kenw
5th Generation Texian
...as shown in today's photo of a westbound UP out of Houston. I have been seeing a lot of these lately (this was about 10-12 loads) and what struck me was the uneven length of the pipes. These are for pipeline construction, and very few are actually the same length.
And before you ask, no, the other end is not longer to compensate. They're just all over the map on length. Longer ones tend to be on the bottom at least altho even that isn't a sure thing.
Modeling this would be fairly easy: a paper or thin metal tube spiral wrapped with a pale green tape. 15 of them loaded on a 86-90' flat with a few vertical supports and some banding and separators between the lower 3 (the top layer self-locates in the 3rd), viola, a pipe load.
New life for those old 86' Athearn flats.
Altho for most of us they'll look better in a yard or siding rather than traversing any layout's curves....
And before you ask, no, the other end is not longer to compensate. They're just all over the map on length. Longer ones tend to be on the bottom at least altho even that isn't a sure thing.
Modeling this would be fairly easy: a paper or thin metal tube spiral wrapped with a pale green tape. 15 of them loaded on a 86-90' flat with a few vertical supports and some banding and separators between the lower 3 (the top layer self-locates in the 3rd), viola, a pipe load.
New life for those old 86' Athearn flats.
Altho for most of us they'll look better in a yard or siding rather than traversing any layout's curves....