Greetings,
I just bought and assembled a Bowser Pennsy flat car kit:
Not knowing much about flat cars, what size upright supports would have been used in the “pockets” along the sides? I’m guessing 4 x 4s? Also, in what application would uprights be used on a flat car and how tall would be generally be?
Thanks for the help…
Tom
The pockets were both for stakes and as anchor tiedown points for strapping and chains.
Stakes were used when semi-loose material was loade on the car to keep it from slipping off the sides. So a lod of lumber, or poles or pipe might use stakes. The car would be loaded and then the stakes positioned in the pokets. then the the tops of the stakes would be banded or chained across the top of the load to hold it down and strengthen the stakes.
After the car was unloaded the stakes would be discarded. Except in certain log cars specifically designed for logs (and they didn’t use flat cars like that), it would be extremely rare to see an empty car with side stakes.
any size timber that will fit into the stake pocket just so long as it is tall enough and heavy enough to do the job. the stakes were ususally secured by driving a hardwood wedge down along side it. then a large double headed nail or two would keep the wedge in place. anyway, that’s how i saw it done for years.
grizlump
The neat photo in the Wikipedia article gives a good example of how just a couple of very low stakes in the stake pockets might be all a particular load needed in the way of stakes (likely it was chained in some way to the deck or to other stake pockets). In this case, these are tarp covered tanks in Detroit MI. It is a public domain photo so I assume I am permitted to copy it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loaded_flat_cars,_covered_loads.jpg
Note how you can see the bottom of the stake below the stake pocket in the first flatcar. I assume the stake was secured in some way as to not readily be able to pop out of the pocket.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the help and info, Dave & grizlump. [:)]
Tom