RE: (erielack) Re: Walthers Bethlehem Flush-Deck Cars: First Impression

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

Jeff, Paul and List

Intermodal flats, reporting marks and hitches is a vast subject, even more when you throw in model versions! I can't possibly cover it all here; I'm considering doing an article after the Atlas cars are released and I've had a chance to examine them. Here are some highlights concerning the current discussion.

Production of "flush-decks" began in 1968 and they superceded earlier designs like channel-side and S-channel. They were produced by P-S, ACF (Atlas car) and Beth Steel (Walthers car). They all looked very similar. Only P-S and ACF produced hitches, so the BS cars used hitches of the other two builders. Trailer Train switched from BCR to yellow around January, 1971, so both colors are correct for EL 1970's layouts. Correct TT reporting marks for the EL era are as follows:

TTX  trailer-only cars, length 50'-89'
TTAX  89' flush-decks with foldaway container pedestals and 2 trailer hitches
TTCX  89' flush-decks with container pedestals only (much less common)
GTTX  Gen'l American G-85 and G-89 cars
STTX  shipper-assigned
LTTX  low-level cars with 34" deck height

So TT Walthers cars, being trailer-only, have exclusively the TTX rep marks. 

Increasing use of the 45' trailer in the early 80's inspired the "Twin-45" program of 1982 and a new alphabet soup of reporting marks including WTTX, TTWX, KTTX, RTTX, TTEX, STTX etc which I won't get into here. This involved removing the end-aprons and relocating the hitches, or replacing them with fixed hitches; this was made possible by the fact that mechanized terminals had reached a critical mass so most cars did not need to accomodate circus-loading. However prior to 1982, all but the TTCX cars had end-aprons.

I have to go to work now  8-(  but tomorrow I'll talk about hitches, aprons and cushioning.

Paul B

Even though this was originally an off-list question, I thought others might
appreciate seeing these and understanding the difference.

I picked up three of each TTX and WTTX car. They're both correct for EL from
1970 (based on the "NEW" date of 9-70) to CR day. I concur with all of Paul
B.'s points in his review. One observation of my own: The trucks aren't as
free-rolling as I'd like, and as Paul point out, replacement Kato trucks
will let the cars sit 3" lower to a correct height, so I might replace the
trucks.

The big difference between the TTX and WTTX cars is, other than the hitch
spacing, the TTX car has a white deck, and WTTX has light gray - is that
important? The decks also have printed lettering for the front edge of the
40 or 45' trailer. The "modernized" WTTX car also is missing the "circus"
loading ramps. Would this be correct for EL era? (lack of ramps)

I was planning on moving the 45' hitch to a 40' location for my EL layout,
and not worry to much about the circus loading ramps (though I suppose I
could add those from the Accurail 89' kits). I assume WTTX cars never had
40'/40' spacing? So I'd have to reletter the reporting marks? Did Twin-45
cars appear in EL years?

Attached are some photos - the filenames describe them...

- - Paul


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