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Re: Eastern Car Works 65' mill gondolas

Garth Groff <sarahsan@...>
 

Ed and Ron,

WP series 9001-9050 had 20 panels, five panels on the slope and all ribs extending to the sill. These were 1949 Greenville cars. Does this match up (I don't have one of the ECW kits to compare)? General arrangement drawings can be viewed at https://www.wplives.com/diagrams/freight/1958/G9001-9050.php . Photos are found in Jim Eager's book WESTERN PACIFIC COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT AND PASSENGER EQUIPMENT (Morning Sun, 2001). Some of these cars were fitted up with temporary coil racks only over the trucks and used between USS plants at Geneva, Utah and Pittsburg (no "h"), California, over the D&RGW/WP/SN until more appropriate cars could be purchased for coil service.

E&B Valley offered a WP-lettered car, but it was actually the PRR design. I stripped mine and lettered it properly for the PRR.

The D&RGW also had similar cars built in 1948 by Pressed Steel. These were 30050-30999 (2nd series of those numbers, the orginals having been transferred to the Alaska Railroad in 1947). See Jim Eager's RIO GRANDE COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT AND PASSENGER EQUIPMENT (Morning Sun, 1996).

Yours Aye,


Garth Groff

On 1/24/19 10:29 PM, mopacfirst wrote:
I am curious if there is any prototype for the 3010 kit.  None of the gons discussed earlier in this topic appear to match.
So.
Does anyone know such a prototype?  So far, I haven't found a match.

Edward Sutorik


That's exactly what I've been chasing.  One issue I see is the jacking pads, which other builders of this model have talked about removing.  Those appear on the NYC 623-G lot, which is a fairly different car, but I have not seen any on any other pictures of 20-panel 65' gons where the slope spans five panels.  The ECW model also has little molded parts (parts 15 and 16 on the instruction sheet) which represent the right and left end 'ladders' or grab irons mounted on an angle iron of some sort similar to the way a ladder would be built.  To me, that's one positive thing that distinguishes this model from the Athearn, which is much more available and much less work.  There are some prototypes that have separate grabs on the right end of the side, the SP G-70-2, 9 and 14 among them, so leaving off those parts and adding wire grabs would be easier than carving some off.

There are quite a number of other cars that have deep fishbelly sides but four or 2-1/2 panels on the slope, and quite a number of cars that have a shallower fishbelly and two panels on the slope, including unfortunately the MP prototypes which are the most interest to me.  I may look for other riveted side gons that could be sacrificed to allow splicing sides together, but the panel spacing might be an issue.  One never knows, if there is enough time and patience.

The Seaboard and Illinois Terminal cars shown in the Hendrickson article reference above have the same panel configuration as the model along with grab irons rather than the 'ladder', like the SP cars.  The L&N, Rock Island and Frisco cars shown, and some of the Southern, are also slightly off, having four panels on the slope.  I'm not concerned with top chord reinforcements, since those are easily added.

I'd do an ITC if I could figure out the decals, or an SP.  These cars could use the dimensional data in the Speedwitch set.

Ron Merrick

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