Thank you for the tutorial showing those who didn't know, the way that many of these loads were secured and also how the decks, many times, were left to be the next guy's problem.
Finally, an HO scale freight car to match my mental state: Depressed! Now if I only I had a Bipolar to pull it with I could have my own mental-illness train! All jokes aside, the flatcars look fabulous, and am looking to pick one up in SOU or CR paint. Will get an extra load too for an existing flatcar I already have.
These are some great tips, thank you! I have a few depressed-center cars (I will be buying one or two from y'all eventually!) and I've been using thin string to tie down loads but floral wire is a smart solution and I don't have to fuss about with a darn needle nor tie knots to securing loads!
Knowing me, i would stick something with some weight on those. Heavy enough, you can feel and notice your pulling weight but not enough weight to do damage to the car or the motor in the locomotive pulling it. Have a couple 1/5 scale tractor trailer combos that i used to play with as a kid and would look for heavy stuff i could put in the trailer to pull around. One's a 1970s or 80s model Kenworth W900L with sleeper and a livestock trailer. And the other a 2000s model Peterbilt 579 studio sleeper with a nascar style car haul trailer in American flag combo, which i need to replace the 5th wheel plate on as it went missing when i had it packed. Both are in very good condition and have them on a shelf for display. I might have played with them as a kid, but i wasn't rough with them.
Unfortunately, we don't have exact dates as to when they were used. We have photographs of it on the GSC car in 1978 but it would have been seen in many other years (and decades) as well.
Did all the welding, drilling, and grinding eventually start to weaken the prototypes? As well as holes and gaps, the heating can affect the strength of the steel. Not an issue for anyone modifying your terrific versions, of course. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! That's a great question! From the information we have, that was one of the major reasons these cars would get retired. The decks would simply get used up from all of the repeated welding and cutting.
The fact that you guys are charging $30-60 for a 3D resin model is insane. I don't see this company last long with those kinda prices for only $2 worth of resin material, if that.
Having to drill my own holes is a bunch of malarkey. These cars cost too much for the modeler to being doing that themselves. I got sold a car and a load that has to be modified for it to work. Rip off. Everyone other manufacturer does this too. There's nothing special about these cars.
