I was stopped at a train crossing today and I was wondering what some of the railcars were used for.
Two in particular are flatbed, one with an iron “wall” running down the middle of it lengthwise, with ovals cut out of it. The other had vertical beams, again down the middle, with diagonal crossbeams. There were dozens of these on the train of maybe 50 cars, and none held any cargo of any kind.
There is a small picture of the second kind here, labaled Non-Intermodal Flatcars. I can’t find a photo of the first kind.
Yeah, the link says the intermodal flat cars are used for hauling lumber.
The one with the iron bar and the oval cutouts – could that be for hauling something that can’t be stacked? Something not flat, that’d roll or move. Or maybe something that needs to be suspended.
If you look at the top of your linked page, there is a further link that takes you to a page from which you can select information on the individual cars. From there:
I work on the railroad and the only thing that comes to mind for both descriptions is lumber cars. Most steel cars are plain old flatbeds, flat bulkheads, gondollas, or the covered type that carry steel coils.