82 Year-Old Flat Car...

Hmm...I thought this would have gotten some sort of response by now...  

Anyway, it now has new decking...

Great thing about this kit is that it's pretty much all assembled with screws, so taking it apart was a snap; no 80 year old adhesives to deal with... 

Mark in Oregon

Nice.  Probably rolls nicely with the weight of that car. Some stain and paint, a few details, and it'll be good on the layout. 

Beautiful kit not making this anymore I hope it will be some day owesome what you do

The cast aluminum kit era of the mid-late 1930's produced a wide variety of freight and passenger car kits. They could be a challenge to assemble, using screws, pins and glue. With todays modern epoxies and ACC's it become easier to build (or rebuild) one of them.  These cast aluminum freight cars I built are from kits first issued before I was born in 1938.  I have four more to re-build or finish:   A four bay, a three bay and a two bay offset-side hopper and an eight wheel depressed center flat car. They were originally made by Mi Loco, American Scale Models, Scale Craft and Megow.   S. Islander

These old kits were works of art in many respects.  Unfortunately at the time of their construction they didn't have some of the modern tools, manufacturing methods and adhesives available. 

But over all they are a great fun to build or in some cases rebuild!

Missed the auction and this thread. Great find.

@Strummer posted:

Anyway, it now has new decking...

That decking looks legit. Did you make it from wood or is it from another kit/parts website?

@BillYo414 posted:

That decking looks legit. Did you make it from wood or is it from another kit/parts website?

Thanks...simply 3 1/2 sections of some Northeast scribed siding; cut to width and glued (to the original split decking) with good ol' Elmer's wood glue.

Question: the instructions call for black or red: what's a good "red" for a C&NW car such as this?

Mark in Oregon

@S. Islander posted:

The cast aluminum kit era of the mid-late 1930's produced a wide variety of freight and passenger car kits. They could be a challenge to assemble, using screws, pins and glue. With todays modern epoxies and ACC's it become easier to build (or rebuild) one of them.  These cast aluminum freight cars I built are from kits first issued before I was born in 1938.  I have four more to re-build or finish:   A four bay, a three bay and a two bay offset-side hopper and an eight wheel depressed center flat car. They were originally made by Mi Loco, American Scale Models, Scale Craft and Megow.   S. Islander

That depressed-center flat was later a Walthers product; even to the ERIE decal set. My 1947 Walthers catalog shows it on page D-14 as "3815   50 ft. 105-ton Depressed Center Flat Car   kit $6.50    Finished $12.00". I must like them, I have seven or eight of them! All Nation offered a similar car that was a bit shorter and had two-axle trucks and I have a couple of them, also. 

Indeed so. Yet Walthers was not the original producer of that casting. They were bought as old stock, unfinished castings.  Walthers did machine work on the castings to make them kit ready.  No one was making cast aluminum O scale freight car kits after WW II. Yet these 1930's molds were used by some to make castings in zamak, white metal, lead and pewter instead. The lettering I used was not from a Walters decal set, but from other decal alphabets, numbers and scraps on hand.  I let nothing go to waste. This is the All Nation depressed center flat I am working on. I milled the underside of the ends for Kadee couplers and ground off the end sills where poling pockets were to be placed, to update it. I'm still unsure about the bottom edge flange I added.  The trucks are Walthers Dahlmans, the only ones I could find with heavy duty four-spring detail. 

S. Islander

Very nice, guys.

These pre-war/immediate post-war scale models are simply fascinating; there's so much I don't know, and what a better way to learn than with hands-on experience...and seeing your stuff, of course. 

Anyone else?...feel free to show whatever you may have.

Mark in Oregon

PS: Walthers often used something called "Tenite" for their wheels: is it kind of like Bakelite?