Repurposed Rail Cars

[Deleted]

Very interesting. Most of these cars were built in the mid 60's. I used to see plenty of 40 and 50 foot re purposed flat cars out west when we went that way on vacation many years ago. And now many of the older tofc flats are being re purposed. Please go ahead and share videos and or photos of other re purposed rail cars, real or model. Discuss!

[bridge2nowhere]

Throwing an old flatcar across a creek may seem like a good idea at first, but there are many wrong ways to repurpose a railcar as a bridge. The center video does a good job of covering the issues.
Once you address all the requirements and modifications, the cost or time savings often aren't as great as you might think at first.

Still a common detail in some areas, and easy to model, if you don't mind sacrificing a car.

[jbilbrey]

Boxcars and reefers are commonly recycled into sheds - both online and offline. Here is an example of a FGE reefer that might have been written off following a derailment and moved to a farmers field to serve as a shed:

FHIX 40050 by James Bilbrey, on Flickr

I've seen other photos where boxcars had their ends cut out to serve as bridges as well as tank car bodies serving a culverts.  Tank cars and covered hoppers can serve to store fuel and sand, respectively.  And, I have seen smaller tank cars converted to serve as semi-trailers.  Obsolete open hoppers may serve as storage bins at mines:

Mine at Cranberry, NC

And, the sides and frames of freight cars may be recycled to form walls of buildings or as fences.  I ran into that on a site inspection near Cincinnati, OH.  As we were walking around a scrap yard, I realized that the "I Beams" were hopper underframes, and the walls also came from scrapped L&N hoppers.

20170321_093537 by James Bilbrey, on Flickr

[lvrr325]

There are pictures in one of my Reading books of truck trailers with sides made from cut up Reading twin hoppers. Probably violates umpteen copyrights to share here. But there were sides from at least two cars to make a 40 foot trailer.

[jonklein611]

Somewhere in WV / PA, there's some coal hoppers being used as a retaining wall. My home club modeled this on their layout.

[roadkill]

Jan 23, 2018 5:23:34 GMT -8 jonklein611 said:

Somewhere in WV / PA, there's some coal hoppers being used as a retaining wall. My home club modeled this on their layout.

Along PA 65 just south of Conway , very familiar with it. Hiked up there some years back and got pics.

[lvrr325]

That reminds me, behind what became CP-290 in Syracuse, there was an erosion problem from the swampy area north/west of the ROW. So at some point Conrail shoved out a derelict NYC coach and dumped the body over the bank, where it remains to this day sort of half buried there.

[will]

In the Midwest especially Ohio there are many farmers using hoods from coil cars as animal shelters.
Cut an opening in one end, raise it up on wood timbers the animals have a snug home.
I've also seen hoods used around shop buildings as outdoor sheds. Raised up structures with doors in the ends.

[areibel]

We went on a tour of Larry's Truck and Electric several years ago with the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society. There were a bunch of dead SW's and NW's parked in several rows. I thought a hood from one of them would be a great lawnmower shed, but my wife didn't quite agree..

[lvrr325]

The NYS&W Utica shop, when it was a thing, or perhaps when RMDI was leasing it, used sections of hood from cut up BN B30-7aBs out in the yard as sort of storage sheds or covers for things.