Model Railroading > Loading open top cars the "right" way

There's this guy who sells flatcars with custom-made loads through my local hobby shop. Some of the loads by themselves are awesome, but he typically secures them with a couple of bands, which remind me how I used rubber bands on my Lionel cars as a kid. Bummer.

Luckily, I have a remedy for that. I've just now uploaded PDF's of two sets of industry rules regarding loading and securing loads on open top cars - flats and gons. While proto-hogs may want to get out their calipers and dive into the charts and other written data, I kinda suspect that most modelers will be more inclined to look at the pages-upon-pages of loading diagrams more with the eye of getting things reasonably close. Moreover, the diagrams are an inspiration - some of them describe very unusual situations. One of them in a train would really break up the monotony of more conventional cars.

Here they are. The links take you directly to the PDF's without undergoing the psychic damage risk of wandering through my website. File sizes range from about 5 to 17 megs.

1896 Louisville & Nashville loading rules for both link-and-pin and automatic coupled equipment

1960 Association of American Railroads loading rules in three parts - these are great because the originals came in 8x10 loose-leaf format

• Section 1 - misc. commodities, wood loads
• Section 2, Pt.1 - steel prods. incl./pipe
• Section 2, Pt. 2 - pipe

Happy modeling!

Ed Gibson
Wx4.org

Thanks for posting the PDFs.  Good resources.

Cheers!

Bob

D**n!  I've been doing it wrong all these years!

Am I gonna get some penalties?

Hope I can pay them in G scale  dollars.  Maybe even HO scale?  Or, N?   I'm at your mercy.  Can I plead ignorance????

-LD

This SP flatcar is no doubt loaded to the max (in HO). It has not derailed nor had any other problems despite possible non-conformance to load securement requirements.

After looking at all the data you presented and reading when it was published, one must remember that these requirements were based not just on experience but on important engineering principles. And without using computers. Must have worn out a few slide rules to work out all the data!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/19 20:44 by Westbound.

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The book you are looking for is known Graziano's Tarrifs which covers loadings of everything which can be shipped by road, rail, water and air. There are complete drawings and dimensions for needed securement.

The tarrif part means if the load is arranged and secured in accordance it will be accepted by all railroads it will interchange with. If an unconventional load shows up at an interchange point the receiving carrier can get out a copy of Graziano's Tarrifs to see if it was loaded properly for safe transport in interchange.

Look, many readers not involved in commercial transport have learned a new word today, Graziano. Perhaps others can find a way to get their name added to the bottom of a hand down list and take an expired copy home after a few years or so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/19 01:43 by fbe.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> D**n!  I've been doing it wrong all these years!
>
> Am I gonna get some penalties?
>
> Hope I can pay them in G scale  dollars.  Maybe
> even HO scale?  Or, N?   I'm at your mercy.
> Can I plead ignorance????


I know what you mean, Larry. Until I ran across these books, I was painting the rubber bands holding my Lionel log loads to make them more realistic. And bless your heart, you are only the second person in my website's 15+ years that has offered funding help, despite my ongoing pleas. I accept Bitcoin.

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> After looking at all the data you presented and
> reading when it was published, one must remember
> that these requirements were based not just on
> experience but on important engineering
> principles. And without using computers. Must have
> worn out a few slide rules to work out all the
> data!

This certainly is the case for the latter book, but that 1896 Louisville & Nashville book would have been based upon, I daresay, Kentucky windage. During those times, engineers were so lacking in basic tools that designs such as these might best be described as based upon a combination of accumulated experience (read: mistakes) plus a measure of extra strength, just in case.

Nice modeling, BTW.

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If an unconventional load shows up at an interchange
> point the receiving carrier can get out a copy of
> Graziano's Tarrifs to see if it was loaded
> properly for safe transport in interchange.
>
> Look, many readers not involved in commercial
> transport have learned a new word today, Graziano.

Thanks for furnishing me with a new word to cover up my ignorance! I can use all the help that I can get.

And when it comes to unconventional loads, I noted somewhere in the 1960 book that if a shipper wished to load equipment using an untried method, they could submit twenty copies of a proposal to the AAR for review. Those AAR boys must not have missed a thing.

Regards,
Ed Gibson
Wx4.org