Late 50s to early 60s bulkhead flats

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I got the notion to model the Southern in the late 50s and wonder what variety of bulkhead flatcars were in common use at that time.

Thanks

2

Pennsy TrucTrain Service - An Overview (at Keystone Crossings) lends a broad overview of Trailer On Flatcar (TOFC) in the 1950s, and what was in use at that time, to get you started. Note the extensive timeline.

3

tgindy’s link has lots of info about early TOFC freight cars, but in terms of bulkhead flats, I think you can’t go wrong w/ 53ft GSC flatcars w/ bulkheads, like the Walthers kits (not the Canadian prototypes they are offering now, the GSC 1950s flatcars with optional bulkheads & TOFC equipment.)

Problem is, searching the web will turn up hundreds of images of MODEL GSC bulkhead flats, but not much in the way of protoype images., so there you’re on your own I’m afraid for actual Southern RR prototype flatcar images.

4

There might have been some, but not a lot of bulkhead flatcars back then. Pulpwood cars would have had bulkheads (and on Southern, probably risers or V-decks for handling 4’ logs in two rows) but other cargoes like lumber would have simply been handled on regular flatcars.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cbq34117&o=cbq
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp303641&o=cprail
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=wp2249&o=wp

Here’s a good reason why bulkhead flatcars later became popular lumber service cars:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn661820&o=cn

There were some bulkhead flats though. Can’t make out the build/weigh date on this one, but looks like a late 1950s or early 1960s car:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=nkp3116&o=nkp

Another one, not sure of the build date, but photographed in 1966 and clearly at least few years old:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cbq95005&o=cbq

These are a couple of the GSC cars mentioned by someone else, can’t make out any weigh dates to date it though:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=drgw22667&o=drgw
http://canadianfreightc

5

Another good site to use is http://rr-fallenflags.org/

1950s shots are pretty hard to come by anywhere on line, but there’s some occasional goodies in there. Check out Southern, Norfolk Southern (original), and other nearby lines to the area you’re looking at.

6

I recommend getting a copy of the “Official Railway Equipment Register” for the time period you’re interested in. Then, for any railroad you like (say, the Great Northern), you can find bulkhead flats by looking for flatcars with extreme heights greater than about 5 feet. For the GN, there’s cars numbered from 60100 to 60119. Then you can search out photos of those cars. There’s a picture of 60119 on page 85 of “Great Northern Equipment Color Pictorial Book Two–Freight Cars” by Scott Thompson.

Ed

7

It is also worth mentioning that at any given point you have chosen for a prototype, many cars are going to be decades old – 30 years and older. So among the resources to check would be old Car Builder Cyclopedias dating back to 1931 and even before. For example the last Pennsylvania Railroad car of any type that I saw or photographed, in the early 1990s, was a PRR flat car.

My point is don’t confine your search to cars that were new or fairly new in your era.

Another good resource – the many volumes put out by the Railroad Prototype Cyclopedia.

http://rpcycpub.com/

Volume 20, sold out but perhaps still to be found at swap meets, have a big variety of open load bracing and securing practices with plenty of vintage flat cars and bulkhead flats being shown.

Dave Nelson

8

Bulkhead flatcars also generally have a mechanical designation of “FB”, while standard cars are “FM”.