just another silly question for everyone. picked me up a couple of flat cars (katy and conrail) and they had stake pockets in them with some stakes, look to be about 4-5' (scale), tall and fit into them. what kind of loads use that kind of thing? most everything i've seen in prototype land is strapped/chained down to the floor and doesn't use anything like that. on semis i see a lot of stuff, but i don't see many flatcars that aren't hauling containers or semi trailers. thanks!!
logs and pipes used to be hauled that way, lots of wrecks due to shifting loads, so you don't see that now.
The stakes or the stake holes are used to do the tie downs on the older flat cars. Thinking about what Larry said, I do see a lot of loads like that in gondolas now. Much less chance of getting on the right of way.
ahhh... that explains it. i may throw them back in the box and get some of my tubing painted up and mock up some pipe loads. thanks ya'll!!!
Come to think of it, even flatbed trucks rarely use stakes these days. I do remember seeing pulpwood loads, with the logs stacked across the width of the car, using stakes in Maine in the mid-70s, but that's about it.
on a lot of the equipment we ship out of work we put stakes up, tack plywood up on the inside and put small crates, suitcase weights, chains, etc. have seen a load of bagged onions done that way, but with a cattle panel instead of plywood......hmmmm....... watch out ya'll, this could get a little weird!
Since we are on the topic- I have three very old Atlas flatcars without stakes. Are "detail" parts available or is this a Plastruck item in a real small size ?
MT offers a line of replacement parts for thier cars which include the brake wheels for the verticle stands, on flatcars, and the stakes as small packets of a dozen usually for about $4 to $5 per packet. Since my LHS carries a display of these parts from doors to roofwalks, usually next to the coupler and wheel sets, I buy them to use as detail parts for my projects.
I also remember seeing an article where the guy said he'd used ordinary staples, appropriately cut, to model stakes on flatcars.
I'm just throwing this at you but did you think of putting some rails or crates on them. I put some rails and crates on some of mine and they look great! CSX1
I have 4 sets of Atlas 40' flatcar stakes. They're yours free if you'll email/PM me your shipping address. "Hmm... I wish I could get free bananas from Kiz..."
