Kalmbach has recently offered an HO scale Accurail 41' gondola painted up for the MR&T. These are nice cars and on impulse I bought one to use as a "weekend project". I took the COTS panel off and added wire grabs in place of the molded ones and then added some wear-and-tear. Even though not a truve "prototype" project, this still provided a fun weekend project
I used Flickr instead of Google, so we'll see if the photos can be seen
The picture is apparently too shy to appear.
I like to do the same modifications to the Accurail gondolas, too, as it's not too big of a project, but does elevate the appearance....
Tyco's, including Mantua's earlier offerings of gondolas, are, except for their over-size rivets, surprisingly close in appearance to the Accurail gondolas, and they also benefit from the grabiron upgrade...
I re-worked a number of them, but also had to revise or replace the rudimentary brake systems on them. The Accurail cars come with a good representation of that, as part of the kit.The Tyco and Mantua cars can be found at very good prices nowadays, but I did find that if you're creating pre-fab drop-in loads, like the auto frames load shown in the Accurail car, they may not necessarily fit into the older cars, which have much thicker sidewalls.
On the other hand, this pipe load, built to fit the older cars, is also a drop-in for the Accurail gondolas...
Wayne
binder001I used Flickr instead of Google, so we'll see if the photos can be seen
gondola models MRT - 2-12-2020 -003 by binder5295, on Flickr
Ed
In firefox we can't even see the broken links.
To successfully use the photo icon, the link has to end in a picture format, .jpg .bmp .png .gif
The better way to go is to click on the arrow to the lower right of the your picture. Click on the BB Code, that copys the link onto your "clip board" Then in the text of your reply, hit control V and that pastes it into you post without the picture icon
gondola models CBQ -2-12-2020 -003 by binder5295, on Flickr
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley