Northern Pacific
Road Number NP 62720
with Pipe Load

This black 50’ flat car with fishbelly side and side mount brake wheel has white lettering and runs on black Roller Bearing trucks. NP 62720 was built in December, 1967 out of components from General Steel Industries (GSI). It exhibits NP’s flat car lettering scheme as applied to GSI flats. The hallmark of GSI’s flats was the massive one-piece cast steel underframe. It is equipped with 10” Freight Master end-of-car (EOC) cushioning, which is proclaimed in the “CUSHION UNDERFRAME” lettering. Keeping lumber loads from shifting in transit was always a railroad goal. It cost time and money to send a flat with a shifted load to the rip track’s overhead crane to set the load aright. The cushioned underframe made good economical sense, even on a lowly flat car.