Nostalgia & History > USN gun barrels on MILW 30' flats

I am looking for information concerning these moves to Bremerton, WA. Does anyone have photos of the 16" barrels loaded or the mty cars before any specialized lading equipment was removed?

Thanks.

arb

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I've never seen a photo of any of the flats in gun service, or with the gun cradles intact. I suspect that photograpy of these movements was, to put it nicely, strongly discouraged. There is a photo floating around on the internet of MILW 601101 taken probably in the '70's (showing a build date of 5-42) but with all the cradle hardware long gone. I cobbled together a reasonable facsimile of this car in G scale using bits & pieces left over from a flatcar kitbash.

I also stumbled across a photo of MILW 601115 and a mate in a Simmons-Boardman book called "Freight Cars Rolling", doing postwar duty hauling what looks like a refinery cracking tower. That photo probably dates from the late 1950's, and shows the cars with pivoting cradles which have, I would assume, been altered or replaced to fit the load. The MILW flats are separated by a conventional length flat car used as an idler.

You might try contacting the Milwaukee Road Historical Association (MRHA), as I'm sure they have been approached before for info about these cars.

-YD-

Thanks, Daniel.

A search on the MILW Yahoo group found a couple of conversations from 2002 and 2004 with nothing specific about the gun barrels. The reprint of the Milw freight car diagram book shows the cars once had some sort of steel assembly on the cars to support loads. From the crude drawings they might have supported a variety of cylindrical loads. These were later removed.

The best information so far is part of the instructions included in the American Model Builders kits. These cover the Pennsy cars. The kit includes the bolsters the Pennsy used but I am not sure if the MILW used a metal tubular support or if that came later.

I wonder if the archives at Bremerton are searchable.

arb

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Might help. . . .

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LaserKit-American-Model-Builder-HO-Scale-Naval-Gun-Barrel-Load-MASSIVE-215-/110963905139

Cheers,
Jack

Thanks, Jack. I actually have the kit itself in hand. It is a pretty straight forward build but with a lot of tiny wood parts. The barrel itself is a resin casting. All the parts for loading in the Pennsy manner are there. Was the MILW different? That is what I need to know.

Here is a link to a photo of one of the cars taken in 1978. Note the conversion to roller bearing trucks. According to the MILW equipment diagram reprints the wooden decking came about after time in naval gun service. It does seem the cars were used with an idler between two cars for moving refinery equipment. So far no photos have surfaced with any permanent devices for securing the loads.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/milw/milw601101ary.jpg