Gold Line Centerbeam car and Load question

Started by Michigan Railfan, August 11, 2010, 02:56:40 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Michigan Railfan

So I've been thinking about buying a Walthers Gold Line 73' Centerbeam flat car (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-4137), but I wanted a load for it. I wanted this: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/295-LL1 The only problem though I see is that there is only enough for a 50' car. Now I have 3 questions.
1. If I want a fully loaded car, I need to buy two of the loads, but will it be able to fill evenly? It should, but I'm just curious.
2. If I wanted 2 fully loaded cars, how many would I have to buy? Could I buy 3 and use the extras from one and a full bag to fill another?
If I only bought 1 car, would one pack fill evenly? (but obviously wouldn't fill it all the way). I just want to know because I've wanted a Centerbeam for a while, and I saw a load like this on one of Al Mayo of YouTube videos (a.k.a Monsterrailroad on YouTube), and I thought it would be cool to have a loaded one with these.

ABC

I have 2 Walthers Goldline 73' center beam flat cars that I got for $10 each. Anyways to get to your questions...
1. Yes, it would fill evenly, but you would have about half of one load left over.
2. Yes, you would need 3, you can use 1 whole one for each car and about half of the third in each car.
3. It would be pretty close if it wasn't.

Michigan Railfan

#2
Thanks ABC. I'll probably get 2 of the Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer (CHTT) since only them and SOO are only 13 bucks, but SOO is sold out. I was thinking of getting 4 packs of the load for 2 reasons.
1. Incase 3 packs wasn't enough for 2 cars, i'm sure that 4 would be plenty.
2. I would have extras to sit around for something like a loading dock or just for scenery.
BUT, I (well, my iPod touch) did the math, and the 2 cars and 4 packs of the load would be 94 dollars without tax, and shipping and handling. So, maybe I'll just get 1 car and 2 packs of the load. I just hope that it will go all the way to the bulkheads on each side evenly. It might not since the load description said that the pieces are different sizes, so my worry is that it may be all lined up, but not going all the way to the bulkheads.


Michigan Railfan

Yeah, I'm fine with CHTT, because I don't really care about the roadname, but mainly depends on color. The CHTT is brown, so I'm fine with it. Now I only worry that if I get 2 packs, would the wood go all the way to the bulkheads, or instead be too long or short. Also, would these work fine on 22" radius curves?

ABC

I believe the box states a recommended minimum radius of 24", but I tested them out they will make 22" radius, but there is some overhang and it derails occasionally, and doesn't like standard turnouts too much. If you want I can show you a picture of the car on 22" radius...

Michigan Railfan

It's fine. A picture's not necessary, unless you want to. I probably won't really run it on 22's much, since my friends' tightest curve on his layout is 22, but that's only in one corner hidden by a very small closet. I guess it's not that big of a deal. LOL as long as it doesn't derail when the wood load is on it. Then I have to pick up all the pieces and put them back on the car, unless I glue them all together. Maybe I'll do that, but then I can't have a variety of heights of loads, i.e how full it is.

ABC

Here are 3 photos I took really quick, I found one of them, but not the other.
24"

22"

18"

Michigan Railfan

Thanks ABC. I scrolled all the way down, looking at the last picture, thinking it was 22. XD. Then I saw the captions of the radii. Doesn't look that bad on 22. I guess if the load overlaps a little I could cut them down to size. Although of course I would put the cut sections in different places so that way they're not all at one end. Thanks again for the pics.