Tangent Scale Models HO scale HO GSC 60-foot flatcar

Plain flatcars are versatile utility cars on real and model railroads. They haul all sorts of materials, such as lumber, machinery, and just about anything else that can be secured on the deck. This new HO model from Tangent Scale Models represents a 60-foot flatcar design introduced in 1956 by General Steel Castings (GSC) of Granite City, Ill.

Marketed under the Commonwealth trademark, GSC produced 1-piece cast-steel underframes for flatcars and a variety of other freight cars. This type of
underframe offered maximum strength with minimal weight and eliminated most of the mechanical joints found in fabricated underframes.

Railroads could purchase the prototype flats as complete cars, or just the plain underframes ready for finishing in their own car shop using hardware and components they preferred. Many of these cars are still in service today in a variety of company service jobs.

We reviewed a sample detailed and decorated as delivered in 1956 for the Wabash, and one in 1980s maintenance-of-way service for the Union Pacific (with Missouri Pacific reporting marks).

The Tangent flatcars have detailed plastic bodies with 22 stake pockets and nine openings filled with wood-textured inserts. The characteristic one-piece underframe and floor panel fits into the bottom of each car body and secures a steel weight. The body is detailed with wire grab irons and uncoupling levers.

Depending on the prototype, narrow coupler boxes hold Kadee scale-size couplers in either standard draft gear boxes (Wabash) or end-of-car cushioned coupler boxes (MP). All couplers were about .020″ low.

Our samples have free-rolling Association of American Railroads (AAR) 70-ton 4-wheel trucks: the Wabash car has solid bearings, and the Missouri Pacific car came with roller bearings. All of the RP-25 contour wheelsets matched the National Model Railroad Association standards gauge.

Each sample is a scale 60 feet long and weighs 4 ounces. That makes them an ounce light according to NMRA Recommended Practice 20.1 (1 ounce plus 1⁄2-ounce per inch of length). The models’ major dimensions match those of the prototypes given in the January 1959 Official Railway Equipment Register.

Both of our samples were smoothly painted with contrasting decks. All of the printed lettering is clear, opaque,
and easily read under magnification.

Overall, these cars are well done and will fit right in on any model railroad set in the 1950s through the 1990s.

Price: $32.95 each, 6 packs $172.99

Manufacturer
Tangent Scale Models
P.O. Box 6514
Asheville, NC 28816
www.tangentscalemodels.com

Road names: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe class FT-7 (1956 scheme); Illinois Central (1962 scheme); Missouri Pacific (1980s Union Pacific MW Green, 4 numbers); Pennsylvania RR class F47 (1965 scheme); St.Louis Southwestern (1956 scheme); Wabash (1956 scheme); undecorated (with or without the oval hole in the side).

Era: 1956 to 1990s

Features:

• Air hoses
• AAR 70-ton trucks with solid or roller bearings, fitted with RP-25 wheels mounted in gauge  
• Detailed for each road name