Day 8 of 180 Days of A/P Cars - #1 Flat Car - Photo Research

I found my copy of Hidden Treasures: The Story of the Ohio River & Western Railway by Edward H. Cass today.  It was by my bed where I had been re-reading it.  I love this book!  It's a shame it is out of print.  Maybe Timber Times will bring it back!

With a large Coca-Cola and a hand full of peanuts, I browsed the book carefully looking at each of the photos as I searched for flat cars.  There were several photos and a hand roster to go by.

The drawing shows an unumbered car, but the roster shows that a 30,000 lb capacity car must be numbered 3523-4005 (5 cars were made, so not sure which of these numbers might have been used) and 3549.  The car roster says the car is 30'2" long and 7'3" wide.  The drawing says the car is 30' long and 7'6" wide.  They are close.  The width difference is probably related to measuring and not measuring the stake pockets.  The length is 2" off so I won't worry about that.  If a judge can measure it, then I'll argue that point later.  Never in my 30 years of NMRA have I seen a judge whip out a scale ruler.  I'm not sure why they don't.

The roster doesn't list this 16,000 lb capacity flat, although it is clearly labeled for the OR&W.  This flat photo can't help me much.

This is a great photo!  Seldom are you lucky enough to get a straight on shot of the end of a car.  This is a match with the drawing, and will be helpful when building the model.

This photo has two flat cars.  3556 is a 28,000 lb capacity flat, and not what we are looking for, though we can get some clues from this good shot.  The car behind it is 4001 and is in the family of 30,000 lb capacity flats we are looking for.  Another helpful shot, and a prototype load, too.

Again, two different flat cars.  By enlarging and clarifying the first car we see that it has the angled beam ends and six stake pockets with one each over the out wheels.  This is another 30,000 lb capacity car.  The one next to it is much smaller.  I can't make the number out on the car.  We'll use this drawing, too.

While these don't give me everything I need, they are close enough to build the model.  There are many other pictures of gondolas and box cars of the same size to infer braking systems and other things.  The internet didn't turn up any other good photos.

Next - drawings!