On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 06:23 PM, mopacfirst wrote:

I presume the railroad drilled all the holes for stirrup steps, route card boards, and so forth.  Did that include the couple of hundred holes for anchoring the decking?  More to the point, can someone point me to detail photos of the castings in progress at GSC?

I would assume they were cast in. This picture:
http://idaillinois.org/digital/collection/p16614coll56/id/7258/rec/9
Seems to have been taken right after unloading, and if you zoom in close to the nearest frame, the deck holes are already present.

Dennis Storzek

I have a more general question.

First, the technology for pouring castings 60' or more long, or something as complicated as a locomotive frame, barely exists today.  Partly, that's because of the growth of welding  and its related NDE techniques as a fabrication method.  Regardless, those are pretty impressive steel castings.

I presume the railroad drilled all the holes for stirrup steps, route card boards, and so forth.  Did that include the couple of hundred holes for anchoring the decking?  More to the point, can someone point me to detail photos of the castings in progress at GSC?

When I was young and had a summer job, I drilled 96 holes in 1/2" steel plate one day, to join two halves of a building together -- think double-wide.  took me all day.  I started at the bottom of one end, and I was so happy when I reached the opposite side and started on the lower, more reachable, parts.  Took me the entire day.  I think it was an electric drill, not a pneumatic.

Ron Merrick

My apologies if these show the 70,000 series cars. I was aware of the building of the 72,000 series 53' 6" cars by the GM&O shops in Feb and Mar of 51'. Regardless the car builds/pics would have been nearly identical. GSC castings arriving on flat cars and recycled components and decking applied. 
--
Matt Smith
Bloomington, IL

The thin decks are a deficiency that has since been fixed. There is no reason to worry about it on future runs - the GSI 53'6" bulkhead flatcars had the new decks and I am told that future releases of the standard flatcar will also have deck sheets of the correct thickness.

If it wasn't obvious by the title of my message, yes, we are referring to what ExactRail called the 42' flatcar. It's actually slightly longer, since 42' is the length of usable deck that Union Pacific listed in their rosters and ORER entries. The GM&O car is exactly the same, but they measured to end of the wood planking instead of ends of the entire deck including the steel framing hence being called a "41-foot car".

Josh B

Photo: Hyman Pickle Company Car #3

Courtesy of the Barriger Library via “gmpullman”:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/25611551918/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/39450844172/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/38772953064/

The Hymen Pickle Company of Louisville, KY, incorporated in 1903.

The company had a large farm in Medora, KY.

They produced several products. Their Hot Oyster Catsup was one of their top labels.

The Hyman Pickle Company building on Pearl Street between Floyd and Brook, was consumed by fire in 1947. A current Louisville Google map does not show Pearl Street.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

All three of mine were perfect.

Jeff White

Alma IL

Ted, for reasons that passeth understanding whenever I send an email to railsunl@... the
destination address is changed to railsurnl@... !! This causes me to get this error reply:

Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. <railsurnl@...>:
554: 30 Sorry, your message to railsurnl@... cannot be delivered. This mailbox is disabled (554.30).

Do you have another email address I can use? I have tried it multiple times and each time the address is
modified. In 40+ years of emails I have never seen this happen before! 😕

Tim O'Connor

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

They want to leave something for the modeler to do.

Jared Harper
Athens, GA

I have the UP on my workbench. I put support under the deck pieces to bring them up to the
level of the steel braces. The too-thin decks are an eyesore.

Tim O'Connor

--
*Tim O'Connor*
*Sterling, Massachusetts*

but which of the Exactrail cars? wasn't there more than one version?

By fortuitous coincidence, these UP flats are essentially identical to the GM&O cars in question:

https://exactrail.com/products/gsc-42-flat-car-up-1951-as-delivered

David Thompson

Did any of your cars come with crooked stirrup steps?   Both of my cars had a couple poorly placed ones.   If so, how could they be corrected?

Thanks,

Joe Piazza

but which of the Exactrail cars? wasn't there more than one version?

--
*Tim O'Connor*
*Sterling, Massachusetts*

I think everybody is a bit confused here. Most of the photographs actually depict the standard 42'6" flatcars that were used in Caterpillar service. From what I have been told, GM&O listed them as 41' flatcars because they measured to the edges of the wood deck rather than total usable space. There are one or two photographs in that list that are not GSC cars, but probably more likely depict rebuilds of cars from other builders. I don't see any 53'6" cars in the photo group.

ExactRail's GSC flatcars are the correct model to represent these.

Josh B

Union Pacific S-40-6 Livestock Cars Available (HO Scale Kit)

This car is available (limited quantities, some numbers no longer available) in two paint schemes from the Union Pacific Historical Society.

The S-40-6 stock cars were originally built as single deck stock cars when delivered to the UP in 1918. They were re-built starting in 1941 to double deck cars and numbered into the 41000 series. This group of cars represent the Pre-1955 scheme with stripes above and below the car number. The following car numbers are available: 1) 41010D,  2) 41176D, 3) 41285D, 4) 41309D, 5) 41377D, 6) 41419D, 7) 41452D, 8) 41590D, 9) 41616D, 10) 41664D and 11) 41988D. $20.00 per car plus shipping and handling.

https://uphs-store.myshopify.com/collections/models/products/stock-cars

The S-40-6 stock cars were originally built as single deck cars when delivered to the UP in 1918. They were re-built starting in 1941 to double deck cars and numbered into the 41000 series. This group of cars represent the 1955 scheme with no stripes on the car number board. The following car numbers are available: 1) 41005D, 2) 41143D, 3) 41201D, 4) 41244D, 5) 41323D, 6) 41473D, 7) 41531D, 8) 41653D, 9) 41714D, 10) 41840D, 11) 41872D and 12) 41901D. $20.00 per car plus shipping and handling.

https://uphs-store.myshopify.com/collections/models/products/up-s-40-6-1955-scheme

The cars initially were to be made by Red Caboose, who folded during the manufacturing of the cars. Jimmy Booth, a UPHS member and owner of PBL, took over.

They are a flat kit.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

That's Rapido for you.  Strives for accuracy, but, when a problem is found early enough on, they fix it.,  YAY!

Only wish they would offer cars in faded/weathered paint!

Bill Jolitz

All good looking Clark.

You are correct about the configuration of the kit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353732688322?epid=1227812656&hash=item525c1c79c2:g:l8AAAOSwXlNhUm3N

Or you can search in eBay for 'Walthers GSC flatcar'.  Some old kits show up, but W must have reissued this product as "assembled".

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174975452947?hash=item28bd598713:g:C-cAAOSwiVRhX9in

But if you want the cast GSC frame only, you can buy any kit and throw out all the other parts.

Ron Merrick