Dear Group
I am looking for information and or photos of Wabash gondolas in the series 7000-9049. These looked like USRA composite gondolas but with fishbelly center sills, and were built ca. 1922. I have a suspicion they might have been rebuilds of older cars.I would be very grateful for any help on these.
Larry King  lrkdbnATaol.com

Larry,

The 7000 - 9049 were built by General American Car in 1922-23 using new bodies and rebuilt trucks.
The Wabash Oct.1943 equipment book shows 48 car equipped with racks for frame loading.
Another group of gons with the same dimensions were built about the same time
10000 - 10124 built by the Wabash shop in Decatur, IL in 1923-24-25, also using new bodies and rebuilt trucks.
10125 - 10524 built by Streator Car Co. in 1925 using new bodies and rebuilt trucks.
Truck used on the cars were Andrews and Bettendorf.
When the Wabash started building the 13500 - 14849  41'-6" IL steel gons in 1944, they began scrapping the 
above gons and by Dec. 1949 they were all gone.

Chet French
Dixon, IL

Dear Chet
Thank you for the information. One of the things I wondered about was whether these cars used the center sills from the 1907 era cars in the 5000-6999 series, but from what you say only secondhand trucks were used.
Larry King

This looks like a pretty embarrassing incident.  A switch move (?) colliding with a stationary object that probably could be seen from the cab?

Ron Merrick

Thanks Again!!
LR King