There’s a slide of MP 99031, one the 13-stake 42′ flatcars converted to carry MP’s truck-rail containers, on eBay. I know there have been other photos of these cars, in train with a container on board, but I don’t think I’ve seen a good overhead shot of one of these cars empty.

In this incarnation, there seems to be rail on the deck, with one bracket mounted in each of two stake pockets per side (the third one in from each end), and it appears that the container is retained by the rail on each side, that is, the container sits directly on the deck with the rail on either side.

There’s a similar photo in the fall 2006 Eagle, in the article on 13-stake flatcars. There are other photos in that article of the truck-rail containers sitting directly on these flats. So that begs the question, how many cars were configured like this, and were they all rebuilt? The diagrams that I know of don’t answer this question.

RG7