Every so often at a train meet, some forlorn looking and overlooked piece of rolling stock on a dealer's table catches my eye, almost like it's silently screaming, "Hey, I've got a lot of layout running left in me!" This flat car had to be the saddest thing I've ever seen laying on a dealer's table--a few chips in it, no markings of a railroad--not even Lionel Lines--, no car number, nothing, but it was all in one piece with trucks, wheels and couplers. (There's a Lionel number stamped on the bottom, but I didn't pay attention to what it is.) Since the flatcar was only five bucks, it went home with me as a potential "project".
Over the next few months, I played around with the idea of taking some tubing I had laying on my workbench and giving this flatcar a load of pipes. Thinking back to my time working in "Packing and Crating" at Langley Air Force Base, I figured I needed some chain and dunnage to hold the pipes in place.
Three dollars of "necklace chain" (or as we Catholics would call it, "Rosary chain" ) later at Michael's Crafts, I had "tie down chains" for the pipe load. All I needed now was some dunnage cut from some scale wood then weathered with an oily looking "maple" furniture finish touch up pen, the pipes, some elmer's glue and VOILA! A "runner" goes back into revenue service for all of eight dollars in cost! It tracks very nicely with no bouncing or wobbling and seems to fit in well in the "manifest freight" scene.
This flatcar project is dedicated to the memory of Technical Sergeant Doris Richey, Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge, Packing and Crating, and Master Sergeant Andrew Crochetiere, Superintendent, Traffic Management Office, 1st Transportation Squadron, Langley AFB VA 1976-1978. Their advice and encouragement greatly helped me over the years of my Air Force career.
