Ed, Excellent question! Here's what that data on the side of a car means. CAPY (or capacity) is the nominal weight allowed by the truck bearings, axles, and of course, car construction. On the F30A

Bruce, The capacity of the car in the photo reads 140000 pounds. Can you crowd that up to 158000 pounds? The T43 was reported to weigh 60 tons in the New York Times, back in the day. It was also

Great photo. I’ve seen both M-48 and M-60 tanks with large timbers under them similar to this photo, and all overhang the sides of the flat car a bit. When building my 1/35 model of the M-103 I

I'm not sure that there was any "pucker" factor involved. The T43 at full up combat weight was 60 tons. The load limit of the PRR F30A was around 158,000 lbs, so plenty of room there. BTW, this is T34

Richard's comment about the tubing/timbers had me look again. I can definitely see some wedge shaped pieces of steel under the rising track. And I can see what look like welds at the base of the

I wonder if the reason for the the reason for the "tubing" (timbers?) was to raise the load enough to clear obstructions such as station platforms. Richard Townsend Lincoln City, OR

Photo: HBAX Pickle Car #105 (Undated) Photo courtesy of the New York Central Historical Society: https://nycshs.omeka.net/items/show/133835 Taken at Elkhart, IN. HBAX reporting mark assigned to

Yep, Ed, more than one! They may have chosen this flat not only because it was a 70-ton car, but also a sturdy cast flat with integral pockets. PRR may have had no role in this, but maybe they

Here's an interesting picture for at least two of us. Maybe more. That's a T43 being delivered to Aberdeen Proving Ground for testing. Date appears to be March 25, 1952. The big flats weren't

Nice model Dan! Didn’t Roco make two versions of USATC Flats….the one pictured and another with straight sides? AMTRAK got a bunch of them and likely used them to move locomotive and passenger

While in the future of this list, I photographed several M103s on flat cars in Anniston, GA during a Southern Steam Excursion from Columbus, GA in about 1975. Thanks! — Brian Ehni From:

The M-103 was a most impressive vehicle. The first pilot model was completed in 1949, but the productionmachines didn’t appear until 1953, so it’s right at the end off the steam-era. For more info

In 1949, the T43 heavy tank was approved for development. It eventually became the M103 heavy tank, of which 300 were built. They weighed about 65 tons. One fits nicely on the 100 ton flats that are

And they are up to their usual standard, they all came with two brake types so you can put the right one for your era on the car. Jeff White Alma IL

Guys; Interesting topic. I read much correspondence, also on how many M-4’s you could fit in a cargo ship, vs. larger tanks. Bruce is correct, and I’d also add that until Leslie McNair

Hudson, While size may have played a role (in addition to offloading capabilities, there were concerns about mobility, infrastructure strength, etc… with heavier tanks), probably the biggest

The M4 tank was a Medium tank and one of the reasons that the US did not field a Heavy tank was that the M4's weight was just about the maximum capacity of the onboard ship cranes of the era. -Hudso

There’s some confusion in the statement "DODX six-axle flat cars were manufactured in 1953 to handle the Patton family of tanks, which were considerably heavier than their predecessors”. Tanks

I'm helping to spread the word about a new Railroad Prototype Modeler's Meet scheduled for April 3, 2022 at Batavia, New York (about halfway between Buffalo and Rochester). It will be held in

Pure speculation on my part: the war was over and the army did not need the cars. But the pent up consumer demand had been released and the railroads had beaten many cars to death during the war, so