Time Marches On! The railroads asked for a new design that was faster to unload, and didn't require as much shaking of the car, and FMC responded. When the Southern Pacific came calling to suppliment and replace their gigantic fleet of diagonal braced wood sheathed cars, FMC developed the roll over version of the woodchip car. This car was to be unloaded in a new universal rotary unloader that eliminated the tilting lift track, and required far less time to unload the cars. It was almost automated! The car still was built for capacity, and also built with bracing that keep the huge expanse of steel sheet from buckling. It became a billboard for the forest products industry. Both Gunderson and FMC built this style of car which has straight sides and therefore a uniform rib depth. These cars have solid ends and can only be emptied by rotary dumper, vacuum, or clamshell. They are used by a number of railroads and private owners from British Columbia to the forests of Georgia and northern Florida and is a particular favorite of the former Southern Pacific (many of which would be transferred to Golden West in the 80's and 90's.) Santa Fe took a slightly different route with their supplier, Paccar. They specified a double sheathed car that appeared to be smooth on the outside. This car had a similar dimension to the FMC outside braced car, but was slightly heavier. It seems the ATSF engineering department was worried about all that metal buckling under heavy use. These cars roam the system to this day, and Golden West, BN, Apache, Chatahoochie Industrial, Georgia Pacific and many others have these or extremely similar cars.

Features:

? Injection-molded body shells with injection-molde body shells.
? Equipped with 100-ton roller bearing trucks and knuckle couplers.
? Includes a sprue of top bracing (which can be added to empty cars)
? Brake ratchet or wheel details as appropriate for each roadname.
? Cars accept Wood Chip Loads 238-990403 (sold separately).