HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
 1
|
A flatcar (also flat car) is a piece of railroad rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK). The deck of the car can be wood or steel, and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads. Flatcars designed for carrying machinery have sliding chain assemblies recessed in the deck.
Flatcars are used for loads that are too large or cumbersome to load in enclosed cars such as boxcars. They are also often used to transport containers or trailers in intermodal shipping.
Contents |
A string of flatcars carries tanks (under tarps) in April, 1943. |
Midland Terminal Railway flat car #49 sits with a load of lumber at Bull Hill, Colorado in February, 1949. |
Aircraft parts were hauled via conventional freight cars beginning in World War II. However, given the ever-increasing size of aircraft assemblies, the "Sky Box" method of shipping parts was developed in the late 1960s specifically to transport parts for the Boeing 747 and other "jumbo" jets of the time. The "Sky Box" consists of a two-piece metal shell that is placed atop a standard flatcar to support and protect wing and tail assemblies and fuselage sections in transit (originally, depressed-center or "fish belly" cars were utilized).
Today, Boeing\'s 737 aircraft are shipped throughout the United States on special trains, including the fuselage.
Bulkhead flatcars are designed with sturdy end-walls (bulkheads) to prevent loads from shifting past the ends of the car. Loads typically carried are pipe, steel slabs, utility poles and lumber, though lumber is increasingly being hauled by centerbeam cars.
Centerbeams are specialty cars designed for carrying bundled building supplies such as dimensional lumber, wallboard, and fence posts. They are essentially bulkhead flatcars that have been reinforced by a longitudinal I-beam, often in the form of a Vierendeel truss, sometimes reinforced by diagonal members. They must be loaded symmetrically, with half of the payload on one side of the centerbeam and half on the other to avoid tipping over.
Heavy capacity flatcars are cars designed to carry more than 100 tons of lading. They often have more than the typical North American standard of four axles, and may have a depressed center to handle excess-height loads. Loads typically handled include electrical power equipment and large industrial production machinery.
Some railroads, such as CSX, have former wood-carrying flatcars rebuilt into platforms which mount remote control equipment for use in operating locomotives. Such platforms are fitted with appropriate headlights, horns, and air brake appliances to operate in the leading position on a cut of cars (i.e. coupled ahead of the locomotive).
COFC (container on flat car) cars are typically 89 feet (27 m) long and carry four 20ft containers or two 40/45ft containers (the 45ft containers are carryable due to the fact that the car is actually 92 ft (28 m) long, using the strike plates). With the rise of intermodal cars, and given the age of most of these flats, numbers will decline over the next several years. Indeed, when the first double stacks appeared, many container flats where re-built as autoracks. The few "new build" container flats are identifiable by their lack of decking, welded steel frame, and standard 89ft length. One variant is the 50 ft (15 m) car (which usually carries one large container as a load); these are actually re-built old boxcars. Common reporting marks are FEC, CP, SOO and KTTX. The ATTX cars, which feature no spark grips and sides, are built for hauling dangerous goods (ammunition, flammable fluids, etc.).
A TOFC (trailer on flat car) car once again, is usually an 89ft car. In the past, these carried three 30 ft (9.1 m) trailers which are, as of 2007, almost obsolete, or one large, 45 ft (14 m), or two 40 or 45ft trailers. As intermodal traffic grows, these dedicated flats are in decline. Most have been modified to also carry containers. One notable type is Canadian Pacific Railway\'s XTRX service — dedicated 5-unit flats that only carry trailers.
A German railroad crane and an idler flat car
In marine service, the joint between a ferry or barge and its dock is very weak. In order to avoid loss of cargo and/or heavy locomotives, an old flatcar (which is usually the lightest car available) is used as a bridge between the locomotive on the dock and the cars on the ferry or barge.
Idler flat cars are also used in oversize freight service. Flatcars are flat, so if a gondola or large flatcar is carrying an oversized cargo, empty flatcars will be placed on both ends of the loaded car. This protects the cargo ends from damage and ensures that the loaded cars don\'t bind, and therefore damage, the ends of other cars.
Often a flat car is placed directly in front of a crane ("big hook") in order to:
| Rail transport freight equipment | |
|---|---|
| Enclosed equipment | Autorack · Boxcar · Coil car · Container · Covered hopper · Refrigerator car · Roadrailer · Stock car · Tank car |
| Open equipment | Flatcar · Gondola · Hopper car · Schnabel car · Double-stack car |
| Non-revenue equipment | Caboose · Maintenance of way cars · Scale test car |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
