Bridge Easements for 89' flatcars

Geno,

I experimented with this several years ago when doing mockups to figure clearance for the Atlas 89'flat and OMI 89' autoracks. The 45" and 49'5" radius will allow the flat to clear without any straight sections attached, but the clearance is tight on the outside end of the car, probably about 3/8 of an inch.

 I would use a small Atlas 4.5" straight section on each end if I were using the 45"radius. The 49.5" radius is wide enough that it really doesn't need any straight sections to allow the car to clear. I like to use the straights anyway just for appearance sakes.

Another thing to consider is the amount of swing on the ends of the 89' flats with the 45"radius curves. These long cars tend to pull other shorter lenght cars off the tracks when entering a curve or exiting a curve. I don't know if the newer long shank Kadee coupler has more swing than the long Atlas coupler, but I always had trouble keeping anything shorter than 60' on the track when coupled to the 89 footer on 45" radius.

Travis

Travis,

I'm still the process of designing my track plan, so your input is greatly appreciated.

I'm also in the process of converting the 3-rail Atlas 89' flatcars to 2-rail. Is it even worth it to use Atlas 2-rail couplers vs. the Kadees? I need to find out which RB trucks to use- are the 70T RB trucks correct for these cars?

Thanks,

Geno

Geno,

The Atlas 2rail RB 70ton trucks are the correct trucks for this car. The Kadee couplers are more reliable than the Atlas coupler. The Kadee's are more durable and stronger and don't break as easily as the Atlas coupler, in fact I've never broken a Kadee when coupling or pulling a long train. I've broken several of the Atlas couplers at the knuckle when pulling a long train and even when coupling cars together because of the extra force required to couple two cars with Atlas couplers.

Since Kadee recently released a long shank coupler that seems to be about the same length as the Atlas long coupler used on the 89' flats, I'm considering trying them on some of my cars.

Travis

The 89-foot flats use a separate coupler pad to mount the couplers. This is a plastic piece that's secured with very small 2mm screws and can be re-drilled to match Kadees. I concur with Travis that the center-set long-shank Kadee 700-series coupler will give you more swing.

As an alternative, Rich Montague used 805's with plastic boxes with the sides shaved to provide more swing so his 3RS 89-foot flats can handle 36" radius.

Thanks for the information guys- I will order the correct trucks and couplers and finish 2-railing the rest of my flatcars.

It's been about 4-5 years since I've ordered anything from Kadee- what 700- series coupler would you recommend?

Geno