Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated)
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Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated) A photo from the Norfolk Southern Corporation: Click on the photo to enlarge it. Looks like the planks with cutouts for the stake pockets are being installed first. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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Brent Greer
Interesting to see some of the end details of the boxcar next in line. Obviously this is a repair track, so it isn't all that shocking to see that the placard boards on the end are completely gone and just the mounts remaining. But it is interesting
to see where the road name and number are stenciled. I wouldn't have gotten that detail right if I were modeling that boxcar without this photo.
Brent
Dr. J. Brent Greer
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> on behalf of Bob Chaparro via groups.io <chiefbobbb@...>
Sent: Monday, January 4, 2021 4:30 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> Subject: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated) Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated) A photo from the Norfolk Southern Corporation: Click on the photo to enlarge it. Looks like the planks with cutouts for the stake pockets are being installed first. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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Schuyler Larrabee
Agreed, Brent. Sometimes with these photos it’s the unintended subject matter off to the side (or in this case, straight ahead) that’s very much worth SEEing. But what struck me about this image is that the crew must have known the precise dimension for the width of each plank. I mean, there’s an implicit optimism in installing the boards not in sequence from end to end, but somehow knowing that they’re not going to have to do a lot of lengthwise ripping of those planks to fit between the previously installed planks.
Schuyler
From: Brent Greer Interesting to see some of the end details of the boxcar next in line. Obviously this is a repair track, so it isn't all that shocking to see that the placard boards on the end are completely gone and just the mounts remaining. But it is interesting to see where the road name and number are stenciled. I wouldn't have gotten that detail right if I were modeling that boxcar without this photo.
Brent Dr. J. Brent Greer
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> on behalf of Bob Chaparro via groups.io <chiefbobbb@...>
Sent: Monday, January 4, 2021 4:30 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> Subject: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated)
Photo: Installing A New Deck On A Flat Car (Undated) A photo from the Norfolk Southern Corporation: Click on the photo to enlarge it. Looks like the planks with cutouts for the stake pockets are being installed first. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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Schuyler,
It looks to me like they are putting the boards up loose - to walk on - and will snug them up against each other during the process of attaching them. It provides excellent surface and doesn't prevent access to the space under the boards. - Jim
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mopacfirst
Another thing I thought of is how they will be hitting those bolt holes in the stringers. Each board is fastened, it appears, with four bolts, probably carriage bolts. Two go into the middle stringer on each side and two go into the structure at the side frame of the car. If every other board is pre-cut to fit around the stake pockets, the crew would naturally want to fit those first and check the spacing between them. Note the guy at the far end of the car with a pry bar. Once the boards are laid out, the crew then has to drill them for the bolts, and you can tell where the holes in the steel stringers are if you can see the bolt holes on either side.
Ron Merrick
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I looks like they are putting the 'notched' boards that go around the stake pockets, to me anyway Fenton
On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 11:19 PM Jim Betz <jimbetz@...> wrote: Schuyler, --
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David Soderblom
Regarding flat cars decks, the bolts used are carriage bolts, but with flat heads that fit into a conical countersink, leaving a flat, flush deck. That leaves them looking like flat circles from the top.
David Soderblom Baltimore MD -- David Soderblom Baltimore MD david.soderblom@...
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Malcolm H. Houck
Those bolts used on flat car decks, with a square shank below the head (similar to a carriage bolt), but with a flat and countersunk head are actually called "Plow Bolts." Installed, there is no (rounded) head protruding above, and used (obviously) on historic farmers' plow with wooden structures.The flush heads would not interfere with other fittings or tackle on the plow.
Specialty hardware suppliers still inventory Plow Bolts.
Mal Houck
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mopacfirst
You learn something every day from sites like this. I'd never heard of a plow bolt before.
I looked these up and it turns out there is an American standard for them, ASME B18.9. That means something to me, since I made my living from standards. Of course, there are even more special versions made specially for heavy duty plows (think Caterpillar), but the regular flat head one as used for flatcar decking, and possibly other freight car uses, is shown here -- https://www.aftfasteners.com/plow-bolts-dimensions-technical-information/ For HO modeling purposes, it reduces to a round dot, as David said. But at least now I know the reason that this is true. Ron Merrick
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