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Too many gondolas - need ideas for loads

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  • Member since
    February 2012
  • 596 posts
Posted by charlie9 on Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:40 PM

go to the plumbing supply department of your local hardware store.  they have all kinds of fittings, pipe nipples, 90 deg angles etc in plastic and copper that might full your needs.  i bought a bunch of 1/2 plastic 90 deg fittings and sanded the raised lettering off of them and then painted them.  they look pretty good in a gondola car, especially when resting in a wooden cradle.   they are removable so i can run the car loaded or empty.

charlie

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: Warren, MI O scaler
  • 553 posts
Posted by el-capitan on Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:53 PM

Steven Otte

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.  

Only one staging yard at this time. I was planning on adding a one track staging yard for an SP interchange in Deming but space got too tight. Maybe my next layout.

Steven Otte

 If you have a steam locomotive terminal, you'll need to use gondolas to ship out cinders from the ash pit now and then.

All my steam locos are oil fired so I skipped the ash pit.

Steven Otte

Tell us what industries are on your layout and someone might be able to come up with an idea for you.

Rincon - machine shop (boxcars), Rincon feed and seed (boxcars), Allied chemical (tanks), flour mill (coverd hoppers), house track

Deming - Mimbres valley produce (refers), freight house (box cars), engine facility (gondolas and tanks), house track

Whitewater - Stock track and house track with unloading ramp

Silver city - southwest concrete and aggregate (gondola and covered hoppers), oil distributor (tank cars), silver city co-op (boxcars), house track, stock track

The three gons that I currently have in service have scrap rail, scrap steel (trucks and wheels mostly) and limestone.

Any suggestions?

 Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:

Deming Sub Deming Sub

  • Member since
    October 2001
  • From: OH
  • 17,574 posts
Posted by BRAKIE on Friday, March 23, 2012 4:40 AM

EMD#1

 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.

 

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.

NS has a MOW yard at Bellevue that is stocked with rail,ties,prefab track.

Maybe today they use JIT(Just In Time) for supplies for track work..I have seen lots of NS MOW flat cars carrying prefab switches and "snap"  track.Seen several welded rail trains-empty and loaded.

And yes,railroad started replacing speeders and trailers with trucks  in the late 50s.Trucks prove to be faster,safer and carry more then the speeders and their trailer(s).

Back in the day everything had to be signed for-even the batteries for your lantern-the none railroading college kid bean counters wanted a record in order to watch for  "wastage".Sigh

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

  • Member since
    October 2010
  • 41 posts
Posted by matt56 on Friday, March 23, 2012 6:26 AM

Pulpwood

Modeling the C&NW in northcentral Wisconsin, late summer 1976

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    February 2011
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
  • 206 posts
Posted by GP39 on Sunday, March 25, 2012 12:00 PM

There are many possibilities.

Heavy equipment such a;s a backhoe, or a magnet crane, are some others.

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Posted by NittanyLion on Sunday, March 25, 2012 11:17 PM

I've seen a lot of large pieces of cut stone lately.  Might be marble even.

They look like big chunks of foam insulation.  Get ahold of some half inch foam, cut it into a strips about an inch wide (this is HO), snap off 2-3" pieces (the ends are not very clean compared to the sides), and paint it white.  Bam, cut stone load.

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    March 2016
  • 1,447 posts
Posted by Eriediamond on Monday, March 26, 2012 8:31 AM

Ok, here's an odd but true idea. Back in the 50's there was a horse race track called Buffalo Raceway near Buffalo NY. The Erie RR used to park a couple of gons on a siding near Eden, NY and they would haul horse manure from the raceway to the siding and load it in the gons for transport to what I was told at the time mushroom farms in Pa. Since, if I read it right, you have a stock yard, a gondola could be used to get rid of the "left overs" .

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • 596 posts
Posted by charlie9 on Monday, March 26, 2012 8:39 AM

we used to do the same thing with manure from National Stock Yards in E St Louis.   it also went to a mushroom farm in PA.

    if we got a road conductor we were not too fond of. (some of them could be a pain) we would try to get the car load of manure placed a couple cars ahead of his caboose when we made up the train

.  they usually didn't catch on until they were out on the main and the wind started blowing all that contaminated straw back around the rear of the train.

  just keep the doors and windows close until you get to Avon.

charlie

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