It seems that the US Navy base at Seal Beach had quite a fleet of 40 and 50 foot boxcars in storage.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=378419&nseq=59
From a recent aerial shot in google, there were still over a hundred to be found there, perhaps some other equipment as well. Is anyone in the region is looking for storage cars or replica freight train cars?

And they are eager to dispose of them. Unfortunately most if not all have sprayed asbestos insulation on the interiors and the floors need to be "cleared" of any explosive residues.

I didn't see any 40 footers left when I was there last month, but there could be some back in the barricades. Unfortunately even the empty ones were so clogged with tumbleweeds I couldn't get into any of them.

Just read the caption with the linked image in the previous post. A number still do have plain bearings, but probably most either have roller bearing trucks or at least have been refitted with roller bearings.

There are a few flatcars and 2 beautiful 80 ton GEs still stored inside.

Greg

The Naval base at Bangor, WA, also has boxcars in storage; the Navy is looking to sell these as well. There was a thread about the Bangor cars awhile back: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35583

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Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hello Folks, my first post here.

The article on the Navy Seal Beach Boxcars brings to my memory the Seal Beach Flatcars. About 30 some years ago us then kids at the Orange Empire Railway Museum were notified there were two flat cars "available" at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. As I remember, three of us went down there for a look. It was a chance to see the insides of the vast base only few get to see. Upon entering the front gate we were interrogated as to the reason of the visit and made to leave our cameras with "Security" at the front gate. Then down to the engine house where the flats were spotted and we finally had a chance to see them. One is an all steel Navy flat with sideboards and the other a truss-rod arch bar flat from the Tonopah & Tidewater. The price was right, I think $100 each. Of course we couldn't pass up such a good deal.

Uncle Sam works in strange ways -- when we showed up at the side gate with our semi, everything was different, easy in, easy out. The cars had been moved out to the booneys where they have a loading ramp. The "Lokey" crew was busy and told us it would be a while before the could help us load. But as kids do, we nailed down 2x4s on the trailer deck and pulled the car on with a come-along. When the Loke showed up we were tying down the load.

Rolling out the gate with paper work in hand, the guard just waved us on, not stopping, our driver shouted "See 'ya tomorrow", and we were on our way. And tomorrow it was, we did the same thing over. the Loke crew didn't even show up. I guess someone must have been watching us on base, but none were seen.

The train crew told us that the old flat once had a horizontal tank on it and was used for weed spraying on the railroad outside the base which goes thru a housing tract backed up by large houses on both sides. They said that every time they used it, the base would get calls complaining that the Navy was hauling rockets right through their neighborhood.

We were told there is 64 miles of railroad on both sides of the base -- one with sea access and the other side was the "nuke" side where even the train crews had security. The rail is from the Tonopah & Tidewater also, sixty pound rail, with six bolt joint bars.

Years ago, the Museum also removed about 4 miles of railroad in Norton Air Force base in San Bernardino. Much of it the same T&T six bolt joints. Both bases apparently were built during WWII and all that rail was available.

In the next post we bought some box cars at Seal Beach later on. More fun.

Ray Ballash

The steel flat car is one of the WWII era cars that were provided in knocked down form for transport overseas. The one at Seal Beach, of course, was assembled.

About the same time as OERM obtained these cars, I attended an ARM conference at Baltimore and we had a field trip to the Washington Metro shops. The shop was assembling one or more of these flat cars for MW use. If I recall correctly the kit came with a K-1 triple valve in place.

Ray:

Unfortunately quite a bit of the base railway system has been lifted, to include the line between the base and the interchange. You can view the bare right-of-way using Google Earth.

Tim

Ray:

we have twop wooden flatcars from a militery base as well at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. We trucked our as well.

So, for the uninformed, are these cars at Seal Beach surplus from other railroads or are they kit built US government cars meant for overseas?

Ryan

You can likely expect that these cars will be dealt with much as the fleet at the Concord Naval Weapons Station was.

Stored for a number of years, these cars sat in the Inland area all gathered together.

Finally, they were sold for scrap. Cars were knocked off their trucks and hauled away to be cut up off of the station.

Only a matter of time before the same happens at Seal Beach.