and state that I was merely being conservative on weights and capacities.
I have been trained to haul 51,000 pound steel coil “Belly loaded” on a 48’ Ravens Aluminum 10’ spread trailer and when you concentrate that much weight in about 15 feet it is a very serious load.
I concede that railroad cars are good capacities and consider the other models availible for tanks in HO scale and will do some more research.
Excellent! I’m going to have to check out WalMart now. I haven’t seen anything smaller than 1:87 at my local ones…But I haven’t been there in a few weeks, and now am due in.
