I note that Athearn is producing a C&NW version of the 65 ft mill gon. I also note that the Athearn numbers:

Gondola, C&NW #95081 & 95156

do not match the numbers Richard reports in his article in Feb 2006 RMJ nor do they match those in the '53 ORER [ which match Richard's ]. The Athearn cars also have a '58 [ I think ] built date. Rather annoying for those modeling the steam era. I suppose one could change the numbers. Does anyone know if these cars are correct for the late steam era? Wonder why Athearn chose such a date...shutting out the transition era modeler?

Mike Brock

Mike

Maybe they chose to cater to (gasp!) the post-transition era?? After all many
modelers like those 1960's cars (incredible as it may seem!)

Tim 'pre post modernesque transition era modeler' O'Connor

On Apr 18, 2007, at 9:15 AM, Mike Brock wrote:

I note that Athearn is producing a C&NW version of the 65 ft mill gon.
I
also note that the Athearn numbers:

Gondola, C&NW #95081 & 95156

do not match the numbers Richard reports in his article in Feb 2006
RMJ nor
do they match those in the '53 ORER [ which match Richard's ]. The
Athearn
cars also have a '58 [ I think ] built date. Rather annoying for those
modeling the steam era. I suppose one could change the numbers. Does
anyone
know if these cars are correct for the late steam era? Wonder why
Athearn
chose such a date...shutting out the transition era modeler?

My 10/58 ORER shows two groups of 65'6" mill gons with numbers in the
95000-95199 series and odd numbers in the 132001-132099 series. The
132000 series cars were built by Pressed Steel in 1949 and had those
numbers from the outset, as shown by a builder's photo in the 1953 Car
Builders' Cyclopedia, confirmed by the 1951 C&NW diagram book. The
95000-95199 series cars are not in the 1/53 or 1/55 ORERs, so the built
date on the Athearn models may be correct. Changing the numbers is, of
course, possible but the rest of the lettering should be compared to
the photo in the 1953 Cyc as there is no guarantee that the lettering
style and arrangement was the same on the later cars as on the earlier
ones.

As to why Athearn chose to model the later cars rather than the earlier
ones, I can tell you that they could easily have modeled the 1949 cars
because I provided Athearn's R&D people with both photos and data on
them. However, I will add my impression that product decisions at
Athearn are not made by, nor apparently even in much consultation with,
the R&D department. They are made by sales people. And most sales
people in the model railroad business are legendary for (1) their
ignorance of, even contempt for, accurate prototype data and (2) their
insightful market research, which consists mostly of exchanging
misconceptions with hobby shop owners who know even less about the
prototype than they do. No surprise, then, that the results often seem
baffling to us prototype modelers.

In short, go figure.

Richard Hendrickson

Tim O'Connor writes:

"Maybe they chose to cater to (gasp!) the post-transition era?? After all many
modelers like those 1960's cars (incredible as it may seem!)"

Well, I suppose it might be incredible to some that "1960's cars" are liked. Personally, it doesn't surprise me at all. However, my guess is that most of the 1949 built cars [ 132001-132099 ] existed in the '60's and probably later than that. Soooo, doing the 132001-132099 class would be useful for both steam era AND post steam era modelers. Doing the 95000-95199 class simply means that someone modeling prior to 1958 would have no use for it. And that's why I left one in my local hobby shop today. Could I renumber it? Certainly. But I have about 400 other cars waiting to be serviced and I decided adding one more might cause a collapse of the railroad room.

Mike Brock

I assume from Richard Hendrickson's post on this gondola that there is
an actual prototype for the Athearn 65 ft. gon.

What might that prototype be?

When were gons of this length and general design first built?

The paint schemes I have seen in ads and on Athearn's web site all
seem "modern" for this group. Has anyone tried to strip the paint on
one and reletter it?

From earlier posts on the Eastern Car Works gondola kit I infer that
the Athearn gon is not correct for the PRR G26. Right or wrong.

Gene Green
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso

Gene,

IIRC, the Athearn 65' gondola is an AAR design from the mid-1940s that was build up into the 1960s. Many roads had cars very similar to the model, though I'm not able to name most with accuracy here at work. It appears to be very close to WP 9001-9050.

The Athearn car is much improved over the Eastern Car Works AAR kit, which has good sides but uses incorrect end castings from their PRR G26 kit. ECW also markets a G26, which can be improved to make a very nice model. (If I can do it, anyone can.)

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

Gene Green wrote:

Gene Green asked:
"I assume from Richard Hendrickson's post on this gondola that there
is an actual prototype for the Athearn 65 ft. gon.

What might that prototype be?

When were gons of this length and general design first built?"

Gene, message #s 52866, 52495, and Richard Hendrickson's article in
the February 2006 issue of Railroad Model Journal should answer all
your questions.


"The paint schemes I have seen in ads and on Athearn's web site all
seem "modern" for this group. Has anyone tried to strip the paint on
one and reletter it?"

Speedwitch offers some very nice decals to correctly reletter these
cars for L&N, NC&StL, Wabash, and Seaboard
http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm


"From earlier posts on the Eastern Car Works gondola kit I infer that
the Athearn gon is not correct for the PRR G26. Right or wrong."

You are correct. The Athearn gon is most definitely NOT a Class G26
gon.


Ben Hom

Ben Hom:

Speedwitch offers some very nice decals to correctly reletter these
cars for L&N, NC&StL, Wabash, and Seaboard
http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm

I thought Ted also offered replacement ends for that car, but I can't
find them on the Speedwitch web site now.

Tom Madden

--- In STMFC@..., "Tom Madden" <tgmadden@...> wrote:

Ben Hom:

Speedwitch offers some very nice decals to correctly reletter these
cars for L&N, NC&StL, Wabash, and Seaboard
http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm

I thought Ted also offered replacement ends for that car, but I can't
find them on the Speedwitch web site now.

Tom

Part # P-102 for postwar dreadnaught drop ends.

Chet French
Dixon, IL

Tom:
There is a link to the parts page, on the top of the Speedwitch homepage.
Brian Carlson

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:47:41 -0000, Tom Madden wrote

Ben Hom:

Speedwitch offers some very nice decals to correctly reletter these
cars for L&N, NC&StL, Wabash, and Seaboard
http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm

I thought Ted also offered replacement ends for that car, but I
can't find them on the Speedwitch web site now.

Tom Madden

Yahoo! Groups Links

--
Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)

Anybody else having no luck pulling up Ted's website? Been going on several
days...



Elden Gatwood



________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of Chet
French
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:15 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Athearn C&NW 65 ft mill gon



--- In STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> , "Tom Madden"
<tgmadden@...> wrote:

Ben Hom:

Speedwitch offers some very nice decals to correctly reletter these
cars for L&N, NC&StL, Wabash, and Seaboard
http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm

<http://www.speedwitch.com/Decals/d111.htm>

I thought Ted also offered replacement ends for that car, but I can't
find them on the Speedwitch web site now.

Tom

Part # P-102 for postwar dreadnaught drop ends.

Chet French
Dixon, IL

There is a link to the parts page, on the top of the Speedwitch
homepage.
Brian Carlson

Thanks, Brian and Chet - I must be getting old(er). I knew I'd seen it
before but couldn't find it in the menu bar at the very top of the
page. Now I see it - just above the photos of the models, at the left.

Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make when I went
looking. Ted sells replacement postwar drop ends for the Athearn gon
which, as-is, comes with prewar ends.

Tom Madden

Pops right up for me...

Jack Burgess
www.yosemitevalleyrr.com

Thanks, guys. Must be MY server. Wonder why it is filtering that site among
hundreds...



Elden



________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of Jack
Burgess
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:52 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: Athearn C&NW 65 ft mill gon



Pops right up for me...

Jack Burgess
www.yosemitevalleyrr.com

Thanks, guys. Must be MY server. Wonder why it is filtering that >

site among hundreds...

Try going directly to one of the other pages and linking back to the
home page from there, like:
http://www.speedwitch.com/Models/p102.htm

Tom Madden

Thanks go to Garth Groff & Ben Hom for answering my questions on the
Athearn 65 ft. gondola. It is an intriguing model, I think, but it
won't fullfill my need.

PRR 440575, which I believe was a G26 gon, was set out at Helena,
Minnesota because of a hot box. The car was carrying a "steel triple
load" and was accompanied by ATSF 97473 and CGW flat car 3775. I
assume the Santa Fe car was a flat also. I'm not sure whether "steel
triple load" refers only to what was being hauled or whether it means
that 3 cars were involved. I envision a drop end gon with some sort of
load of steel longer that the car and overhanging part of a flat car on
either end. Just seems like it might be an interesting combination to
run occassionally. ... though I'm not too sure how a 65 ft gon would
look on my 24 inch radius curves.

Gene Green
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso

On Jan 16, 2008, at 7:35 PM, Gene Green wrote:

PRR 440575, which I believe was a G26 gon, was set out at Helena,
Minnesota because of a hot box. The car was carrying a "steel triple
load" and was accompanied by ATSF 97473 and CGW flat car 3775. I
assume the Santa Fe car was a flat also.

ATSF 97473 was a class Ft-M flat car, 44' in length, with fishbelly
side sills built in 1924. I have numerous prototype photos of these
cars.

Richard Hendrickson

One Question, Does anyone know for sure is the RMJ Feb 2006 issue is
available? The RMJ website doesn't list it. I'd like to get a copy of the
issue if possible.

Brian J Carlson P.E.
Cheektowaga NY

Elden, I can get to speedwitch.com without any problem. It was down for a
day or so but it is now up. Are you sure the site isn't being blocked?

Rich Orr



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