Model Railroading > Walthers HD Flat (dep. center) + Walthers transformer -

Hello,

Recently I bought one Walthers QTTX heavy duty depressed flat. The best load that I found for it was the Walthers Transformer kit. I have a question though as to how this should be built to represent a real life load. I came to the conclusion that the complete kit is too high & wide for transport, so the insulators & large radiator section will have to be transported on a separate flat. But would they be attached in real life? If there were extra parts, just put them on a separate flat or container?

Any help or thought would be appreciated.


Robby F. (Mr. MRL)

We just had a transformer delivered here in Mishawaka by the CN 3 4 weeks ago. The transformer comes completely srtiped. The rest of the stuff on the transformer was transported in a container by truck to the jobsite. I will psot some pic's tonite of the move through town.

Amtrak 30

Hello Robby:

As said in the previous thread, transformers are shipped stripped. They are reassembled on site.

I have a set of web pages with almost 700 photos of flatcar loads.

http://southern.railfan.net/flat/cars/loads/loads.html

153 of them are transformer loads.

These are of smaller cars, 8 axles or less, like the Walthers cars.

The photo below is an example shot of a transformer, without insulators and cooling coils. The large boxes on the front and back of the flat car are used to balance the cars from side to side.

Also, there is a lot of info and photo of the larger cars, greater than 8 axles, on my web pages, see the link at the bottom of the page.

Hope this is what you are looking for!

Tom

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I have seen the insulators shipped on the same car as the transformer in open side crates. Each insulator is packed in a wooden box that only has wood at the ends and on the edges. There are sometimes closed crates on the car with more jewelry to be assembled at the site. The insulators and the other boxes are loaded on the flat points on the upper ends of the cars.

Robby,

Here's a shot at Granger, WY a couple of years ago. They welded cleats to hold the load in place and chains secure it to the car. There were also some additional flatcars that held other ancillary equipment.

Interestingly, these transformers came from China.

Tim Harris

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Sweet! thanks for the info. Now I can finish this baby!


Robby F. (Mr. MRL)