lol - maybe in New Zealand, but cutting and welding on gondolas and flat cars is not uncommon in the USA -- *Tim O'Connor* *Sterling, Massachusetts*

Thanks Chris, I appreciate that information. Have you done pattern making on anything else in S scale? Jack Wyatt

No the car was not produced because Jim King's one piece body casting was far superior to ours. It is very difficult to get the ribs and the roof-sides to mate perfectly and retain their shape

Another plastic Athearn “200-ton” flatcar clone was one from “Crown” … a whole line of Athearn rip-offs, obviously copies, but with cruder molding and the bodies were often warped. In

Either running through holes cut in the deck, or welded to the deck. Most likely pass through the deck into some reinforcement (plate or bracket) welded to the underside of the deck, probably fastened

Here is a link to photos I took at the Florida Railroad Museum at Parrish FL. Included are side, detail, and underframe photos of M-53 381538, M-15NA 374834, and M-15PD 376330

Friends, I did some work matching between Ed Hawkins' list from the old Steam-Era Freight Car pages ( http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/prototype/frtcars/1932aramain.html )

Gary, The plastic model was/is the Athearn. It has some serious issues, especially with the vertical dimension of the body being grossly too big. There is a resin model of this car in HO scale from

I think the owner of the car would have some frank words to say about extra holes being cut in their property; it has been my experience that disaster follows close behind the guy who picks up a gas

And before that there was essentially the same car as a kit from M. Dale Newton's Red Ball. Tony Thompson tony@...

Was a kit produced from your patterns? I believe Jim King at SMMW offered a M53/M53A in S scale. Jack Wyatt

Perfect. These photos show the positions exactly. Thanks for everyone's help. Ed Robinson

Ed here are a series of photos that show patterns and arrangement that I made for an M 53 in S scale.  I hope they will help to orient the parts for you. What is not featured here is a Royal (brake)

Both are correct. The car more recently in the Bachmann line was offeted by AHM. Tooling dates back to the Mantua carded blisterpack RTR copies of various Athearn cars. Charlie Vlk

Athearn offered it. Drew Marshall in Philly Modeling the pre-Depression years. Sent from TypeApp

There was a plastic model of this car, maybe 40 years ago. It could have been AHM. Gary Laakso Northwest of Mike Brock

I am guessing that if the riggers did not find a hole near where they needed one, they just cut one themselves. Jack wyatt

Tim, The steel floor of these cars likely had holes for rods used as tie downs. Some steel floored flat cars had holes that were essentially a larger diameter circle partially superimposed on a

The short flat car behind it is pretty cool too! The gondola is a class GRA. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

And then there is the question of the color of the door on this car!😉 We've discussed this in the past, and I'm still voting for black. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL