flat cars

The load is not considered part of the car for NMRA model contest judging. This flat car and load was entered in the model contest at the 2006 Midwest Region convention. Although it's a nice model with a unique load (which did match the prototype photos that were also shown there), the flat car is a stock Athearn car and did not earn the modeler enough points for a Merit Award. Adding brake details on the underframe would have helped to earn points.

Here's an interesting open load that I found heading westbound at Rochelle in 2005. Each of the coils is held in place by a strap that wraps around the top of each coil. Now if only the load was considered part of the car for NMRA Achievement Program judging...