With apologies to the late Bob Hope...
Back in February Tony Thompson in his Blogspot (https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-note-on-shipping-of-tanks.html) discussed loading and shipping of military tanks on his SP Coast Line layout. This got me thinking about military freight traffic on my tiny layout/diorama.
I am not a militarist by any means but I did serve in the US Army, 3rd Armored Division 1967-69 in Germany and have since had an interest in US tanks. My HO Little Port Costa layout is set in 1950-55 on the Western Division double track mainline between Oakland and Sacramento known as the Martinez Subdivision. Freight traffic is narrowed to what would be seen in 1950-52 with some exceptions for PFE cars. I check prospective acquisitions and rebuilds against a PDF copy of the ORER to verify the car number and existence of non-SP freight cars.
I researched on the web and found that at that time the US Army was shipping M46 tanks to Korea as the fighting intensified. The tanks were assembled at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan which was served by the NYC subsidiary Michigan Central. Military supplies for Korea and all US bases in the Pacific were usually loaded on Military Sealift ships at the Oakland Army Depot and Docks. The ocean route from Oakland and the San Francisco Bay area is the shortest route to Korea and Japan due to the westward curvature of the California coast.
Finding an HO model of an M46 tank was not straightforward. Several HO modeling sources have M47's but production on these did not start until 1952 and none were shipped to Korea before the armistice talks and the winding down of the fighting. The M47 was shortly superseded by the M48 which was the main US tank until the M60's with which I was all too familiar in Germany. I finally happened on the Miniature Tank Company of College Place, Washington State. They produce an interesting variety of military equipment through 3D printing. They were quite inexpensive and I ordered 4. They arrived and I spent some time finishing them to reasonable 2 foot viewing level. The primary problem was with the turret which came in two pieces with a very visible joint. It took several applications of Vallejo Plastic Filler and sanding to get a reasonable one piece casting appearance.
The Miniature Tank Company HO prints had one other flaw in that the tank hull was designed a scale 12 inches too wide. I couldn't fix this so the tank treads are 6" to wide and thus hang over the side of HO 10'6" wide flatcar decks by a very visible almost 1 foot on each side. The M46 and M47 shared Patton Tank series hulls and a photo of the M47 being loaded show about 6" of overhang.
At first I was going to forget the project due to the overhang but finally decided I was going to live with it. The 4 tanks on separate 50 ton flatcars will normally only be seen on the background westbound mainline trackage about 2 feet from the layout viewer.
The other thing that I was needed was the addition of a travel lock to hold the main 90 mm gun in place outside of combat and training conditions. All modern US tanks travel with their turret and main gun pointed to the rear. Up until the M1 Abrams tanks this was a clamp at the rear of the engine heat ventilators. I fabricated a non-detailed stand in replica of the M46 travel lock based on the US Army M46 Technical Manual illustrations.
I simply took a 1 mm slice of Evergreen 1/4 inch tube and a similar slice of 1/8 inch u shaped channel. I glued these together with plastic cement on a glass tile with the tube on the bottom of the channel. See illustrations. After the assembly was dried I sliced the tube party in half so I could fit it around the main gun. I glued the assembly around the gun barrel with canopy glue in case I needed to adjust the positioning.
I painted the parts of the tank kit with rattle can Tamiya gray primer and then Tamiya TS-28 Olive Drab 2. This is a darker greenish olive drab flat that reflects brand new tanks. I have not weathered the tanks assuming reasonably good weather while in transit from Michigan to California. These are the tanks awaiting appropriate flatcars for rail transport.
Now on to the flat cars on which the tanks are traveling to Oakland.
M46 tanks weigh 47 tons and there were few 100 ton flat cars available for shipping 2 tanks per flat car in 1951. the most available flatcars were AAR 50 Ton capacity 53 foot 6 inch length cars. This means one tank per flatcar. Wide decks were needed for the tank tread overhang and as the tanks were going west this would mean cars from western railroads were used as they had wider cars for their more generous clearances. I pretty much ruled out SP flatcars such as the F70-7 of which I have models as they were in demand for lumber shipments to support postwar building boom still going on in California.
I have a great photo o f6 M47 tanks being loaded onto 4 flatcars indoors at the Detroit Arsenal. I am not sure I should post this as I have lost the attribution.
The first flatcar which I can read the number on is probably Milwaukee 650007 or 6500107 (the number is partially obscured by the stake pockets), This according to the July 1950 ORER had a 10 foot six inches wide deck and was equipped with special tie downs in the deck and stake pockets for large vehicle loading. The tie downs show in the picture. I cannot read the road id and number of the the second car and the tank is already on deck being tied down. I can see the indent at the ends of the deck common to AAR 50 ton flatcars and it appears to have 2 axel trucks. According to the July 1950 ORER I have, the Milwaukee cars in this series are only 50 feet long not 53' 6" as most postwar AAR 50 ton flatcars.
I haven't found a 50 foot flatcar that will meet the wide deck design needed for tank shipments. Originally I was going to use a P2K car as it looks like the Milwaukee car but am now thinking I will remove the deck from an old blue box Athearn car I have in my collection and work from there for a more accurate car.
Behind the first two cars are two flatcars with two tanks loaded on each. No markings are visible. I can barely make them out but they possibly have 3 axel trucks. These must be from the earliest Magor order for 100 ton flatcars or earlier USAX 100 ton flatcar purchases.
In my own collection of non-SP equipment, I found 2 Tichy GSC 54 foot flatcars already built I acquired probably 10 or more years ago. They were not in my 1950 ORER but research showed the first large group of these flatcars was by the GM&O in the summer of 1951. For variety I am going to add one to the shipment. Decals are coming from NSC for these cars. I have repainted one of my Tichy GSC cars with a lighter shade than Tamiya primer freight car red (FCR) using Vallejo Model Color 70-xxx Cavalry Brown. As with the original kit I am not attempting to model the underbody details.
For the two flatcars shown in the picture I will use a C&NW 53' 6" AAR 50 ton car and a USAX AAR 53 foot six inch one that Jim Eager pointed has pointed out to met had been acquired by the DOD in two small orders in July 1950. For these I acquired a pair of P2K AAR 50 Ton flat car kits at the recent NMRA Pacific Coast Region Convention swapmeet. These have already been stripped of IT and NKP lettering, primed with Tamiya Fine Oxide Primer and are awaiting K4 decals to arrive.
One of the original P2K car's lettering being stripped using 91% IPA:
After priming I am debating whether to use the Tamiya Oxide Primer as the final FCR color for both cars or a different shade of FCR. My current information indicates the USAX car were probably US Army olive drab at this time. I need to make the final decision before applying Future (I still have half a bottle of the old Johnson and Sons) floor finishing prior to decaling.
I understand the air brake components and piping cast into the frame of the P2K cars is fairly accurate for an AAR 50 Ton flatcar and does not need modification.
I am unsure about the fourth car. Only the GM&O flat cars fit my timeframe but more than one would seem unlikely.
All that was ready for BAPM on June 27 were the GM&O, CNW and USAX flatcars so I added my SP F-50-16 42 footer to the parade in order to keep it to flatcars that would have been available in July 1951.
On June 26 I received the enlarged stake pockets by delayed mail from Jonathan Soares. I didn't have time to get anything further done with the MILW 650007 or 8 car so that is what I showed at BAPM.
I am going to go back in the next post and cover some interesting research....