Flatcars: The Single-most Important Cargo-based Rail Car Going

On public display on the Embarcadero along San Francisco’s waterfront, gleaming Santa Fe SDFP45 #5998 wide-body loco and a variety of flatcars: one bulkhead (empty) and three conventional (loaded)

“Pigs” on flatcars on a bridge crossing the San Joaquin River separating Fresno and Madera counties

There are railroad cars and then there are railroad cars. The defining railroad car, though, is the flatcar. The flatcar is singularly the railroad car that saved the American railroad industry. And, it may very well have.

In a book I have (The History of the Union Pacific: America’s Great Transcontinental Railroad, Edited by Marie Cahill & Lynne Piade) there is a photo of a poster of a March 8, 1867 Union Pacific promotion and on it is an illustration (presumably) of a train and tucked in right behind the steam locomotive and tender combo and ahead of the passenger-car consist is a flatcar, upon which is a lengthwise-propped rectangular box. (It appears on page 21).

And, in a second book I own (Westward To Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains, A Pictorial Documentary with text by Barry B. Combs) is a photo (on pages 22 and 23) of a train of assembled flatcars and sitting upon them are equipment wagons of some sort or another. Though the photo is undated, it appears obvious that it is of a scene in which the building of the original transcontinental railroad is shown. Said railroad construction was completed on May 10, 1869. (Reminder: its 155 year anniversary is right around the corner!)

So, it’s safe to say that the flatcar on the railroad goes way, way back.

Special-purpose flatcar with provisions for and oufitted with open-top cage

To prove just how valuable these versatile rail conveyances are, there are any number of applications in which these cars can be — and are — used.

For example, flatcars can be used to carry lading of practically every description and that includes among other things agricultural implements (like harvesters and whatnot); billboards (used for advertising this, that and the other); circus equipment; construction machinery (like bulldozers and front-end loaders); lumber; military armament (like tanks); railroad building materials and construction equipment (like strings of rail, and mobile cranes and steam shovels, respectively); trucks and truck trailers; and even people; you name it. There are bulkhead flats, conventional flats, depressed-center and depressed-center well flats (in this case used for moving single or stacked containers). The railroad flatcar is the most versatile rail-based conveyance going.

So, when I make the statement that railroad “flatcars:” are not only the most versatile rail-based conveyance, but as well “the single-most important cargo-based railcar going,” I firmly believe, this is no idle boast and one that cannot be contested.

One flatcar with a brace of lightrail vehicles on trackage in Union Pacific’s Milpitas, California yard

Until a more important, versatile car in the industry comes along (and therefore proves me wrong), this is the one!

Updated: May 4, 2024 at 4:27 p.m. PDT.

All material copyrighted 2024, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.