Extreme heavy weight flatcar

[julienjj]

I saw a transformer train yesterday, was carrying a transformer on a car and was trailling an empty flatcar, it was BIG and had around 12 axle, never seen that before, any of you know how is this called and have photo ?

 

[kenw]

could be any one of many, here's a link to a page with lots of 'em:
http://www.garlic.com/~tomd/

 

[Larry]

Probably a Schnabel Car. I have 2 on my layout. One I built from scratch & the other is a Kibri kit.
Look on my PhotoBucket link below.

 

[julienjj]

have'nt found it, it was a depressed flat cat.

 

[kenw]

Depressed center flats aren't particularly rare, but are different enough to cause a bit of excitement (in all of us!) when we see them. They'll be of any size from 4 axle on up. I've got pics of 4 axle DCFC up to 20 axle Schnables. The really big ones are counted as 'special moves' and have a train all their own, often with a caboose to carry the extra crew required. And they move really slow....

A week ago or so there was an entire string of them (4-5?) with transformers on a train thru Houston. Not sure of the size, they were 4-6 axles most likely. I couldn't get a clear shot from the window of my office!

Here's a shot of a 4 axle DCFC with a typical transformer load from back in 2002 (pulled by 3 SD9043 units when they were popular).

 

[kenw]

The 12 axles aren't usually Schnable types technically, here's one I caught in 2004 again in Houston. (it helps to be near a port!)

 

[kenw]

The largest I've seen was a 20 axle Schnabel on its own train, again, coming out of Houston. It is difficult to get the entire car in the picture!

 

[Railphotog]

I scratchbuilt a CN 12 axle depressed center flatcar many moons ago: