Best 1930-1940's era scale 40' flatcars currently available?

Well, depends on what you mean by “currently available “.  AHM and Pola made a pretty decent 40’ flat in the late seventies, but it was designed for 2 rail.  You need to add your own trucks/couplers and most likely repaint and decal into your preferred road.

Here’s one of my for sale cars up close with a Sherman loaded; my own wooden deck to cover the plastic deck of the model:

Here’s an overall pic of one of my for sale shelves with a AHM 40’ center front

These cars are pretty commonly available, and I would never pay more than $20 apiece for them.  I usually try to buy in bulk and get them down to between $10-$12 apiece, seeing as they need new trucks, paint and decals before they’re anywhere near ready for revenue service.

Hope this helps.  Any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers,

Price

While Lionel's PS-4 Pullman Standard flatcar is a postwar design, it is probably the nicest mass-produced flatcar in O scale.  Alternatively, the Menards 50' flatcars are surprisingly nice for the price.  I have several that I have plans to repaint for correct paint schemes. 

I agree with Johnathan on the Lionel’s as far as out of the box. I model a road with not much offered in 3RS. I look for Weaver’s with minimal lettering. I remove 2 unseen ribs on the chassis which allows you to really lower the car. Rough up the deck and paint it a wood color. Shave off some molded details. Add scale size stirrups, grab irons at the car ends and a new brake wheel with a more scale size shaft. Then re letter.

Addendum:

I would be remiss in not mentioning that Lionel acquired the molds for the AHM/Pola 40’ car and produced them as their Std O flatcar in the early 80s.  Lionel then kept using them (with some truck modifications) up to recently.  The most prominent examples I can cite are the Lionel Route 66 flats with ceramic (?) cars, and the “Peace Automobile Sales” flats with VW Beetles and flowers painted on the decks.  The bonus for buying the Lionel editions of these cars is they usually come with die cast trucks.

Cheers,

Price

@Dave_C posted:

I agree with Johnathan on the Lionel’s as far as out of the box. I model a road with not much offered in 3RS. I look for Weaver’s with minimal lettering. I remove 2 unseen ribs on the chassis which allows you to really lower the car. Rough up the deck and paint it a wood color. Shave off some molded details. Add scale size stirrups, grab irons at the car ends and a new brake wheel with a more scale size shaft. Then re letter.

I would love to see which ribs you are talking about and how you lower the car.

In order to lower the car you have to commit to Kadee’s. Leaving the claw coupler off lowers the car a bit. The trucks are now mounted to the chassis like the 2 rail version. The larger 3 rail flanges will rub on the 2 inboard ribs of the chassis. . I just trim them off as they aren’t noticeable or really necessary. If needed I can shoot you a pic..

Good Evening Everyone,

As Jonathan posted above,  the Lionel PS-4 flatcars are very nice scale cars but note they are 50' flatcars,  not 40' flatcars.   Lionel also makes very nice diecast,  scale 40' flatcars with a wood deck.   Both the 50 and 40 footers ride nice and low on their trucks.   I own numerous of both and are great for custom loads.   I usually scribe the planking lines deeper into the wood then rough up the surface a bit before staining the wood with various Minwax stain colors.   Used to be able to buy nos Lionel 40 footers for $25-$35 and the 50 footers for $35-$45 but those days are gone as prices have gone up considerably,  especially for the new product.   Here's a few photos of mine.

Traditional Lionel flat cars can be had for $10, painted with Rustoleum camo, add coffee stirrer wood decks and decals.  Deck is a little narrow at scale 8' 9", details are not scale and they ride way too high, but for public displays they are a cheap non-scale option.  Besides, everyone will be looking at the Sherman tank riding on the car.

These Lionel cars from 1997 were an improvement but details were not scale and ride height was still high.

Menards makes similar quality non-scale military flat cars.  These have simulated wood painted decks and nicely detailed Jeeps or trucks.  The forest green color was a definite miss.  Also they don't roll well, so a long train can be a problem.  OTOH they are ready to run.

Weaver 40' flat cars are a good reasonable cost option.  They ride low when converted to Kadees.  As Dave C noted, molded on details can be improved.

MTH Railking flat cars are also scale and ride height isn't bad.  Decks are scale 9' 3" wide.  This one was converted to 2-rail wheels and Kadees.  Also available in Premier line with Sherman tanks.

AHM/Pola are nicely scaled cars.  Wheels/couplers.  Decks were weathered with craft paint. Decks are scale 9' 9" wide fitting the Solido Sherman tank without overhang.

The finely detailed Lionel die cast 40' cars with wood deck look great and have a nice low ride height.  You only need to distress and paint or stain the deck.  They come with various loads.  This one is lettered for Army Transportation Corps and includes a Sherman tank (SKU: 1926751).

Another very nice scale 40' flat car:  Chooch 40' Fishbelly Flat car kit.  But this fails the "currently available" test as they are hard to find.  Also hard-to-find scale kits are the Berkshire Valley 902 O Standard 40'6" Fishbelly Flat Car Kit and the Red Caboose 42' 10" Flat Car kit.

I haven't been able to identify this really nice scale Army transportation Corps flat car I found.  It has finely detailed stirrups, grab irons, coupler pockets, stake pockets and under frame.  Anyone know who made it?

Bob

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the feedback.

Here is a consist that I put together about 10 years ago, and I'm wanting to make the flat cars more prototypical, and that means moving the Sherman tanks to 40' flat cars.

I find this flat car interesting.  It's a Lionel flat weathered and painted by R. Bishop.  I ended up getting it for free as it had an aftermarket Corgi truck sitting on it and I sold the truck for $20, the same price I paid for the truck with the flatcar.  I then built two large crates and put them on the flatcar.

I put all of my other load on Atlas Trainman 53'9" flatcars, these are the one they use to see with the pipe loads. They were pretty plentiful and affordable at one time and looked pretty decent.  With a wooden deck, they look a little bit like the AAR 53" cars.  Sherman tanks were usually transported on 40' flat cars, so I think I'm going to look out for a couple more of the Weaver 40' flatcars.

Weaver flatcar

Jim

When I was putting my Military Train together I used 3 different flatcars:

              Lionel 40’ and PS4 50’ Flatcars -  Only negative I can say about them is they do not provide enough places to tie or attach tie downs. These in my opinion are the best.

              Atlas Trainman 51’ Flatcars - I painted the wooden portions of the deck using wood colored paint.

             MTH 50’ Premier Flatcars - Some I had to paid the decks some were repainted. They ride slightly higher than the Lionel and Atlas cars.

             Also I did not use any Weaver Flatcars as the body of the car always wobbled no matter how tight I tightened the screws that held the trucks on.

If you want to see my Military Train here is a link

        https://ogrforum.com/topic/bla...-open-house-schedule

JohnB

The AHM/Pola 40' flat car from the 1970s was also made by Lionel.  Lionel frames fit the AHM/Pola shell.  Junker cars - bad body, good frame - are readily available.

Red Caboose made a plastic 40' Flatcar whose prototype was a 1930s-40s NYC car that was also used by the B&O.   RC-0262 was the brown NYC car and RC-0268 was the black B&O car.   I have both and they are among the nicest of the 40 footers and accurate for those 2 roads.

While they were available RTR as  2-rail I suppose they could be 3-railed without a lot of work.   They were $42 when new and strangely I have not seen them often at shows.

Then there is the Car Works PRR FM flat in brass.   Also a beautiful and common car but a bit harder to find and again set up for 2-rail.  And pricey since they are brass.

With a little work these common Lionel flats can turn out pretty well...

@Mark Diff posted:

With a little work these common Lionel flats can turn out pretty well...

Mark

Really nice simulated wood paint job!
I thought it was a real wood deck.
Bob

I am a fan of Lionel's 40' flat with the wood deck.  The stake holders can be used to tie down loads.  There are around 12 of them which will probably be enough for most purposes.  If your goal is going to be WW2 military loads the specific types of equipment can define the year.  Probably not the type of thing most people would notice, but aficionados of WW2 equipment might.

@Bill N posted:

I am a fan of Lionel's 40' flat with the wood deck.  The stake holders can be used to tie down loads.  There are around 12 of them which will probably be enough for most purposes.  If your goal is going to be WW2 military loads the specific types of equipment can define the year.  Probably not the type of thing most people would notice, but aficionados of WW2 equipment might.

Bill, here are those flats with military loads...

And one without...