Frisco 42' Fishbelly Flat Car

Frisco 42' Fishbelly Flat Car artwork

Howdy folks,

Here is a quick peek at the first draft of artwork for the Frisco flat car project the Texas Western is sponsoring. Do you have constructive critiques? It looks like car lettering changed a lot between paint jobs based on the photos I've seen. We're sticking with an "as newly painted" look.

Best regards,
mike

 

Mike - Looks good, looks like they took the Red Caboose lettering used on the boxcar red cars.

My only question - do we need to ask to have the dates changed? I'm having trouble reading them on the diagram, but they look to be the same dates as on the RC BCR car. Do we know these cars came from the builder in yellow, or were they a later repaint? If a repaint, we should ask IRC to change the dates accordingly. If they came from the builder in yellow, OK.

Ken

 

Howdy Ken,

Thanks for the note. You should be able to enlarge the images by clicking on them twice.

These cars were originally built in 12-27 and were activated in 1928. As to the date that they were repainted, there in lies the mystery. From what I could find, the Frisco painted them yellow as needed for different kinds of service. I didn't see a repaint date on the pictures I looked at, so I don't know if or what would have been used for a painting date. The build date stayed the same, so I left them that way on the car.

Indeed, the lettering is similar to the BCR flat, but the numbers were updated to reflect the correct weights, etc listed in the Frisco freight car diagram book for the 42' flat.

I went with what I could confirm, thinking modelers could modify them to fit their specific purpose. Does this make sense to you? If you have better specifics that this, please share them and I'll get the diagram changed. We really do want this to be a very accurate car.

Best regards,
mike

 

Laughing out loud Sherrel.

I have ten Sherman M4's that need Frisco flat cars. At the Texas Western, we'll run a special from Houston harbor to Saint Louis where the tanks, returning from WWII will be rebuilt and sold to allies.

We'll have it all confirmed by breakfast in the morning.

Best,
mike

 

Mike - Sounds like you are taking the right approach for the yellow flat cars. I look forward to them.

I've looked through my pics of these cars. First of all, I don't have many. Secondly, the ones I do have show the cars so beat up, or the pic is so poor, I can't make out the build and new dates.

One does offer some clues - it is not mine, I think it was posted by someone in frisco.org - shows a yellow flat, SLSF 95494, in coil steel service. Shows a new and a repaint date of 1-58. That's not to say that's the date it was first painted yellow.

Ken

 

A bit OT, but ..... I was having lunch with a military tank modeler friend a month or so ago. He was talking about how the German Tiger tank was the best tank of WW2. I said, no, the US Sherman was. He was astounded, and replied that the Tiger was at least ten times better of a tank than a Sherman. I said true, but we had twenty or thirty times as many of them as the Germans had Tigers.

So, Mike, get your ten Shermans up on those SLSF flat cars soon!

Ken

 

Mike,

Thank you for all your efforts.

Ken makes a good point. The yellow cars were repainted from the original freight car red. As a result, I recommend changing the "New 1-28" to a more appropriate reweigh location and date.

From the photos in this post I can make out the following:
SL-SF 95328 KC 2-59,
SL-SF 95494 SN 1-58,
SL-SF 95690 TY 12-68,
SL-SF 100045 JN 6-73
SL-SF 101116 TU 1-66,
SL-SF 109703 SN 1-70,
SL-SF 109706 TU 4-67.

Also, typically cars have the reporting marks on each end to the right of the coupler. I cannot tell from any of the photos here if these cars had this lettering. The only end shot of a flat car I could locate that shows end reporting marks is on Mike Condren's site. It clearly shows this lettering on SL-SF 3901. Can anyone provide a paint diagram or clear end photo of the cars?

Again, many thanks to Mike and all who have contributed to making this project a success.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark

 

When I first bought the red oxide SLSF Red Caboose flat car kit several years ago, I asked Richard Hendrickson (one of the great freight car guru's) if it was correct that the RC SLSF cars had no end reporting marks. He said yes.

In going through my pics, I see end reporting marks on the flats that were rebuilt into the early auto racks in the 1950's, but I can see no end marks (and a couple of the shots are clear), on the straight flats, either red oxide or yellow.

Ken

 

Howdy folks,

Mark, the problem with changing the build dates is that we can only have one date although we have different road numbers with different painting dates.

So, the dilemma is to either leave the build date off completely, or include it as was done on some cars and let modelers add the dates they want to use. While the later is not a perfect solution, perhaps it makes the most people happy. I am not sure how to handle the scenario otherwise. Thoughts?

Best,
mike

 

Mike -

I see the problem. I'd propose you leave the dates as you have them on the diagram. Dates are small and easily changed if one wants to do a specific car with other dates on it.

Ken

 

Mike,

Looks like the early votes are in.

Sounds like a great opportunity for a little decal work. Further, its is also a new potential market for decal manufacturers. Sounds like a win win all the way around.

I'm just glad to see a Frisco new model coming of a prototype that is so common and needed.

Thanks!

Mark

 

Frisco 42' Fishbelly Flat Car - test photos of model

Howdy,

Here are a couple of photos of the Frisco 42' flat car from China. We should have the prototype in hands by mid month and will do a proper professional photo shoot for advertising. BTW, in addition to online purchase, we'll have them for sale at the Plano train show at the Texas Western MRC table.

Best regards,
mike

 

..... and the ordering instructions. I'm going to join Rick and start having peanut butter for meals so there will be room in the budget for several of these guys!

Ken