HO US Army Transportation Corp Flatcar Decals
This set was produced to introduce an more comprehensive set for these classes.Following the allied successes of WW2, the US Army Transportation Corp studied the its performance and concluded that they should have their own fleet of railroad cars to move equipment instead of nationalizing the nations fleet for their own use. In 1953 the Magor Company built 650 heavy-duty 6-axle flatcars. These were given series USAX 38016 to 38665 with a capacity of 200,000 pounds or 100 tons. At that capacity it could carry approximately two medium sized tanks. These flatcars remained in continuous service through to the early-1980’s, when the M1A1 Abrams tank was introduced, along with the M88 Tank Retriever, which were both too large to be efficiently transported on the now 30-year old rail equipment. They were then used for moving smaller equipment, and eventually became surplus and sold. During the lifetime of these cars, the reporting marks changed from USAX/US Army to DODX/Department of Defense,