Awhile back on this list, I mentioned that the D&RGW GS gons with the little slope sheets at the bottom of the sides were 46 feet. Richard Hendrickson replied that there were 40-foot cars also.
I've now had a chance to review Jim Eager's article on the D&RGW GS cars, in the Rio Grande Historical Society magazine, _The Prospector_ in the second quarter 2002 issue. It's abundantly clear that the Rio Grande's 40-foot GS cars had a very large slope sheet at the bottom of the sides; the 42-foot cars which followed looked similar. By the immediate postwar period, D&RGW did receive cars much like the Red Caboose HO model (but with no side slope sheets visible on the exterior), and were also 42 feet long inside.
As Jim points out in the article, the W&R brass model is about the only accurate way to do a D&RGW GS gon. This is partly because the RIo Grande liked the chain and shaft method of door movement, instead of Enterprise's proprietary forged links and shaft.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
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