Not an expert in these kinds of things, I used to think a flatcar is a flatcar is a flatcar. OK, maybe some were 40 ft, some 50 and some 60, but that's about it as far as variety, right? Wrong! Alan gently pointed out at least two kinds. This one is a 60' general purpose flat: But this one is a little different. It has two channels for tie-downs for transporting heavy equipment. (Incidentally, this is the one that appears to be the prototype for Intermountain's on-the-drawing-board flatcar.) Now the question for my learned friends on the Board is: how many other kinds of flatcars are there out there? (Not counting the various forms of bulkhead flats.) William
William, in TTX terms, the standard flatcar is MTTX and the Chain Tie Down flatcar is HTTX. On your lower picture the chains can be seen on the deck between the outer and inner channels. Edit: Chain tie down cars can also be OTTX
William, TTX's website might help: http://www.ttx.com/ Go to "equipment overview", and you can either search through the TTX fleet by type, or search by what you want to load and it will find you an applicable car. Useful pics btw!
