CPRR Early Flatcars

[Andrew Brandon]

Early Central Pacific and Southern Pacific flatcars utilized a standard design: a 30' captured end sill car.
Cars of this type were also used by the Union Pacific Railroad.* The CP also built cars of this type for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Similar cars were also used on the Canadian Pacific Railway during construction.

Central Pacific / Southern Pacific Roster:
Central Pacific ( 1 - 3809 odd numbers only.
Renumbered 41060- 42565 (15 ton cars) and 43610 - 43737 (20 ton cars) in 1885)
Southern Pacific (183 - 455 odd numbers only)

Central Pacific examples:

21. Trains at station, Auburn.
A.A. Hart Photograph
California State Library

287. Entering Lower Canyon of Truckee River. (Sparks)
A.A. Hart Photograph
California State Library

213. Railroad wharves at Sacramento.
A.A. Hart Photograph
California State Library

For additional information on these cars, please see: Early UPRR Flatcars.

[Andrew Brandon]

Additional Central Pacific cars:

#2033, crpped from a 1870s view of a freight train in the Siskyous.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

CP and SP flats at the San Pedro Lumber Company.
Huntington Library.

[Andrew Brandon]

Here are some additional photographs for reference:

Flat #1181 in Virginia City, Nevada ca 1878. Carleton Watkins.

Detail of flanger #923. as far as I can tell special cars retained their original number, this car was likely flatcar #923 converted to sport the new flanger design.

Various loads on flats in Bloomer Cut near Auburn. A. A. Hart stereoview.

[Andrew Brandon]

All of this research inspired collaboration with Randy to devise these illustrations.
This should help set model railroaders and others researching these cars in the right direction:

Central Pacific flat #95. We aren't certain what color CP used for these cars initially. In 1868 the color was switched to "brown" based correspondence among the CP management.

Union Pacific had similar cars, thought hey had different trucks and bolsters. Here is one of those cars from 1868.

Los Angeles & San Pedro flat. Like the LA&I car, I do not have enough information on hand to verify this number is 100% correct.

Los Angeles & Independence Railroad flat car. I am uncertain what numbers these cars wore exactly. I would love to find a high resolution view of a LA&I flat car.

In the 1870s the cars were revised with a few additional tension rods.

In 1870 the Virginia & Truckee Railroad purchased two orders of cars from the CP shops. The first cars may have been painted "Slate" to set them apart from the CP's cars.

V&T flat #248 in 1886. This is the only CP built car to appear in a photograph of a V&T train. This car can be seen in the Crockwell view of the freight train crossing the Gold Hill Trestle.

[Curtis Reid]

One thing that Andrew and I noticed is that some of the CP flats appear to use a flat strap instead of a tie rod. You can see that clearly in this crop from a Hart photograph (#350; Railroad Camp near Victory):

(Provided by the Stanford University Libraries; https://purl.stanford.edu/nj339gb1246 )

It appears these straps were fastened to the side sills near the truck bolsters instead of going all the way to the end bolsters. This shows up clearly on the flanger photo several posts above.

[Curtis Reid]

Platform car model: