Last Update: 2009-11-07
Flat Cars Table of Contents
Gons Table of Contents
Rolling Stock Table of Contents
Freight Car Guide Table of Contents
Examples:
- Marble and other slabs of stone were normally shipped on
flats - easier, I would guess, for a crane to lift off the
slabs than from a gon. We had guessed that one of the most important things
was that the slabs need to sit on a some
timbers, so that they could get a cable underneath in order
to lift. Also note that only a few slabs
were placed
per car, the car was not packed solid with them.
- [AAR
loading diagram 1.]
- [AAR
loading diagram 2.]
- [AAR
loading diagram 3.]
- [AAR
loading diagram 4.]
- [AAR
loading diagram 5 for large blocks.]
- [AAR loading diagram 6. Note that the side of the block with the largest area must be face down.]
- [AAR
loading diagram 1.]
- On the Rutland, there were on-line quarries that
shipped marble blocks a short distance to the
finishing plant at Proctor, VT. Apparently this
was too short to bother with all that blocking,
so they were just set on a couple of heavy timbers.
(Raising them off the deck so a cable could be
snaked under them to raise them off.)
- [Two flats loaded with marble bound for the finishing plant in Proctor in diesel days. Jim Shaughnessy photo.]
- Bill Brigham send us a c. 1961 photo of Montipelier & Barre flat
car no.
719, apparently carrying granite.
- [M&B 719 c. '61. Bill Brigham photo.]
Also note the grooves on the sides of the blocks, where they drilled the stone when quarrying it. - The largest block of marble ever shipped (at least
up until that point, 1931), was for the tomb of
the unknown soldier, from Marble, CO to Proctor, VT.
The slab weighed 56 tons and measured 14 feet by
7 feet by 6 feet (in HO, roughly two inches by
one inch by one inch).
- [On a flat car, I believe, of the Crystal River & San Juan.]
-
We've tried using real chunks of marble, which
is hard to cut. It also looks waxy up close.
Plaster has turned out to be the best. We have
cast slabs and then cut it into about one inch
cubes. We also tried that shortly after it
was poured and thus partially set, to insert
a flea comb into it to model the drill marks.
This worked pretty good.
- Marble could also be crated, particularly I would expect
finished pieces. The marble for the tomb of the Unknown Soldier was shipped from
Proctor, VT. The finished marble was crated and heavily braced. Another
touch is the banner on the side to proclaim the load. (You could model
the flat and crate, and change the sign each time you operate.)
- [C. 1930's photo, Vermont Marble Co., courtesy Bob Nimke.]
- [Rutland 2753 with the unknown soldier tomb, up close, c. 1931. Photo courtesy Jim Shaughnessy.]
- And originally, the marble came from one of Vermont Marble's
Colorado quarries. This would seem to be the same
slab, as seen above. Not sure why it was apparently reloaded
onto an other flat.
- [D&RGW 21148. Not sure of why the double stairway.]
- Smaller slabs could also be shipped.
- [GN 69750 c. '66, carrying granite slabs (probably curbstones). Photo courtesy Rail Data Service.]
NEB&W Guide to Open Top Loads - Marble & Other Stone Slabs