Modelcrafters military loads

I have a couple of their flatcars with tank loads.  They look so darn good that they make all my other pieces of military rolling stock look almost toylike in comparison.  Now I'm going to have to weather and detail a whole lot of other flats w/tanks and other items just to make them look half as good.

I had a couple of their older cars that I purchased on ebay about 8 years ago.  The tank and truck on my flatcar were weathered Corgi die-cast models.  The boxcar was a traditional sized Lionel boxcar.

I will say that the paint and weathering on the cars were excellent.   If you have the cash, they are beautiful models.  Other alternatives would be to make your own flatcars.   Both Corgi and Solido make very nice diecast models and there are several manufacturers of 1/48 plastic models.

While the army flatcars are cool, I believe that most equipment would have been transported on regular railroad flatcars.

Jim

Yep, the Military grabbed whatever is flat and rolls.

World War two had this, flats of all kinds, all road names and all conditions.

I personally witnessed hundreds of empty flats in 2003 prior to and during the Invasion of Iraq screeching and squealing at top speed through town. Some were nothing more than rust buckets. Others were new and a few DOD flats dug up from who knows where too.

Flats were only part of the puzzle the military used.

They used Volume above the deck as well. Stuffing it with say.. a 3 axle truck and 6 single axle trailers stacked on top of each other. As much as they could get it to fit their bridges and tunnels.

I made all but three of the 18 flatcars I used on my military train, buying Corgi and such diecast tanks, artillery and vehicles.  I bought 36 Atlas trucks with couplers in bulk at a big discount and mounted them on flatcar "bodies" I cut from 1/4" plywood planked with wood strips meant for model sailing ship models, etc., and detailed.  They looked good but definately not weathered and as accurately detailed as some of their that I've seen.