Flat car decking

[up148]

What was the typical lumber decking thickness used on flat car up into the 60's? Just received some very nice flat cars (more later and photos), but the decking looks oversize? My only other flat cars (RC and Chooch kits) look like they are all using 2x's for decking?

BH

[PRR Man]

Butch,
as you know, back in the day 2x material was actually 2" thick. In the 50's and 60's it was 1¾".
I've seen wood decking on flats that measured the full 2", usually oak for toughness.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[up148]

OK, that's what I was thinking too. So, my deck, which is 3" to 4" scale inches thick needs to be sanded down to a more realistic thickness. The car is outstanding and is of a standard 50ft car, the decking just ruins the look in my opinion.

Photos maybe tomorrow.

BH

[up148]

Don't take me wrong. This is a beautiful hand built brass car by Cameron Scale Models. Ordered a pair 6 months ago when I located CSM and just got them. Robert is now mid 70's and may have lost a little of his ability, but none of his enthusiasm. These might be the last two he'll make unless he can find some more decals.

Anyway, I measured the deck boards with my O gage dial caliper and they are spot on at a scale 4" x 8". They just looked too massive to me. I put a RC UP car on top that I haven't finished yet for comparison and it has scale 2' x 8" boards.

So, rather than remove the boards, that appear to be epoxied in place, I'll just flip the car over and carefully do some judicious sanding on a flat surface and then re-weather them when they look right.

BH

[bob turner]

They look ok to me. When you sand them down they will look more uniform - less interesting.

[GreggL]

Butch, I had this same concern when I converted a Lionel PS4 flat car to P:48 and installed individual plank decking. The 1957 Car Builders Cyclopedia shows the decking material to be 2 ¾" thick.

..gregg

[E7]

They (decking planks) should be even with the edges. The brackets for upright stakes are unusable the way they are.
.....and yes, they should be sanded to a uniform height. The RC version looks good.

Rich

[herronpeter]

Rich, look again. The stake pockets are usable as the boards in their location do not cover them up.

I'm with Bob, I like the look of the thicker boards. Remember these old railroaders used what they had on hand so somewhere on the RR property they had a bunch of 4 inch thick boards doing nothing so they used them. This car has "character"!! If it were mine, I'd leave it alone..............

Peter

[up148]

Interesting, the car decking is! It looks rustic to me and something I would expect to see on a branch or short line, but it just doesn't look like an "in service" mainline car to me. I have two, so I'll do them one at a time and see how the 1st one comes out. I love flat cars.

Gregg, thanks for the official word, I appreciate that very much and that's the thickness I'll shoot for.

Rich, yes I started that RC flatcar decades ago and just never finished it. The deck weathering is too uniform so individual boards will need to be highlighted and the car body weathered as well. The hole is a bit much, but I saw one like it in a photo and really liked it, so I recreated it on this car.

BH

[E7]

Rich, look again. The stake pockets are usable as the boards in their location do not cover them up. Peter

Peter, If you look closely, some of the planks are partially covering the pocket holes. I know.......picky picky picky!

[up148]

Yes, some of the planks do cover or partially cover the pockets. I'm afraid at mid 70's, Bob Farris isn't as accurate as he once was, but the base model is stellar and I can trim some of the planks when I sand them down. The detail of this car far exceeds anything I have in plastic or brass. Maybe the Chooch kit will equal these cars. I'm happy, nothing here I can't doctor up and fix. Hand punched rivets, beautiful airlines and tanks, soldered together very accurately the best Japanese, Korean and Chinese cars, but done in the USA. Beautiful car!

BH

[E7]

Yep, no doubt about it, the base model looks great!

[PRR Man]

the photos really show how nice those cars are.
I agree with Bob, on the 50' the uneven boards are a nice rustic look, and even scaled nicely for the car's length

[DaveJfr0]

Butch, I had this same concern when I converted a Lionel PS4 flat car to P:48 and installed individual plank decking. The 1957 Car Builders Cyclopedia shows the decking material to be 2 ¾" thick.

..gregg

Don't know if you're still around this forum, but do you have photos of what you ended up doing for your PS4 flats? The deck material they use on the newer cars sucks and I want to replace them.

None of the scale lumber sites match the 5.25" width (.05" thickness) that is needed to properly line the decking up with the existing pockets, etc.

Tempted to make the artwork to produce the decking for these and give it to someone like ITLA to produce, but wanted to see what others did first.