Re: [Non-DoD Source] [RealSTMFC] Photo: Seamless Pipe Fitting Load On GN Flat Car 60031 (1956)
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Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Schuyler;
I don’t read that from either ORER or pic. It has a wood floor, something you don’t generally have in a well HOLE flat, which has no cross-members beneath the “hole”, which this car has no evidence of. No shadows beneath the car, either, which you usually see on well hole cars.
This looks to me to be a conversion of a “standard” flat car, to one with a shallow well, in which the cross-members/bearers have been replaced in the well, by I-beams either welded, bolted, or riveted (I cannot see), to the bottom of the side sill, and reinforced beneath, for support of the five replacements. Removable floor supports generally have evidence of them in the form of brackets or additional reinforcements into which bolts are inserted, which do not appear here.
I pondered whether this might be a “sectional” well hole flat like PRR’s F49’s, but nothing appears different around a potential removable “section” that comes out to allow a further drop through the floor, like the excellent photo on the cover of the PRRT&HS flat car book.
All that being said, I remain open to convincing!
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Schuyler Larrabee via groups.io
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 12:57 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] [RealSTMFC] Photo: Seamless Pipe Fitting Load On GN Flat Car 60031 (1956)
Elden, that is DEFINITELY a well-hole flat. You can see in the panel where the LD LMT is shown that the bottom of the “pipe fitting” is below the deck. And all that bracing, the timbers and the tie rods, are clearly temporary.
Schuyler
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Bob, all;
These GN cars are very interesting. I know next to nothing about them, except what I can glean from photos. I believe it is a well flat, not a well HOLE flat, since it does not look like the floor supports are removable. I have wondered what GN needed these cars for, since it is usually an on-line customer that needed them. These shipments were just lucrative enough that RRs could be convinced the roster them, otherwise….not.
The side members are surprisingly slender for a more typical well flat, which generally had deep side sills, but there is that u/f, which indicates the well is not that deep….
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Bob Chaparro via groups.io
Photo: Seamless Pipe Fitting Load On GN Flat Car 60031 (1956) A photo from the Wisconsin Historical Society: BlockedBlockedhttps://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM49938 Appears to be a well hole flat car. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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