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Picked this interestingly lettered freight trailer up at Timonium last Sat.  Car Works resin kit car....

 

 

 

 

But it suffers from "naked underbody syndrome",   

 

Please don't let this happen to your cars.  Install an underbody and don't let your rolling stock go out with a naked underbody in public,  

 

 

And, those trucks will just have to go!

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Originally Posted by Patrick H:

Good eye... Cool piece .. a few of us road down there from Pittsburgh last Saturday .. had a good time..  I didnt see that car ..guess i was too slow.

I was forwarned that there would be a number of O scale traction items on a specific table and headed there promptly,

I don't think interurban freight cars had much of an underbody.  There are several plans on the internet here, here and here. Typically a freight motor towed one or maybe two trailers and no more. The freight motor was really a modified interurban or trolley not intended to pull a long train. There were exceptions like the Pacific Electric, which was built to railway standards and was a citrus fruit feeder for Southern Pacific, but these were not common.

Originally Posted by Bill Robb:

I don't think interurban freight cars had much of an underbody.  There are several plans on the internet here, here and here. Typically a freight motor towed one or maybe two trailers and no more. The freight motor was really a modified interurban or trolley not intended to pull a long train. There were exceptions like the Pacific Electric, which was built to railway standards and was a citrus fruit feeder for Southern Pacific, but these were not common.

There should be truss rods, queen posts, etc. and a brake system under this car very much like those depicted in the links you posted.  Some of these also had a another air tank on the one side. Prototype of this car and several more that I have are Illinois Terminal which ran considerable freight operations.

 

Here's one of the ITS reefers from an All-Nation (Zimmer) kit:

 

  

and this is under a MTH (Midwestern Train Hobbies) car

 

 

There actually were a lot of freight motors that were built specifically for freight operations - for a starting point, see --> Not Only Passengers: How the Electric Railways Carried Freight, Express, and Baggage (CERA Bulletin 129) -- boxcabs, steeple cabs, and all sorts of freight motors were motors were in use at one time.

 

For example, right now I'm building a B+B-B+B freight motor inspired by the Piedmont & Northern 5500 that was probably the 1st articulated freight motor built.

Last edited by mwb
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