SSW Short Bulkhead Flats

[Denver Road Doug]

Anyone have information about these flats?
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1699594

Were these chopped off at some point from your standard issue bulkhead flat or did they come this way?  I caught a similar one (88236) about a year ago near McAlester, OK.    I searched Trainorders and MFCL and didn't seem to find anything.    I get the feeling they were chopped, and fairly recently, since the photos on rrpicturearchives are all 2009 or later. (I think, might have missed one or two)   Thanks.

[Denver Road Doug]

OK, well I think I just answered my own question...

Before: 1/14/2006
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=266804

After: 9/25/2006
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=514545

So there's at least some evidence that a conversion happened, and approximately when.  Found another example of one converted a few years later as well.   Still would like to know when the chopping started.

[tom mann]

I wonder what the point of the conversion was?

[wazzou]

Low tunnel clearances?   

[Denver Road Doug]

I wonder what the point of the conversion was?

I honestly have no idea.  If I was to venture a guess, I would say (based on photos that show these cars hauling predominantly steel loads) that since they are commonly spotted indoors at steel companies versus outdoors with other loads that it was simply a customer request, offset by the small bit of weight savings....they did modify the gross/net weight figures on the car after the conversion.  Maybe they reinforced the car also, and that was an easy way to identify the modified cars.  (similar modern cars with lower bulkheads appear to be specific to the steel industry, or at least "denser loads" industry...so it would be an easy way to identify the appropriate cars for the job.)   Again, all speculation.

[nkalanaga]

Another possible reason is to avoid overloading.  If steel mills are anything like our filter plant they wouldn't always hire the brightest people.  If the bulkheads were left tall, somebody, sooner or later, would load the car to the top, and probably damage either the car, trucks, or track.  With the low bulkheads the maximum cubic capacity probably about equals the load limit.

[wazzou]

Another possible reason is to avoid overloading.  If steel mills are anything like our filter plant they wouldn't always hire the brightest people.  If the bulkheads were left tall, somebody, sooner or later, would load the car to the top, and probably damage either the car, trucks, or track.  With the low bulkheads the maximum cubic capacity probably about equals the load limit.

I think this is the most likely scenario.

[davefoxx]

I think this is the most likely scenario.

+1.  It might also facilitate easier loading/unloading without those tall ends.

DFF

[ljudice]

Actually, the reason for this is that empty "tall" bulkhead flats can derail over 50 mph due to hunting (imagine tall flat surface against the wind on a short, light car), and there is a general program to remove the talll bulkheads whenever possible.

This is why these cars have speed restrictions....

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Actually, the reason for this is that empty "tall" bulkhead flats can derail over 50 mph due to hunting (imagine tall flat surface against the wind on a short, light car), and there is a general program to remove the talll bulkheads whenever possible.

This is why these cars have speed restrictions....

Interesting, I had never heard of that. I too had been curious. Thanks!

[nkalanaga]

I hadn't either.  The Northwest railroads moved empty bulkhead flats at track speed all the time.  Maybe they had better track? 

I do know that the bulkheads make great sails.  It wasn't uncommon, on windy days, for the computer at the Pasco yard to report "Car rolling back in track ##".  The operator would look down the bowl, and sure enough, here would come an empty flat.  It didn't help that the yard is basically north-south and the wind was usually from the west/southwest, catching the car at the perfect angle.  From the ends the wind would have been partially blocked by other cars on the track, but a cross wind works fine, just like on a sailboat.

Making it worse was that the Pasco airport, an old Naval air station, was to the west, with rural farms and homes west of that.  Nothing to break the wind for miles.  The hump crest used to have trouble with tumbleweeds confusing the radar "speed gun" until they put up a fence, and the weeds probably still collect under cars on the westernmost tracks, the receiving yard, sometimes to the point of causing derailments.  With all of the development west of the airport maybe they don't have as many tumbleweeds today. 

The fact that the east approach path for the main runway was right over the yard office, and the retarder operator could sometimes look out his window and into the plane windows, is another story.  My father was always amazed that the tower was never hit.

[ljudice]

Here's the NS restriction:

from the ''SYSTEM SECTION'' TimeTable Number 1, Effective August 4, 2008, at - http://blet73.org/System%20Timetable.pdf - specifically, GENERAL SPEED RESTRICTIONS, SP-1. SPEED RESTRICTIONS - CARS, on page 1:

Empty bulkhead flat car and/or empty woodrack car, foreign or system ....45

There are a ton of interesting restrictions and rules out there, and the BLE websites have a number of RR's rulebooks online.

- Lou

[nkalanaga]

Lou:  I didn't doubt you.  As you said, every railroad has its collection of weird and wonderful rules.  For instance, the last NP special instructions for the Selah branch, out of Yakima, had speed restrictions for 6 axle locomotives in Selah.  Never mind that Selah is the end of the line, and 6 axle locomotives were absolutely forbidden to cross a bridge between Yakima and Selah, so their speed in Selah was irrelevant...

The Milwaukee at Beverly, WA even had a signal in their special instructions.  Both ends of the Beverly Columbia River bridge had a "wind signal", controlled by a wind gauge on the bridge.  When the wind exceeded a certain speed, the signal turned red, closing the bridge.  That one certainly wasn't in the standard rule books.  But I remember them losing at least one TOFC train off that bridge into the river.  One trailer was hauling Japanese transistor radios, and the sandbar downstream was known as "Japanese Bar" for some time afterwards.

[ljudice]

Hey I doubt myself most of the time!!!   

No, I just posted back those links because I thought it's a neat reference some folks may not know about.

I remember sorting through old timetables, etc... at train shows, but there is plenty of great reference material online these days.... 

On the bulkhead flats,  my guess is that with a lot of them reassigned to plate steel or girder or pole service, someone probably figured it made sense to make them into less than America's Cup contenders. 

- ljj

[mcjaco]

I swear I saw these as far back as 1999 in American Canyon on the Cal Northern.  I'll hae to find my pictures and see if I'm crazy.