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Just in time for your holiday wishlist! Available for purchase NOW!

Tangent Scale Models is pleased to announce the availability today of our next ALL-NEW model, the General Steel Castings (GSC) 60’0” Flatcar in HO scale. A car of tremendous versatility, these cars served nationwide in service on many railroads starting in 1956, and thanks to the sturdy cast steel frame construction of these cars many of them remain in service today. These flatcars were used in lumber, wallboard, poles, and heavy equipment services, to name a few. These flatcars were often photographed hauling “wrecked” cars, and many still operate today in various company service roles. GSC, located in Granite City IL, supplied either complete cars or cast steel flatcar bodies to various railroads. Railroads that elected to purchase only the bodies would then equip the cars with components preferred for projected service.

Our new flatcar is a very unique addition to your freight car fleet. Our replicas are available now at www.tangentscalemodels.com in these 6 RTR schemes (plus 2 undecorated versions):

- Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (ATSF) class FT-7 in the original 1956 paint scheme with white stencils on a red carbody, available in 6 road numbers.
- Illinois Central (IC) in the original 1962 paint scheme with white stencils on a brown carbody, available in 6 road numbers.
- Missouri Pacific "UP MOW Green" in the UP 1980's MOW paint scheme. It includes many different black and white stencils, plus paint outs and post-2004 conspicuity stripes on a UP MOW green carbody, available in 4 road numbers. Check this one out!
- Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in the "Original F47" paint from 1965 with distinctive PRR lettering on a correctly-toned PRR freight car red carbody, available in 6 road numbers.
- St.Louis Southwestern (SSW) in the "Original 1956" paint scheme with white stencils including “COTTON BELT” spelled out across the black carbody, available in 6 road numbers.
- Wabash (WAB) in the "Original 1956" brown paint scheme with white stencils, available in 6 new road numbers.
- Undecorated RTR – without oval hole cutout in car side.
- Undecorated RTR – with oval hole cutout in car side.

Want to see photos of our new spectacular replicas? See http://tangentscalemodels.com/gsc60flatreplicas.aspx for a link to the new models!

The Tangent Scale Models prototype replica of the GSC 60’ Flatcar has never been produced in HO scale as a styrene model, making it a distinctive addition to any freight car fleet. And typical of our products, we take the time to focus on execution of all the small details. We studied the prototype to accurately reproduce it with the following features:
- Dimensional accuracy - scaled exactly from General Steel Casting carbody plans
- Highly accurate “true to life” colors
- Exact stencils and lettering placement - compare our replicas to the prototype photos on our website!
- Detail variations: Decking assembly variations, appropriate for each paint scheme
- Detail variations: Oval or no-oval cutouts, appropriate for each paint scheme
- Detail variations: End of car cushioning devices or standard draft gear, appropriate for each paint scheme
- Detail variations: Roller or plain bearing truck variations, appropriate for each paint scheme
- Painted or "gray" decks appropriate for each paint scheme
- Wire grab irons and coupler lift bars
- Air hoses
- Weighted to NMRA specs for smooth operation
- Kadee® scale metal couplers
- Tangent free-rolling metal wheels
- Recommended age 14 years and older.

Pricing for our new RTR flatcars is $32.95 each, and we offer discounts for quantities of 6, 12, and 24 models. Feel free to “mix and match” your own multi-scheme order, and you can “mix and match” these flatcars with any combination of our ACF Gondolas, Bethlehem Gondolas, or Bethlehem Hoppers.

These cars are available for sale right now. Please order online from us today from www.tangentscalemodels.com for fastest, guaranteed shipping. We are open 24-7. You may also call us at 828-279-6106 to place an order over the phone. Our cars generally sell out quickly – order direct to guarantee your purchase!

Thank you for continuing to support Tangent Scale Models!

David Lehlbach
Tangent Scale Models
“Unparalleled scale replicas for discriminating railroad modelers”
www.tangentscalemodels.com
tangentscalemodels@yahoo.com
PO Box 6514
Asheville NC 28816
828-279-6106

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Thank you to Trainorder.com for allowing us to post here!

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Thanks again to Trainorders.com and for our loyal customers.

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That MP MOW car looks amazing. Very nice, Dave! Look forward to picking up a few cars.

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM

Walthers produced the GSC flat car a few years ago, maybe 80's or early 90's. They had a variation with the tall bulkheads, I had seen the prototype carrying lumber into the 80's or so. When the prototype BN Center-Beams hit the rails the GSC bulkheads went away. The car is sometimes listed in ads with laser-cut wooden replacement decks.

Curious if a bulkhead version will be available, or if the Walthers bulkhead would fit on the Tangent car.

I don't think the Walthers GSC details are in the same league as the model shown in the photos, nice job.

RAS Wrote:
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> That MP MOW car looks amazing. Very nice, Dave!
> Look forward to picking up a few cars.

I think it's great that he did the MP MOW car in the first run - a lot of ads for models will say that the prototype "lasted into the '90s in MOW service" or something like that, but actually showing what those cars looked like later in life gives contemporary modelers proof that a "old" car like this is still viable for their modeling period. Conspicuity stripes are too new for my modeling era, but I'll be looking for other examples of "survivors" in the '90s.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Walthers produced the GSC flat car a few years
> ago, maybe 80's or early 90's.

Just so there's no confusion, the Walthers car is a model of a 50' foot flat, while the Tangent model is a 60' car. Jim Eager mentioned on the Modern Freight Car List that ACL (SCL), GN (BN), MP, and TP (MP) had the bulkhead version of this 60' flat, so it's probably a safe bet that David will offer the bulkheads in later runs. EDIT: If you go to the Tangent webpage for this model, the description at the top includes the sentence, "In addition, our replica includes detail variations selected to match major production specifications, such as: decking variations, bulkhead and non-bulkhead variations, oval or non-oval cutouts, end of car cushioning devices or standard draft gear, and truck variations."

Another fantastic model from Tangent!

Dave

Good info thanks for the clarification.

Interesting that 60 ft cars have become the favorite for model mfg's. I had always thought of 40 and 50ft cars, with 50 being the most common for the most number of years. 60 ft always seemed to be an odd sized car, especially for pre TTX years.

Seeing the GN car in the discussion means the car may be an option for my fleet, I dug out the 4 ways west GN Freight car book two and found GN had 95 GSI 54-55 ft bulkhead flat cars, 105 60 ft GSI, 275 60 ft Thrall bulkhead cars. Also listed are various other builders and slightly different lengths and apparently different size bulkheads.

Anyways, by the numbers it's a viable GN bulkhead flatcar with a significant number of cars in the 1960's fleet, when it gets to market.

The NP book doesn't specify GSI but shows 105 60ft cars with the GSI belly as short bulkheads, another 145 with no bulkhead. They also show a batches of 54ft GSI bulkheads around 150 cars. Very good market.

CB&Q doesn't show 60 ft flat cars.

BN book almost mimics the heritage fleets, no surprise except it's not clear if new cars were obtained. Maybe they went straight to center beam designs. Not sure when the flat car fleet was completely green.

The smaller GSI bulkhead often reads less than 50 ft between the bulkheads but 54/55 ft end to end. Interesting to note the prototype GSI flats appear to be a single casting. It would be interesting to see numbers from the UP fleet, I remember seeing them but didn't notice the length.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/12 20:52 by TCnR.

> Interesting to note the prototype GSI flats appear to be a single casting.

They were a one-piece casting.

steeplecab