I see Bowser does a forty foot gondola, is this a correct car and did it make it to the PC merger? And has any body built or know how correct the C&BT shops ATSF modern steel reefers are. They have four versions, but all are undecorated. Does anyone know if they're just for ATSF and are there decals?
thanks in advance, Mike.
I've got a 35 car string of SFRD reefers and about 2/3 of them are various C&BT Shops cars. They're not up to current standards and some of the parts have to be replaced (flat brass wire instead of plastic for the reefer hatch stands and Grandt Line door hinges for example) but when painted and weathered (especially in the Map/Slogan scheme) they'll hold their own.
The Santa Fe had all sorts of idiocyncracies that preclude substituting different prototypes. Doors were 5' everybody else had 4', roof hatches opened towards the center of the car instead of the ends (which required the above mentioned triangular flat iron brackets to kep them upright when opened instead of dropping between the cars) and, since most of their steel cars were rebuild from USRA and AAR wood sheathed cars the used unique construction methids (from other RRs and from class to class of their own cars)
All of this might be academic as I think Walthers advises in the current catalog "limited availablity"
BXCARMIKE wrote: I see Bowser does a forty foot gondola, is this a correct car
I see Bowser does a forty foot gondola, is this a correct car
Yes. Believe it or not, all of the Bowser cars are accurate models of at least some real prototype. The gondola is a PRR GS class car.
and did it make it to the PC merger?
No. The cars were built between 1902 and 1910, making them VERY old. By 1968 they would be pushing 70 years old, making them too old even for MOW service. Most were retired right after WWII, with the rest leaving by 1953 (they were never upgraded with AB brakes, so they had to come off the roster by the K brake ban date)
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
orsonroy wrote: BXCARMIKE wrote: and did it make it to the PC merger? No. The cars were built between 1902 and 1910, making them VERY old. By 1968 they would be pushing 70 years old, making them too old even for MOW service. Most were retired right after WWII, with the rest leaving by 1953 (they were never upgraded with AB brakes, so they had to come off the roster by the K brake ban date)
BXCARMIKE wrote: and did it make it to the PC merger?
There were still 3 GS on the PRR revenue roster in 1968. There were over 100 still in service up to ~ 1960. I get the impression that the "never got AB brakes" statement is uncertain.
KL
Kurt_Laughlin wrote: orsonroy wrote: BXCARMIKE wrote: and did it make it to the PC merger? No. The cars were built between 1902 and 1910, making them VERY old. By 1968 they would be pushing 70 years old, making them too old even for MOW service. Most were retired right after WWII, with the rest leaving by 1953 (they were never upgraded with AB brakes, so they had to come off the roster by the K brake ban date) There were still 3 GS on the PRR revenue roster in 1968. There were over 100 still in service up to ~ 1960. I get the impression that the "never got AB brakes" statement is uncertain. KL
Hmmm...looks like you're right, and I'm wrong. According to the GS gondola roster data posted on the PRRH&TS website (http://prr.railfan.net/freight/classpage.html?class=GS) there were 914 GS gondolas rebuilt into GSh gons in 1943 and 1944. Six cars survived to 1966.
BUT...the GSh had different side ribs than the stock GS gon. The Bowser model is of an as-built car, which dropped off the roster quickly after WWII (16,637 cars in 1948, 205 cars in 1958, 3 cars in 1968). So while a modeler COULD have a Bowser GS model running on his layout up to about 1968, it'd be a REAL stretch. It'd be safest to buy one for MOW service.