Markpierce replied they shipped aircraft to Russia in boxes, they also flew hundreds of fighters and bombers through Canada following the Alaska highway then over to Russia, Edmonton was a major staging area, not all of them made it to Alaska, 3, B-25 or B-26’s crashed in one area in the Yukon called "million dollar valley’ they are still there.
Northrop ships the aft fuselage of the F-18 to us in St Louis…they’ve been doing it for the past 30 years.
Lots of semi plausible answers - but for me those flatcar airplane loads are in a league with Official US Army Missile Launcher Car and other such toy trains stuff.
Regardless of the reason, I’ll bet some where deep in the history of Athearn there is a real life photo of just such a Beechcraft on a flat car.
The dealer/final assembly thing makes sense to me, just like new cars. If I was buying a “new” airplane, I don’t think I would want it to have hundreds of hours on it having been flown thousands of miles across the country.
I surely would not pay the “new” car price for a car that had been driven from Detroit to Baltimore. If a car comes with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, I expect to be the person who puts 35,989 of those miles on it.
Sheldon
Because Lionel had the same car in O-gauge? That must be it. I had that car in the 50s, and it was also a Beechcraft Bonanza, notable for the 45-degree angled tail section.
Seriously? I doubt that Beech designed the wings to come off like that. This was not a carrier-based aircraft, after all.
The plane, of course, was safe from train-launced missiles, unless it was located next to the exploding dynamite car. Had one of those too, I did.
Can one of the moderators please edit the OP so that it doesn’t force the thread over the edge of the screen?
Maybe at the time there were no trucking lines that where shipping nation wide. I don’t know for sure, but I would think that it would have been in the late 60’s or early 70’s before trucking lines began going coast to coast with regular service.
You know, now that I think about it. I seen one on a tow-truck once and for same reason. It was headed to a repair shop. The field it saw at didn’t do repair work and wouuldn’t let them work on it there. Why? unkown.
Aww, go ahead, tell him. This would be an ideal time to test the limits of the new moderator. [:-,]
DILLIGAF?
For getting it from point A to point B without spending money on fuel and a pilot shipping it via flatcar makes good economic sense. It also save wear and tear on the planes engine(s).
EDITED BY JWHITTEN: Added some spaces in the URL to let it wrap.
What about things such as Military Scout Planes, they don’t have to be recertified to have their wings removed and reattached, come to think of it, neither did the Aero-Car.
Mark
WGAS
I guess it would also be the same reason they have shark carrying cars
Missile Launch car the real thing
http://www.themilitarystandard.com/missile/peacekeeper/railcar.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacekeeper_Rail_Garrison_Car
An earlier proposal
They have “sharks” that carry cars??? Talk about exploitation!!! I wonder if they also carry “grudges”…
Mark
WGAS
I’m not familiar with other states but here in Missouri at the main shops of the National Guard they had a rail line that ran into it and they received almost all of their equipment by “rail”, including helicopters for the Air Guard across the Missouri River at the airport.
They built new shops about 15-20 years ago outside of town but it also has a rail siding run into it and I would imagine that they are still receiving everything by rail, thankfully for the rest of us.
So although that Athearn car may be as realistic as the old Giraffe car it’s premise may be sound as I’m sure that more than one “new” small aircraft was delivered by rail back years ago and may still be for all I know, really just never gave it much thought until now although I would think that any “new” aircraft would be “crated” not only to protect the load but also for ease of handling.
The Interstate Highway System brought about a lot of changes, not all of them for the better. Maybe the high cost of fuel will put a large percentage of it back on the rails where it belongs.
Mark
WGAS
sayyyy whaaaat?
You’re joking, right?
The reason that Athearn introduced this car is that in the late 1950’s for a year or two, Lionel’s HO line was made by Athearn. Lionel, which was just going into their ‘missle launcher’ phase, came out with a flatcar with an airplane on it in O gauge, along with a flatcar with a cabin cruiser type boat. Apparently Lionel wanted these cars in their HO line and so had Athearn produce them, along with an “Auto-Loader” 50’ flatcar and a Virginian rectifier electric (which used the ‘GP-9’ chassis).
It wasn’t until about 1958 or '59 that Lionel began producing their own HO trains. I believe that some of the Lionel HO from the mid-'50’s was also manufactured by Rivarossi and sold under the Lionel brand name.
That cabin cruiser is also a popular re-release for Athearn. From a marketing standpoint, you are buying two piees in one here, not only the flatar, but those kids can also play with the plane as well. There will be a company on my layout who ships out those Cabin Cruisers (and other modeartley small yachts) by flatcar, as well as a few other things. One, their location in steep river valley makes Semi traffic nigh impossible.
I understand the recertification part about making sure tey are put on orrectly, but what’s the big deal about taking the wings OFF? Yeah, I know they didn’t use a tab and slot, but I don’t feel like riviting an HO model, and a removeable wing seems like a good idea to me. In fact, I may just have to model a short string of these things as a through train, going to some dealer somewhere.
Why would someone ship an airplane by flatcar?
For spite… [:-,]
John
Yeah, RTFM ! [:-,]
(I suggest you don’t look that one up 
John