So, my trackwork is complete along with a majority of my industries which will be served by the railroad. Those that have not been completed are at least planned for in my head. My problem is that I am left with 2 gondolas that I am rather fond of and would like to incorporate into the railroad. Since there are no spots for these at any of the industries, I would like to have these loaded/unloaded on a team track (house track for us SF guys) but I am drawing a blank for what goods these could carry. Any ideas?
Also, I already have the scrap steel and scrap rail gons elsewhere and would like to avoid duplicating.
Thanks in advance for the help guys.
Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:
Judging from your signature picture, you are modeling the 1950s maybe?No matter, since you mention scrap steel, why not the obvious - steel I-bars, pipe, or rail to be used on a local project, transloaded at your team track. Coil steel, perhaps 2 coils, lying on their sides over the trucks, with thick wood bracing below them to protect the coils from the gondola floor (and make removing them easier),But, in the 1950s? Maybe early, primative containers like those for coke, cement, or even dry goods.
I try to think outside the normal box for gon loads so,here's what I have used.
Flat sheet steel
Angle steel
rip rap(large stones)
pipes
rebar-this is shipped in small rolls.
large ducts
old truck trailers headed for the scrapper-I actually seen such loads.
old railroad freight car trucks with and without wheels.
Telephone/utility poles-raw and treated.This makes a nice loads in/loads out industry-raw (untreated) poles in and treated poles out.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Since they are going to a team track how about loads for the local track gang such as new crossties, 39' sections of rail, rail spikes (in small steel drums), tie plates or rail anchors?
Virtually anything under a tarp.
And once you have the tarp modeled, virtually anything can be under it.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Used to see loads of coal on gons in the 50's, probably drop bottom. Could do sand for your sand house.
I have a couple of diesel generators that I plan to put on a flat or gon. Any large machinery, in the open, boxed or under a tarp wouldn't be out of place.
Loads of ties or rail for a track repair crew. Load of wheel sets coming in to the servicing facility.
They are very versitle cars, can carry most anything that can be exposed to the weather or travel tarped or crated.
Good luck,
Richard
How about some tractors or other machinery for the local town supply or even a load of sandbags on their way to shore up a fictional flood down the line...
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
How about a nice weathered floor and some dunnage. They have to return the empty sooner or later!!
Or maybe some rebar delivered to your local cement terminal...
I used lengths of stranded wire, cut to scale 20' and stripped of insulation. To simulate multiple layers, I put a layer of round toothpicks at the bottom, then laid strips of balsa wood to represent dunnage supporting the top layer. I painted the load with a blend of black and silver craft acrylics to get a dark gun metal color. A couple of washes of a brownish red rust color finish it off. Like all the loads I make, it is removable.
My favorite though, is scrap...
You can either go out and spend money on scrap loads the look pretty good, or you can follow the prototype, and make your own with junk you have drifting around your work bench. N scalers will immediately recognize a lot of the stuff that went into that load... Micro Trains shim plates, old Kadee wheels, sprues from various kits... among other things. I built a "form" that matches the size of my gondola fleet, and cut a piece of styrene to next inside it. I then threw a bunch of bits and pieces in there, and flooded it with some diluted white glue. I let it set up over night, then went back over it with a couple of coats of red oxide primer from a rattle can. Once it all dried, I pulled the form away, dry brushed on some highlights, and PRESTO. Free scrap load, and cleaned up workbench, all in one stroke!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
EMD#1 Since they are going to a team track how about loads for the local track gang such as new crossties, 39' sections of rail, rail spikes (in small steel drums), tie plates or rail anchors?
Those types of loads would not go to a team track they would go to the MOW yard to be stored till needed.Spikes came in wooden barrels in boxcars and was unloaded at the MOW stores building-not left in the open.The section boss would need to sign for his supply of spikes,ties,tie plates etc so the stores department could keep a accurate record.Of course supplies for larger projects was loaded into MOW cars and moved by a special work train to the work area.This train would be kept at a outlaying yard,on a passing siding or any available track-this would include locomotive and caboose..In the steam era the engine would return to the engine service area for servicing.
Gidday, Too many gondolas!!??
Just another idea, though don't know if the cement containers are made in "O" scale and if indeed these cars made it on to SF rails.
Note: as your'e fond of your "spare" gons if you were to add cement containers you don't have to hack holes in the sides of them, only certain roads did that.
Cheers, The Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Hi,
No new ideas here, just those that have worked for me............
"I" beams from Evergreen
Pipes from plastic straws
Scrap "metal", including small wadded up tinfoil
Scrap rails
RR ties
Scratch built crates
Objects covered with tarps
Whatever!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Annnnnnd...you could just plain run them empty. Not every hopper or gondola or flat car has to have a load in it or on it. Once a load is unloaded, empties need to be transported somewhere in order for them to be reloaded again. So, this wouldn't be an uncommon sight.
Just a thought...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I agree that in my experience a gondola is infrequently encountered at the usual team track, where flat cars and boxcars seems to dominate (although there are exceptions, including covered hoppers and Center Flo cars) Now having said that, there are and were gondolas with ends that folded down so a team track with an end platform is a possible site of a gon. Never say never. One thought - a team track with a dedicated clamshell or magnetized crane to transload/unload onto trucks. Back in the days of cheaper labor I suppose a crew of guys with shovels might have emptied a gon at a team track, of rocks or sand or you name it.
Thinking outside the box for a moment, rather than focus on ideas for the cars to stay on the layout, one thing to consider is a car forwarding system that actually moves cars off the layout and replaces them with cars from storage. A friend of mine uses that system on his layout and it has three great virtues: it prevents the feeling of "Haven't I run this very consist before?" It avoids the situation where the very same industries are switched each and every session, since based on his system, a flat car might come off the layout, but the car that replaces it might be a tank car (just an example).
The third virtue has less to do with encouraging prototypical operations: it enables my friend to have the usual excessive supply of freight cars without overstuffing the layout itself. Depending on how many operating sessions he has, it can take months before a car sees the layout again. But he always has just the right number of cars on the layout.
Years ago on an excursion train running west from Rochelle Illinois we passed an industry in, I think, Sterling IL. It was a multi-story old brick curtain wall building of the sort Walthers and DPM sell. Anyway an upper story had a sort of chute for industrial scrap. The chute went down a floor or two but not all the way to the ground by any means. Below that chute, with a metal baffle attached to the far side, was a gondola, old and beat up. the waste or scrap would be shoved into the chute, it would either land in the bottom of the car or hit that battle and end up in the gondola. I guess from time to time guys might have shoved the scrap to the far end of the car creating more space to be filled for more scrap
The car might well have been semi-permanently parked there, and I bet from time to time it was dragged to one of the many nearby metal scrap dealers in Sterling. Assuming it stayed on the industrial sidings it would not even have to meet interchange standards, and maybe even not safety appliance standards. I offer that up as a potential use for a favorite car. I have never seen anything like it, and when I tried to drive around Sterling a few years later to get a better photo it was evident that there was no legal street access to what I had seen from a railcar.
Dave Nelson
Here are some reference articles on loads:
MR 6-05 "Chains, Chocks and Shackles" Loads for flats and gons - Cat scraper on flat, large pipe in gon, tanks on flat,
MR 4-04 "Easy N Scale Pole Loads" Telephone loads for flats / gons, can be adapted for other scales
RMC 12-05 "Freight Loads for Gondolas" Large crates, scrap, pipe, I beams
MR 5-01 "Gondola Debris" Leftovers in empty gondolas
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Great ideas everyone.
Because I am having these unloaded on a house track, I was looking for the smaller loads that could be unloaded manually instead of mechanical assistance. One of the gondolas is a drop-bottom so gravel/coal is a possibility that I had not considered since it could be shoveled into a truck and hauled off.
I am also liking the pictures of the pipe loads. I'm thinking that if I went with 2" pipe these could be manually unloaded. Standard lengths today are 21, 24 and 42 ft. A 24' length 2" diameter pipe is manageable for 2 guys and could be could be transferred (one at a time) to a flatbed truck.
I also found a pic of Studebakers being unloaded from drop-end gondolas in Alaska circa 1949. I don't have any drop-end gons but it's interesting anyway.
The sandbag idea is good as well, however, the only sandbag models that I have ever seen in O are metal, and thus, would be too heavy to fill an entire car. I will keep an eye out for plastic ones though.
Thanks again for the great ideas, looks like I have some decisions to make.
Here are 2 other possibilities for unloading the drop bottom gonhttp://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3519
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3520
Either one could be located on a team track
BTY, if you want to unload Studebakers, look about 2/3 the way fown this page. Sylvan makes resin kitshttp://www.isp.ca/Sylvan/Vehiclepage%20new.htm#Cars
In the 60's I saw 3 gons filled with thousands of 6oz, green 7-UP bottles headed to a glass factory to be melted, was quite a sight, I still have 3 bottles I loaned from the gon.
Do some research on gut cars, now THATS a really NASTY load
Have fun with your trains
Have seen Trees in big pots before in Gons on NS.
Russell
BRAKIE EMD#1: Since they are going to a team track how about loads for the local track gang such as new crossties, 39' sections of rail, rail spikes (in small steel drums), tie plates or rail anchors? Those types of loads would not go to a team track they would go to the MOW yard to be stored till needed.Spikes came in wooden barrels in boxcars and was unloaded at the MOW stores building-not left in the open.The section boss would need to sign for his supply of spikes,ties,tie plates etc so the stores department could keep a accurate record.Of course supplies for larger projects was loaded into MOW cars and moved by a special work train to the work area.This train would be kept at a outlaying yard,on a passing siding or any available track-this would include locomotive and caboose..In the steam era the engine would return to the engine service area for servicing.
EMD#1: Since they are going to a team track how about loads for the local track gang such as new crossties, 39' sections of rail, rail spikes (in small steel drums), tie plates or rail anchors?
I must admit I wasn't around during the 40s and 50s since I was born in 1970 so I can't say if track supplies were delivered to team tracks or not. I can verify that in modern times they are and you can find these supplies all over the ground near team tracks (Gainesville, GA is a good example). I see gondolas spotted for unloading all of the time while I speed by looking out the cab window on the right hand side of large black diesel locomotive. Since I model present day I do have gondolas of crossties and hopper cars of ballast delivered to the local Track Supervisor who unloads the cars from the old team track.
From what I understand, a local section boss would need supplies for his crew and I really don't see it being delivered by truck in the steam engine era. Regardless, the modeler can choose what he wants to unload out of these cars and it would probably still be prototypical. I just wanted to offer another suggestion for him to consider.
I just want to clarify the definition of "team track" as I have grown to understand it (as I might be using the term incorrectly). As I know it, the team track is a track, usually located near a town's depot, which serve as an unloading point for less-than-carload deliveries and loads for customers with no spur on their property. Boxcars can be unloaded by backing a truck directly up to the tracks and manually transferring the goods from the boxcar. Platforms can be built at the end of the track to unload vehicles from flatcars.
They do not have anything to do with a track gang, just an unloading point for offline customers.
I'm not saying this to correct anyone or get into semantics of historical railroad terminology. I just want to clarify what I am trying to accomplish.
Thanks.
Sand, gravel , aggregates, rip rap, rolling mill balls, structural steel, drill stem/well pipe, coil steel, coil wire, Ingots, plate steel, coal, coke, fabricated steel pieces, ties, tie plates, angle bars, stick rail, pig iron.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I had a buddy tell me of an idea he uses; he cuts Kadee clone couplers just ahead of the pivot mount, then cuts the uncoupling pin off, sprays them a rusty color then tosses them into a gondola. I spent 2 hours the next day cutting couplers. When I was ready to make a form to use to shape the load, THAT'S when I realized that I don't have a single gondola.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Medina1128 When I was ready to make a form to use to shape the load, THAT'S when I realized that I don't have a single gondola.
Not all of your gondola loads need to originate or terminate on your layout. This allows you to run interesting loads even though you may not have room to model the industry which ships or receives it.
This pole load usually moves from staging yard to staging yard, and, like all my loads, is removeable so it can move in any suitable car:
I have two staging tracks which represent an industrial district with about two dozen unmodelled industries. Their output may go to industries actually modelled on the layout, or simply move to a staging yard for delivery "elsewhere". Here are some examples:
Steel plate, either on a flatcar or in a gondola:
Various tanks and pressure vessels:
Bridge parts or overhead cranes:
Tichy offers a flatcar with scenic plastic wheelsets, and you can also purchase the wheelsets separately. I used the flatcar for other purposes, and made wheel loads for both a 40' and 50' gondola:
...of course, they're removeable:
Ditto for this load of rails, made from brass rail stripped from old sectional track:
Scrap loads have been mentioned already. This one uses wire unwound from open frame motor armatures - leftovers from re-motoring projects. Many of the coils were heated by playing the flame from a propane torch over them, burning away the insulating varnish. These are loose in the car, so will fit any gondola:
This car originates in one staging yard and terminates at another, always following the same restricted route due to its excess height. There are only two cars in this service, one with a removeable empty rack and this one with a removeable loaded rack. The racks are switched between operating sessions:
Of course, for as many cars as you move loaded, you should have at least the same number moving as empties:
All of the dirt, rubble, and dunnage is loose, allowing the car to be "cleaned" if the next load requires it.
If your team track has a crane, you may be able to ship or receive larger items.
Wayne
Logs.
chutton01 Medina1128: When I was ready to make a form to use to shape the load, THAT'S when I realized that I don't have a single gondola. Wait, you're banging your head because you now had A LEGITIMATE EXCUSE TO BUY NEW ROLLING STOCK? INCONCEIVABLE! (and yes, that word does mean what I think it means).
Medina1128: When I was ready to make a form to use to shape the load, THAT'S when I realized that I don't have a single gondola.
Wait, you're banging your head because you now had A LEGITIMATE EXCUSE TO BUY NEW ROLLING STOCK? INCONCEIVABLE! (and yes, that word does mean what I think it means).
I see your point, and once my next paycheck comes in... that will be taken care of.
Here are a few of mine... (http://myrailroad.wordpress.com/tag/gondola/)
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Tons of great ideas here (especially from DoctorWayne!). I just want to chime in and say that you don't have to limit yourself to loads that can be loaded or unloaded at team tracks. Depending on how the staging is arranged on your layout, you could conceivably carry any load you take a fancy to as bridge traffic. Bring in a loaded gon from staging to a classification yard, put it on a through freight bound for your other staging yard, and ship it out. Another possibility is that maybe your existing industries might have use for a gondola that you haven't thought of. Got a furniture or box factory? Ship them an empty gon to be filled with scrap wood. How about a brewery? Cullet (broken glass) makes a neat-looking gondola load -- make the load like you would a load of gravel or coal, but top the load with craft store glass beads that you've crushed in a plastic bag with a hammer. If you have a steam locomotive terminal, you'll need to use gondolas to ship out cinders from the ash pit now and then. Tell us what industries are on your layout and someone might be able to come up with an idea for you.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com