Folks;
It may be semantic, but take a look at these oddball flat
cars (which I love), as examples of well and well hole flats.
The PRR FN was a 37-car class of well hole flats (I guess
as opposed to well “pocket” flats), constructed between 1902 and 1915,
to accommodate loads that could not be accommodated by other cars due to the
intended height of the load, so were suspended over the rails on a pressed
steel assembly of riveted steel members sandwiched one next to another.
I am sorry I do not have a photo to show you, but there are several in the
PRRT&HS flat car book.
The FNA is a well flat with removeable flooring to convert
it to well hole flat when needed. These 20 cars were converted from FN
between 1926 and 1929 for things like vessel screws (like the G25 screw cars,
there were never enough during war time), but with more load capacity atop a
wooden floor that could be removed. FNA were very popular during WW2 for
other loads, like for 40mm Bofors twin gun tubs, perhaps mounted horizontally
(I am looking forward to those photos).
With wartime demand, PRR constructed an additional 20 flats
as slightly longer versions of the FNA in 1942, as class F37. The
removable flooring and structural cross-members remained.
During 1950-53, 31 FN and FNA were rebuilt as 14 F37A (the
remainder scrapped or held in reserve for conversion to F37B). They also
had floors atop structural members crossing the well.
The F37B were converted between 1948 and 1952, from
original FN, with newer ends (longer) to accommodate their new brake gear at
both ends of the car. They were well hole flats, not provided floors,
but with structural members on either end of the pocket. See
photos.
Semantic, no doubt, but interesting to some of us that find
them fascinating.
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
<main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 1:36 PM
To:
main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] [RealSTMFC]
Photo: Seamless Pipe Fitting Load On GN Flat Car 60031
(1956)
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
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
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
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2020
1:47 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject:
[Non-DoD Source] [RealSTMFC] Photo: Seamless Pipe Fitting Load On GN Flat Car
60031 (1956)
Photo: Seamless Pipe
Fitting Load On GN Flat Car 60031 (1956)
A photo from the
Wisconsin Historical Society:
BlockedBlockedBlockedhttps://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM49938
Appears to be a well
hole flat car.
Bob
Chaparro
Hemet,
CA
