From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
Richard White

Are any of the following suitable for an Illinois Central prototype?

Tichy war emergency composite mill gondola (undecorated is part no
293-4041)<<

Not IC to the best of my knowledge

Intermountain USRA Composite Drop Bottom Gondola Kit (undecorated is part

no
85-41697)<<

Yes - Numbers were 126000-128649 when delivered, but they were apparently
all off the roster or rebuilt and renumbered by about the mid forties. I
haven't looked for their later history since they were still in use in my
modelling timeframe

Painting was standard for the period as far as I can tell - "ILLINOIS
CENTRAL" in Roman above the reporting marks and number with standard
presentation of capacity and dimensional data. Photos of these cars are hard
to find - I reconstructed the likely appearance from photos of half a car
sticking out behind the loco which was the subject of the photo and other
details taken from makers photos of other IC cars.

Walthers trainline 46' USRA gondola (undecorated is part no 932-7450)

Not IC to the best of my knowledge.

If you are modelling the fifties then look at the Red caboose GS gon - these
look close to IC cars delivered in the early fifties.

If not, what prototypes do they represent well?<<

That's a short question with a very long answer considering these are three
types of cars which were produced for multiple roads - I would still be
typing this time tomorrow to give a full answer, which would probably upset
the domestic authorities something horrid...

The best thing I can suggest is pay a whole $8.00 for a month's subscription
to the Rensselaer site

< http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/index.php >

Save anything you may be interested in. Their pages aren't going to tell you
everything you want to know - for example some of the USRA designs were
copied in the twenties and may not be included in their USRA rosters - and
there may be mistakes or misidentifications here and there, but these pages
are very useful if treated as a guide rather than as a bible.

Alternatively back issues of the major magazines are indexed at
http://index.mrmag.com/ and the publishers will often supply back issues or
photocopies of articles or you may be able to get copies through a library


Aidrian

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