On the 5th of January 1950 M&StL-IC time freight #94 was delayed 15
min. at Chaska MN for the emergency set out RDG 7321 (hot box) which was
carrying a load of steel billets.
I have purchased and assembled the Westerfield kit of this gondola. I
need to fabricate the load. Can someone please describe for me what
steel billets look like?
Thanks,
Clark

On the 5th of January 1950 M&StL-IC time freight #94 was delayed 15
min. at Chaska MN for the emergency set out RDG 7321 (hot box) which was
carrying a load of steel billets.
I have purchased and assembled the Westerfield kit of this gondola. I
need to fabricate the load. Can someone please describe for me what
steel billets look like?

I have an old book called Osborne's Encylopedia, for the steel industry. It
says a billet is a steel bar, square or nearly square in cross section, with
a side measuring less than 5". Larger than 5" and it's called a bloom.
Billets are the raw material for a wire mill. They may also be used to make
flat bars.

Dave Nelson

For Clark Propst,
I used to see steel bars approximately 5 inch square and 40'-45' long loaded
in gondolas to be shipped to rolling mills. I was told they were billets and
would be re-rolled to flat bar or wire of various sizes (3/8" wire was the
more comman size). I also saw some loads of billets (?) that were 4x6 inch.

I model the billets using Evergreen .060" square styrene strips. I spray
them with an gray acrylic paint, allow that to dry for a day, then spray
with a thinned Testors steel. After several days, I hit the exposed flats
with a graphite pencil to simulate the shine of fresh rolled steel and then
touch a tera cotta chalk pencil along a few spots to simulate rust. Load
them in a gon with wood blocking similar to that shown in the NMRA photo
discussed below and you've got a realistic load of steel billets.

The March 2001 issue of the NMRA bulletin has a photo on page 42 of the
inside of a gondola which is supposed to be transporting steel bars. They
look like shorter (15'-18') versions of the billets I used to see being
shipped out of a Nucor Steel plant in Georgia.
Larry Sexton