TrainLife Exclusive! HO Scale ExactRail: Depressed Center Flat Car - Norfolk Southern '2007 Repaint'

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 Norfolk Southern '2007 Repaint' Paint Scheme:

Norfolk Southern maintains a small fleet of these specialty cars for when the need arrises. Repainted in 2007, these cars came from the Norfolk & Western and now reside on the NS.

Additional Info:

• Region: East
• Era: 2007 to present

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!