tractors on a flatcar

Hopefully, Mr. Sethian will weigh in on this topic.

The loading pattern is somewhat dependent upon the Farmall model - the A's and M's are a bit larger than the various Cub models which could be fitted on the diagonal.

Here's a 1/43 Cub - http://www.diecastdirect.com/a...p?ProductCode=UH6077

Gary,

I used your illustrated method to load O Scale tractors on a flat car.  The NMRA supplied me with the loading instructions.  Photos of the result may be lurking on the Denver Society of Model Railroaders website, www.denveroscaleclub.org

I used 1:50 tractors from Athearn, no longer available new.

ChipR

The first picture is of Farmall C or the Super C model.  There is a possibility that these rail shipments are to the east coast as part of the Marshall Plan to get Europe back to self-sufficiency after WWII.   Note that mountings on the rear axles allowed for the wheels to be close packed for this type of shipment.  The wheel placement on the axles would then be moved out at the dealer. On the farm we would move the right rear wheel in for plowing and back out for other rear mounted equipment such as a mower and cultivators. Wheel placement had a lot to do with row crop farming and how far apart the rows (example corn) were planted. Father's Farmall C, new 1952, is still used on the farm, now by my youngest brother Dan. 

Father had just painted the C shortly before he pass away 1992. 

 I acquire this flat on the internet.  1/43 models of a Farmall Super M's and (2) Farmall 300's what the Farmall H became in the 50's.  

Nice, Mike!  I'm still using what was my grandfather's '54 Model F-Cub.

Front wheels of the Cub models were set apart which provides a lot of stability, and were also adjustable.

luckily (not financially, but dimensionally) i'm working with 1:8 scale across the board, but on the downside, so far i have an assortment of tractors and only a few pairs.  i am going to get a book on the Ertl Farm toys in a few days, but so far i've only seen 4-5 different models available in this scale...

the model M, 1939 - 54 (a bit bigger than the more popular H) at 36hp,

the model 400, 1954 - 56 at 52hp,

the model 560, 1958 - 63, at 63hp,

and the model 806, 1963 - 67, at 94hp.

i believe there is also a model 766, but i don't know the specs on that one.

all of these have the same tricycle geometry, but i suspect there is a difference in size among these models.  two are still in shipment, but when i have them all in hand, i will see what loading geometry will work.  perhaps for now i can explain the variety in years as a shipment fresh from an IHC refurbishment en route back to a museum  for display(?)

being 1:8 scale i have a concern of running outside in a public park, so i will have to balance realism with some security features, but hopefully it will turn out to be cosmetically acceptable.

appreciate the input.

cheers...gary

Holy cow, someone still picks and stores ear corn.  Nice C photo.

If you will notice, the one photo of the tractors on the flat car on the diagonal, the wheels have been reversed so the tire hugs the tractor frame, allowing each unit to take up less space on the car.  The dealer would normally reverse this for row crop usage that most customers would want. 

Note the rear wheel dish in. probably an M or Super M model.  These would be reversed.

There were options with these tractors.   Belt pulley attachment, Horse shoe draw bar, Hydraulics, Three point hitch, Fast hitch, Torque Amplifier, eventually live PTO. (Power take off) Not controlled by the clutch. Even the flip seat pictured was an option.  Way down the road many years later would be of all things Power steering and Power brakes.  It was a common known fact that the clutch on an M required a lot of effort, a bigger man for sure. I have seen additional parts welded to the left foot clutch peddle for more leverage.   As kids on the farms we did a lot on the Farmall C and H but weren't allowed on the M's. But I didn't see the difference we were allowed operation of a John Deere A model and Uncle Claire's Case DC. Both were beast, even as a teenager you slept well at night, after a day on one of these.   More modern equipment late 50's and up was much more user friendly.
Models of a Farmall C and Case DC both 1/16 scale.

John Deere A model. 1/16

Note the wheel weights on the C too.  They would look good on flats.

MWB Said

Hopefully, Mr. Sethian will weigh in on this topic.

OK, I will.  I chose to populate my flat car deck with The Universal Hobbies model of the McCormick International Farmall Club Tractor.  In real life, as MWB points out, this is a small tractor.  The Universal Hobbies is indeed 1/43 scale, but because the prototype is small, it looks like a full size 1/48 scale tractor

The mounting follows the scheme given in Railroad Model Craftsman. I forget which issue, but the gary's  original post is one of the pages reproduced in that issue.  Note it shows exactly where the chocks and chains go.  That same issue shows there were several other ways to mount the tractors, including diagonal and perpendicular to the long dimension of the deck:

Here is the photo I worked from. The photo is outside the VA  Transportation Museum in Norfolk. I could not get the tractors oriented perpendicular to the flat deck, as the wheels did not intermesh as shown here. So I settled for the angled placement.