TrainLife Exclusive! HO Scale ExactRail: Depressed Center Flat Car - Erie Lackawanna '1974 As-Delivered'

General Steel Industries (GSI) offered one-piece cast-steel under-frames in which the sill, body bolsters, cross bearers, draft pockets, couplers and carriers were combined into a single steel casting. These under-frames were popular for Depressed Center Flats because the design maximized load strength while minimizing vertical height of fabricated under-frames.

Generally designed with a specialty commodity in mind, Depressed Center Flat Cars are unique. In addition to the GSI cast steel designs, Depressed Center Flats were frequently fabricated by a railroad's home shop and familiar builders­ — such as Thrall, and were also built by a host of specialty builders, such as Maxson, Norca and Kasgro.

Given the rarity of all designs, ExactRail combined elements common to key prototypes to offer a Depressed Center Flat with both interesting and characteristic features. Perhaps closest in design to the Conrail (ex-Erie Lackawanna) FE42A Class Depressed Flat, ExactRail's Depressed Center Flat is a good stand-in for similar TTX/QTTX, NYC, UP, CR, & P&LE cars. With perforated GSI-style decks and intricately lettered car sides, ExactRail's 48' Depressed Center Flat will turn heads just like the prototypes.

• Precision micro-tooled!
• Designed, engineered and tooled in the United States!
• Factory installed Kadee® No. 5® couplers
• Narrow-style draft box featuring shank wedges, & striker casting and full nut and bolt detail
• ExactRail's exclusive ASF 100 Ton Ride Control Trucks
• CNC-machined metal wheel sets
• Razor sharp painting and printing
• Wire grab irons and GSI-style perforated deck

About the Erie Lackawanna '1974 As-Delivered' Paint Scheme:

When we originally released our Depressed Center Flat 10 years ago, one of the most requested schemes was Erie Lackawanna. The prototype car is exceptionally close to our model, however finding reference images was exceptionally difficult. Fortunately, we were approached by individuals that had enough that made it so we could reproduce this car. The Erie Lackawanna had a small fleet of cars numbering from 7100-7102 and they were built in 1974.            

Additional Info:

• Region: East
• Era: 1974 to 1980's

More About TrainLife Exclusive Products:

We know that there are many holes in the modeling world and many people that are happy to have a stand in model as long as it represents something close to the real thing... With that in mind we have worked closely with ExactRail to do just that! The ExactRail depressed center flat car could be considered a 'stand in model' as the design is a kind of combination of features of several freight cars. We're excited to share this second exclusive run of depressed center flat cars with you!