So I purchased a 68ft Atlas Trainman flatcar (rather similar to this, except BNSF), and I already have a load of steel plate ready to put on it. Flatcar looked OK…at first
Time to weather it, add a handful of details like coupler cut bars, and maybe some of the more visible brake piping), and paint that deck wood, as opposed to that odd grey deck color (not too interested in spending US$10.00 more on an Imagine This wood replacement deck).
Fine, lets check the brakewheel…
Unlike the images on that Atlas Trainman model page I linked to above, there is no brakewheel, nor even the slightest hint of a mounting stub.
Time to check out the prototype photos, maybe I can cobble something up…
Greenbrier (which owns Gunderson, which MR claimed made the bulkhead cars for TTX) currently only offers the 68ft bulkhead flat and 85ft flat deck models. Hunting around, I see a lot of 68 foot BULKHEAD flatcars (listed as 62 foot interior length). I don’t see much - actually nothing for prototype 68 foot plain flat car.
I get that grumpy feeling that Atlas just took it’s bulkhead flatcar deck, and swapped in a plain flatcar deck, creating an imaginary new model creation. The livery is already hokey, with a 1976 build date, but the entire car? Is this the old MDC 50ft tank car all over again, at this late date?
So, did Gunderson ever create 68ft plain wood deck flat cars like this for the North American market (guessing 1990s and later)? Did Trenton Works? Did anyone?
If so, what did the brake wheel look like, anything like that model image above?
if not…well, never mind then.
Note: plain wood decks preclude those decks with mid-deck channels, tie-down and
According to what I just read,from a Google search,TTX,starting using them in the Intermodal service,Built 1968,but I could not find a builder,at least they are not hokey. Did not show a pic though,so no brake wheel shot…
Heere’s one in a number series close to the Atlas model: http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=62356. It has the hand crank mechanism toward the right end. Inside length, which I presume is deck length, is shown to be 68 feet.
You might search the railcarphotos website and enter BNSF and whatever road number Atlas has printed on it. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find a close photo.
I wish to thank everyone so far, but the evidence provided has indicated that this particular model from Atlas Trainman is just a prototype-less derivative of their 68ft Bulkhead flat.
Working off the info provided by Maxman I ended up on a page listing the various TTX flatcar classes by Reporting marks - in addition to TTMX (the only images of these are in Aircraft part service), there is the TTJX class (which seem to be in an earlier style more similar to the intermountain OTTX than the Atlas offering). More searching, while interesting (I was finding images of interesting railroad prototypes after all), was relatively fruitless in finding this elusive 1990s 68 ft flatcar “prototype”.
JaBear did provide a missing link (I found via image search that BNSF clip art with the Front End Loader shipment several times, but could not access the page from the BNSF site for some reason), but it’s not the same flatcar (e.g. “Chains in 4 longitudinal channels, stake pockets” - my flatcar is a plain deck…and as mentioned oddly “Imagine This” made a wood replacement floor - did they do any research on a prototype, or just copied the Atlas deck pattern using real wood)?
Anyway, the BNSF flatcar diagram also linked by JaBear provides the height and location of the brakewheel, so in the best tradition of this hobby’s predecessors (which, since I’ve been modeling since the late '70s must now include me), I will add a brakewheel/staff/support brace (2 half-hemispheres of plastic it seems) at that location on the model, convince myself that it looks prototypical, and declare victory (the lack of a brakewheel on this flat model seems very obvious - the model was designed as the contemporary Gunderson Bulkhead flat which has a brakewheel; when Atlas cobbled up this plain deck flat, while they included one on the pre-production models, they forgot to add the brakewheel to the production model).
My IC&E Versions did come with a Brake wheel Pilot Mounted next to the Coupler (like the BNSF Drawing).
It was easily destroyed, & would look better with a scale replacement.
With Available Detail Parts you could do either the Brake wheel shown in the BNSF drawings, or the Side mounted Rachet like the 89 Footers use.
Edit/Add - PS: In IC&E DVD’s the sinmilar car’s decks are wood, but I have not given time to either Masking & Painting the existing deck, or Milling it out for a Wood one.
I did two things regarding this Atlas Trainman flatcar (which was on the back-burner for awhile):
First, the obvious step of seeing if there really is a prototype BNSF flatcar with that reporting number: from a rail picture archive site, I find there is indeed such a prototype, a 68ft flat car, straight side sills, fishbelly underframe, so Atlas did come up with a reasonable match there (there is a number of such flatcars in that range of reporting marks)
Next, I e-mailed Atlas, and they replied that the flatcar derivative of their Trainman Bulkhead flat is indeed a generic version, but there are close matches. So, no true reality, but close enough.
Well, the second answer pretty much frees me to detail the flatcar in a manner similar to it’s actual prototype doppleganger, which includes a Rachet-Style brake lever, and above deck hand-hold/grab-irons (the deck is the main visible difference; on the prototype it does NOT extent past the side sills, on the model the deck does - since I’m putting a steel plate load on the car, I’m not going to freak out about it.