WM 6010
This car was photographed by Butch Eyler on Larry Elliott's Rio Grande Western layout.
HISTORY
The Western Maryland Railway ordered two Well Hole Flatcars from the Greenville Car Company which arrived on the property in 1953 as WM 6010 and 6011. The cars were delivered in the Speed Lettering scheme. The cars were 50' Long with a 20 foot well. There are four panels in the well, the two inner panels were removable, so that taller loads could be shipped. The height from the rails was 9".
Both cars went from the WM to the Chessie System Railway and wore the "Chessie" paint scheme and kept their original numbers.
The cars continued into the CSX era but were never repainted into the corporate paint scheme.
The article and my scratchbuilding project made me want to get pictures and other information about the cars. I worked for CSX at the time and traced the whereabouts of these cars for several months. Trace records showed WM 6010 a scrap line in Georgia. Since it is a rare type of car and one of the few WM cars left in existence, I place a frantic call to the late Mr. Herb vonWachter, an AVP in CSX's Car Distribution Department begging him to move the car to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD for preservation. After being called a pain, Herb arranged to have the car moved to Baltimore. Due to its age and problems with the brake gear, the car took 3 tense weeks to get to the museum where it now resides. The car is now on display at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.
The car stopped in Atlanta on its way north. A coworker knew that I was tracking the car and had a Freight Inspector take pictures of the car. The pictures I have show the car in its Chessie paint scheme.
Sadly, WM 6011 was scrapped before it could be moved north for preservation.
The car is now on display at the newly renovated B&O Railroad Museum. I spoke with the Shop Foreman who said that the museum decided to paint the car as it appeared in 1958. Mainly, this was done because of the transformer load that was donated by BG&E that was originally constructed in 1958.
The Model
Model Railroader produced an article on how to scratchbuild a Babcock & Wilcox well-hole flatcar. The end of the article contained drawings of this car. The article listed general directions but no pictures or drawings of the underframe.
Beginning with the June 2000 issue, Mainline Modeler produced another scratchbuilding article for this car. The magazine contains better drawings and pictures than the ones in Model Railroader.
This car was my first attempt at scratchbuilding a freight car and I wanted to recreate the look of the car as it came from Greenville in 1953. Using the Model Railroader drawings along with the dimensions found in the C&O/B&O Freight Car Manual, I began the process of building the car.
The major assemblies on car were constructed from .010" and .020" plastic sheet. The metal deck uses .020" plastic. The sides, ends and well ends use .010" sheet plastic. Plastruct I Beams were used for the well bracing. The center wells are removable, just as on the original. Northeastern Scale Lumber is used for the wood deck and the well timbers.
The trucks are an unusual type. They appear to be similar to the Vulcan Heavy Duty trucks with clasp brakes. A picture of this truck appeared in the Railway Prototype Cyclopedia, Issue 4. The picture has a truck with friction bearings. These cars have roller bearings trucks. Lacking information on the trucks, I used Athearn heavy–duty trucks as stand–ins.
The Mainline Modeler article contains instructions on converting an Athearn truck into the correct configuration. Roundhouse has a truck similar to the Vulcan Trucks which could also be used.
Paint is ScalecoatII WM Oxide Red.
There were nor are any commercially available decals from any manufacturers. The decals are pieced together from Champ and Walthers. The Western Maryland in Speed Lettering is from Walthers and close to the correct size. The dimensional and other data were pieced together from Champ Decals.