Rescuing Flat Cars

I was inspired to try distressing the plastic flat car decks by this amazing video by Jason Hill:    • Flatcar Deck Weathering Tutorial   Check it out!

In January 2024, I posted a video promising strategies for building a large fleet of nicely detailed freight cars on a budget. Although I did not intend this video to illustrate one of those strategies, by happy accident it does. At the time I posted this video, eBay listed more than 1,000 used Tyco HO scale flat cars, ranging in price from 99 cents to 20 dollars or more. If you can acquire, say, half a dozen identical flat cars at an average price of five dollars per car, then spend another five dollars per car adding details, painting, and decals to suit your needs, you will have spent ten dollars per car for a fleet of realistic flat cars that look very similar. That’s a win in my book!

HISTORICAL NOTE: The Rio Grande never owned any purpose-built 50’ flat cars. (They did operate seven 50’ flat cars - #21500 thru #21506 - which were cut down from 61200-series box cars.) According to the Rio Grande Modeling and Historical Society, flat cars 22000 thru 22199 were 53 feet long and built in 1944. They had a load limit of 55 tons. Those cars were later modified by the addition of bulkheads and renumbered to 22251 – 22264. Obviously, I have taken some liberties in the lettering and numbering of these four flat cars!

Links to items mentioned in this video. (Note: I am NOT endorsing any particular product(s), nor am I compensated by or connected to any of the companies mentioned.) I do NOT guarantee that these links will give you the best available price! Consider these links to be a starting point for your search.

I used my X-Acto fine-tooth razor saw to distress the decks: https://www.amazon.com/Xacto-X75300-P...

18” Hand Grabs: https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Shop/...

Cast Brass Stirrup Steps: https://owlmtmodels.square.site/produ...

Tichy Stirrup Steps: https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Shop/...

I got my brake wheel ratchet plates and my brake wheels from Tichy #3007 Tank Car Detail Set. I had a number of these on hand from my tank car rebuilding projects. If you prefer, you can make a suitable ratchet plate from a rectangle of 0.010” styrene.

Decals are available from a number of suppliers. Check out Circus City Decals, CMR Products, Fusion Scale Graphics, Highball Graphics, K4 Decals, and Microscale. There are still a lot of Champ decals available, even though Champ closed their doors more than ten years ago – you just have to keep looking.

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This video was edited using Shotcut for Linux. Video footage and still images were recorded using a Galaxy A10e phone and a Nikon D7100 camera.