I finally have a update on the Boeing flat cars. The canopy flat cars used to transport 747 structures from Tulsa to Everett Washington has been going since 1967 and it takes four cars to move one ship set. Joe
The Boeing freight cars have been used to transport 747 fuselage and wing assemblies from Tulsa OK to Everett Washington since 1967. The plant has been under North American Aviation and Rockwell International from 1963 to 1996, Boeing 1996 to 2005 and Spirit Aerosystems to present. It takes four cars to move one ship set of assemblies. Peak production was in 1980 with nine ship sets per month. The assemblies are then positioned at the south end of Building 1 the mile long building and loaded onto rail cars on two indoor tracks. After the cars are loaded a switch engine still in US Air Force paint and logo shuffles the cars to the small yard for pickup by Frisco local trains. Building 1, only part of AFP 3, was built in 1940 and operated by Douglas Aircraft to manufacture B-24 and A-26 aircraft for WWII. With the Frisco main running just to the south many rail cars of materials and other supplies were delivered during the war years. North American Aviation leased the south quarter of Building 1 in 1963 to support the Apollo program. After that rail traffic was primarily 747. Several model rail loads could be created depending on your time era. Most would be boxcars and flats with canvas covers for the early years before 1967. Douglas, North American or Rockwell would be your potential customers. The building could be a low relief structure. Building 1 is 300 feet wide which would be 3.44 feet in HO and 1.87 feet in N scale. I would like to build two N-Track 2'x4' modules for the NEONS club in Tulsa but just don't have the time. I found a N scale Boeing flat car released by LBF in Roseburg Oregon. The box lists the car as a Skybox, stock number 560201, with Micro Trains trucks and couplers. Canopy is painted Tuscan, flat is blue and decaled Great Northern #60716. It looks like the canopy could be easily taped to repaint the flat to look like Frisco #3806 and #3807. The photos and drawings are shown in my next post below.
For some reason I'm having trouble loading photos of the 747 rail operations. Please go to my albums and search for the "Frisco and Air Force Plant #3" Album to see the photos of rail operations and 747 assembly process. Joe
Drawing of rail track to Building 1 Air Force Plant #3 Small yard looking west Small yard looking east Aerial view of Building 1 looking west South end of Building 1 looking north Canopy flat car model that I have Joe
I don't know what happened with all the extra photos in my last post.. Would one of the administrators please delete the duplicates? Also there are two photos that will not load. Is it possible to email the two photos to one of the administrators and then post them? Joe
Thank you Keith! Would it be ok for me to email you the two missing photos? Then have you post them on this thread? If so please PM me with your email address. Joe
Blueprint of 3806 and 3807 canopy flat first posted by Karl Sketch of Building 1 Air Force Plant #3 Canopy flat left Canopy flat right
Thank you Keith! I don't know what was wrong with those photos to keep me from posting them. They were photographed with my cell phone just like the others and all but the two loaded. Why would that happen? Joe
I just found out today that the locomotive used for shuffling the 747 rail cars is a RS-4-TC. Hope to get a good photo of it shortly. Below is a photo of a RS-4-TC from Wikipedia. Sorry for the poor quality, hopefully I can get a better one soon. Also noticed the photos of the rail cars in a post above this is thumbnail images and not full images. Would one of the administrators fix that for me? I would greatly appreciate it if you can. Sorry the photo won't load. Joe
Joe, the photos I received from you were relatively small, low resolution images. What is on post #29 is all full size. If you send them from your cell phone, you must specify to send them actual size, otherwise the phone will compress them. If that's the case, resend them to me and I will fix it.
Thank you Keith. I just noticed they are the same way in my album. Will try to take some more photos tomorrow and hopefully they will be better. Joe Edit: I went to take some more photos and wasn't able to because a canopy flat was behind the fence and the guard wouldn't let me take a photo. Will try again later. Joe
I found a photo of a US Air Force RS-4TC by searching Google. The only difference between Tulsa's locomotive and the one shown is the US Air Force logo is more centered on the hood. Joe
Canopy flat left Canopy flat right These are the full image photos that were shown as a thumbnail image in a previous post. Joe
