A flatcar (US) (also flat car, [1] or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on trucks (US) or bogies (UK) at each end. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry extra heavy or extra large loads are mounted on a pair (or rarely, more) of bogies under each end.

What is a flatcar? Designs come in a variety of lengths, tonnage and capacities for specialized commodities that are not subject to damage from the elements. Contact our Shipment Quality Engineers for planning assistance with loading or unloading.

Flatbed railcars with the trucks, couplers, brakes removed in preparation to be used as a bridge. Typically the 60′ and under flatcars can be wider. They range from approx. 9′ to 10′ wide. The most common sizes are 45′, 60′ and 89′. The 45′ are 89′ cut in half. Flatcars have a center plate approx 11’6 in from each end.

Flat wagons (sometimes flat beds, flats or rail flats, US: flatcars), as classified by the International Union of Railways (UIC), are railway goods wagons that have a flat, usually full-length, deck (or 2 decks on car transporters) and little or no superstructure.

Feb 22, 2025 · Flatcars are the very first type of freight car ever employed by the railroad industry. The car also predates common-carrier railroads themselves, first used in the mid-1820s to haul large stones in New England.

FreightCar America’s multi-use flat cars are available in various sizes of articulated or non-articulated models, with or without bulkheads, and include general industrial use, autorack service, bulkhead design, center beam design, and hot and cold slab cars.

Flatcars are used to ship freight that is too tall, wide, long or heavy to be shipped on another rail car type. These are referred to as “dimensional loads” or “hi-wide shipments” and include things like heavy construction machinery, military equipment, farm equipment, industrial parts, pipe, steel beams and rails for railroad tracks.

This page covers flat cars that were used in general service. They were used for carrying loads that would not easily fit in other types of cars and varied in length from forty feet to sixty feet. While the walls of boxcars and gondolas form a truss which helps support the load, flat cars require a heavy underframe which usually consists of ...

This 89’-4” flatcar is equipped with a flat steel floor, stake pockets, fixed winches, lading anchors, and chain tie-down channels. Trucks have 110-ton nominal capacity, allowing this railcar optimal use in heavy industrial applications.

Greenbrier's flatcars provide versatile and reliable solutions for transporting heavy machinery or oversized loads safely and securely.