Eldon,

Someone once showed me a photo of either a C&O or N&W hopper car that
had ripped holes in the side, stuffed with hay to keep the coal from
falling out.

Regards,
Brian Everett

--- In STMFC@..., "Gatwood, Elden -- Tt, Inc."
<elden.gatwood@t...> wrote:

All;
Oh, and another thing. I had several people reply to me that my

split-sided

G25 gon (in TKM) needed a bad order sign on it. Granted. But, when

I was

growing up, you wouldn't have BELIEVED the kind of cars that they had
running around that hadn't been taking off-line. Split sides,

knocked out

ends, huge rips at the floor level in gons, rust holes, holes in wooden
sides, missing flooring, and the ubiquitous holes in hopper sides

stuffed

with rags. No, this wasn't just PC, or even that late. Has anybody

modeled

any of these features? Were they found in other areas?

Elden Gatwood

-----Original Message-----
From: Gatwood, Elden -- Tt, Inc. [mailto:elden.gatwood@t...]
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 9:32 AM
To: 'STMFC@...'; smithbf@m...
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: Weights of gons, and car condition

Folks;
One strange process I witnessed has always had me wondering what

effect this

had on freight car re-weighs.

I used to watch crane operators drop things from great heights into
gondolas. Sometimes the magnet, some times scrap.

The resulting shower of rust, metal fragments, and wood from the car

sides

and underframe was a strange sight. They actually created an

outline of the

car on the ground, composed of former pieces of the cars! Does

anyone know

if this was something that could affect the weight of the car over time?

I also wanted to ask if the massive deterioration of cars that I saw was
largely a feature of the area in which I lived (Pittsburgh and

vicinity), or

was the horrible condition of gons, and sometimes flats and boxcars,
something one saw everywhere? Did the steel and scrap industry get the
worst cars the RRs could provide? Kind of like those offal and hide

cars?

I have never modeled a gondola in the condition that I saw many cars. I
remember numerous gons that had very large portions of the (wooden)

flooring

completely missing. Although I have done this on a very limited

basis (a

PRR GR, a G35, and one other gon), breaking portions of the flooring

out and

adding underbody details to show through, I have never gone all the

way with

this type of project. I expect I'd have to make a new underframe in

places

to make this work. What are your thoughts on this? Are there any good
photos out there that show really horrible gon floors?

Elden Gatwood

...) The weight of steel cars DID
change, which is precisely why other steel cars have a reweigh interval
of 30 months (up to 1948 and 48 months after that). Weight is affected
by paint (up to 200 lbs per repaint!), repairs, modifications (e.g. K
brakes to AB brakes) etc... The reweigh requirement provides shippers
with an accurate tare weight, so that they know that they are only
being charged for the weight of the shipment.










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