A note on the shipping of tanks

In a recent blog post, back on February 12, I showed my assembled HO scale Roco kit for a U.S. Army M47 tank (new in mid-1953, the year I model). I then showed the model being shipped on a flat car. (You can see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-new-armor-load.html .) Below I reproduce the flat car photo. 

 There ensued half a dozen comments to the post (you can see them at the bottom of that post), three of which pointed out that tanks like the M47 were shipped with main guns facing to the rear. You will also see my reply, in which I admitted I had not checked loading diagrams.

It nagged me that I had shown this load without checking a loading diagram book; after all, I have one. It’s shown below, and is clearly aimed at DoD shipments. Note the effective date of the book, AAR Pamphlet No. MD-7: it is October 1, 1953, clearly just right for my modeling era. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)

There are two applicable loading diagrams in this book for tanks like the loads I have modeled. One of them, Fig. 90 on page 247, for lower-weight tanks, is shown below; it is rather obviously the profile of a Sherman tank. 

The accompanying description for this diagram states explicitly that guns are to face forward, and that if no gun brace is available on the vehicle, that one should be made with a piece of 2 x 6-inch lumber, secured to the gun with steel banding. And there are period photos of Shermans shipped just this way.

Note also the diagonal tie-downs in the diagram. I have omitted these on my removable armor loads so that the loads are not too fragile in handling, though of course they would be there in the prototype. 

 But the issue we are addressing is not Sherman tanks, but the newer M47. In this same loading pamphlet, there is a separate category for heavier tanks. In that case, diagram 92 on page 253 applies, and it’s shown below. This is very clearly the profile of an M47, with its distinctive long turret gun and rear turret overhang. 

And not only is the gun shown facing forward, but the text in the pamphlet reads thus: “Turret gun should be in straightforward position, and turret lock handwheel and elevating mechanism handwheel, must be wired to prevent rotation.”

I do not dispute that in later years, many different tanks, not just the M47, were shipped with guns facing rearward. I merely point out that such was not the case for the M47 in 1953. Accordingly, I hereby retract my apology for getting my load wrong.

Tony Thompson