Where Have all the Flat cars gone?

Hey rails, is it me, or are flat cars disappearing from dealer's shelves ? I go to 2-3 different train stores in L A and most times can not find any, say, 40 or 50ft HO standard flat cars by Athearn or Atlas..Yes , I found 1 with a transformer load on it ( which I didn't care for ) . I really like flats but can't find them these days.. My guess is they don't command a high price compared to a hopper or box and thus they don't make many as they could/would so that the more expensive items do get sold..I'm talking flats, not spine or drop center or well cars; Good old 1930s-50s flats with wooden floor planks, stake pockets and a hand-brake wheel, riding on bettendorf trucks. Am I not alone in this seeming dillema ?

 

I see plenty of them up in norcal. Transition era with boat or plane loads seem to be most popular. They fly off the shelf.

 

I live in Michigan about 2 1/2 hours from Chicago and have noticed the same shortage of flat cars since I started in model railroading 3 years ago. I think I noticed early on because about all I buy for rolling stock is flat cars. I model military trains and need plenty of flats for my tanks, jeeps and other military vehicles. Since Athearn ditched the blue box line and most manufacturers don't make flats, they seem harder to come by. So any time I am at a train show, swap or hobby shop I scoop up as many as I can afford. I have noticed a few companies putting out flats recently but they are either insanely expensive, like Intermountain's for $27.00 or come with loads that I don't want.

Right now I bet I have 120 flats with loads on them plus another 25 waiting to be weathered and loaded up. I hope you have luck finding them!

Ty • Holland, Michigan

 

Nice to know it's not just my imagination. Others are experiencing this, too... Yup, I bet flats cost so much less than other rolling stock that they issue much much less of them. A 40ft flat should be around $8-10 bucks with no load. A box or hop is now around $25-30...I'd like to see a, say, 6 piece set of flats come out..at say $45-50...This way manufacturer would be using a compairable amount of materials to about one hopper (+-), and still make a profit..I'd buy that 6 pack..

 

My next layout will be bassed on hauling pulp wood to the paper mill. So I better start looking for deals on HO scale flats. :tb-err:

 

Being that I want to do Marias Pass, I'm with you on finding the flatcars for pulp wood ;

 

This is undoubtedly, as some posters already suspect, a reflection of the profit factor that dominates the industry today. What the OP was looking for represents the older/traditional versions of these cars produced by Athearn, MDC, Tichy, et al. for decades. The 40' and 50' flat cars representing those mainly from the Transition Era and earlier often were sold without loads and as such could not justifiably command much of a price. Today the more modern and extra long TOFC versions, with detailed trailers included, can be sold at a MUCH higher figure and this is what I am seeing mostly being produced and offered in shops. Even just the latest sets of the over-the-road trailers, by themselves, are bringing huge prices these days.

The hobby has changed greatly over the past decade and has become mostly about high-end, high detail, bigger is better, models. Prices have correspondingly risen to unheard off figures that are 6x to 8x what they were for rolling stock in the early 1990's. If the hobbyist desires the old standard and thus far more reasonably priced cars it is pretty much necessary to resort of sources like eBay, or some train shows, where the older rather basic 40' and 50' flat cars still abound.


NYW&B

 

It must be a region thing, because at our local show, you can find flat cars of the BB and MDC variety for dirt cheap. Even my LHS has older BB flats.

 

I'm wondering how hard it would be to build 40' pulp haulers. They didn't have much to them. I would just need the appropriate trucks and knuckles. Is there some plans for those things. I can't find any real ones around here anymore.

 

Not exactly plans, but take a look at what this fellow has done with Tichy 40' flats for pulpwood service. The approach is straight forward and should be easily adaptable for Athearn or MDC if you have at least a little scratchbuilding experience.

http://trainweb.org/algoma/modelgallery.html

NYW&B

 

Shortround - Don't know if this should be on this thread, but hey - pulpwood flats (around here they used to call them "wood racks" or just "racks") are a type of flat car. The manufacturers (that I know of) have been Athearn, Atlas. Tichy, and Walthers.

The Athearn cars have been panned as being more of a bulkhead flat. And that is a fact as far as some of the later made cars go. But, with a load of short-logs (pulpwood), you can't tell the difference. Some of the erlier racks were made by the railroads themselves and had flat, wooden floors just like Athearns. Lately Athearn has been supplying this same car with a removable cast load and to me they're good enough.

Atlas has also provided a model of the General Steel Castings 40 ft. wood rack. This is a factory "tailor-made" complete wih the depressed center and drain holes. As far as I can tell it is a very accurate model of this type car. And, don't know how common it was nation-wide, think that almost every south eastern road had at least a small block of them.

Tichy has an exact replica of an ACL rack in resin. Haven't paid much attention to them I seem to remember them being rather expensive and a resin kit, neither of which I need to deal with right now.
However, take a look. I think I read somewhere that someone (InterMountain???) is marketing them now so the foregoing may have changed. I do know that anything from Tichy, when built, is beautiful.

Walthers has supplied a 50 ft. Southern Iron & Equipment Co, (SIECO) wood rack. As far as I know they come in 2-packs and again, are very accurate cars. This again is a "tailor-made" supplied with the depressed center and drain holes. Don't know how wide spread they were, but SIECO supplied box cars to rr's nation wide.

And, don't know about where you live, but around here most every train that had wood racks also had wood chip hoppers also. Athearn makes a 3-bay, Walthers used o make a 2-bay.

p.s. Soo Line RR used gondolas to handle pulpwood, placed in the gons on the ends???

 

Forgot to mention the Train-Miniature pulp wood cars. As far as I know Walthers bought the former T-M cars but I haven't seem them offered since the 1970's. However they were very light and kind of "track-shy." I cured that by adding metal trucks and gluing 3 pcs. of code 55 to the deck as per some photos of SAL racks that I had.

 

Thanks for the input guys. What I'm seeing around here since my return is a type of gondola or bulk head. What was used in northeast Wisconsin in the '60s didn't have bulkheads. They used some heavy logs on end for bulk heads and usually didn't even have side stack pockets. They were very simple and the paper mill used a steam crane to unload and move them around the yard. There were a couple of ratty old diesels that pulled them in from the main line along with supplies for the feed mill and machine shops.