Athearn's new cars....

[Anonymous]

Can someone please share with me some info regarding prototypes of Athearn's new cars, specifically the 65 foot Mil Gon and the PS-2 3-bay covered hopper? I guess what I'd like to know is, what roads had these and when did these cars first appear? Thanks so much for anyone's help!!![:)]

[dragonriversteel]

The 65' mill gondola was brought into the world , by the need of larger capacity gondola. You can find these cars on every major railroad, from the steel mills of the north to the heart land of the mid-west hauling farm machinery. The PS-2 three bay hopper is just like the 65' gondola.....larger capacity needed. As for what year these cars started service, No clue.

Patrick

[ericsp]

The September 2005 issue of Railmodel Journal has an article about the hoppers. It says the hoppers were built starting in 1953.

The gondolas look similar to Southern Pacific's class G-70-6 which were built in 1950.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info, I was hoping to get specific roads that owned both of these types of cars, sure the SP helps and thanks for the link!! But I need to know a few more roads. I model the GN in 1956, and I was wanting to know what roads had these cars in this time frame specifically so that I could use them as interchange traffic with the Tacoma division of my GN layout. Thanks

[GN-Rick]

The 'Journal' article had that information.I can't recall all the roadnames, but
CB&Q was another. These cars are also (judging by the photos) quite
close to the GN 71950 to 71999 series of PS-2s. Unfortunately for you, GN didn't
buy thoose cars until 1958. I, too am modeling the GN, in a somewhat wider
era, 1947-1967, so I am looking at these LOs with an eye for how to use them.
Hope this helps.