--- On Wed, 7/27/11, S hed wrote:

I know that there were some recent posts on USRA gondolas

in the 1950s so I hope that I am not repeating what others

have said. Anyway, I have run across a Shorpy photo of what

appears to be of USRA origins with rebuilt(?) steel ends.

Here is the link:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/69?size=_original

The car in question is the IC gondola on the right side of

the picture. My 1954 IC Freight Car Diagram Book isn't much

help with this car.

What do you guys think?

Steve H, Silver Lake, WA

Hi Steve,



IC 208182 is definitely not a USRA gondola; those cars were in the IC's 126000-128799 number series (the number in the photo LOOKS like "203182", but it's not: those were 1908-built gons which were essentially steel flats with wood sides).



This car is part of a huge series of 12,200 gondolas, all built to the same general plan, built for the IC between 1922 and 1926. These were all drop-bottom gons, based on a similar group of 1000 fixed bottom cars delivered in 1918 (pre-USRA).



These cars were used for all sorts of in-house conversions: to fixed bottom gons starting in 1939, to all-steel container gons starting in 1943, and into low-sided hoppers in 1945. A few stayed in their original configurationo (mostly on the C&IW) into the mid-1950s.



Regards,

Ray Breyer

Elgin, IL


















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