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| SPMW 1902 hauls a load of reclaimed metal back to SP's foundry for recycling. |
A Swapmeet...
Have you ever wandered through a toy train swapmeet? You know the ones with everything in piles that go back like the geologic record in layers to the beginning of time...
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| How about an old Varney Gondola? This has got to be at least 45 years old! |
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| How about one of these Rivarossi 40ft Gondolas? |
Talgo, truck mounted couplers... "Horn-hooks", "Dummy couplers", plastic wheels, weights Walthers Goo'd to the inside of the floor, half eating the plastic hidden below a blob of plastic claiming to be coal or gravel. Right, those wrecks. It's hard to be in this hobby more than a few years and not see or collect some of these 'crude' models along the way.
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| Bachmann 40ft gondola... look familar? |
Last week, I was in Arizona. I happened to catch the local NMRA swapmeet on the north side of Phoenix. It was the usual swap meet, 50 tables of stuff people were selling. Boxes and boxes of geologic layers of old toy trains stacked up like layers of coal for the daring (or possibly disturbed) prototype modeler to dive into. There was some newer stuff there too of course, but it had been a while since I realized the shear number of these same models as I'll be talking about in this post, stacked up for sale at really cheap prices. - - - For those wondering... Yes, I avoided getting any "Deals" this time, as I knew at home I have several of these 'projects' already started, and that's what I'll be looking at here.
SP Gondolas?
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| Maybe we think today about Red Caboose's lovely G-50-22 class gondola models. |
What do we think when we hear about SP Gondolas? The classic "Sugar beet" gondolas (G-50-20 & -23), maybe the all-steel versions of those cars (G-50-15/16/18/22/25s)? Maybe the newer and bigger cars? Well, let's turn back the prototype clock and also take a closer look at these 'cheap old toys'.
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| Bachmann "generic" 40ft gondola body |
Well it turns out that these cars aren't that much different than the newer RC cars, and taking into account some of the older SP classes of gondola, the G-50-3, -6, and -8s, they can be changed to make a pretty good stand-in model with some kitbashing modeling effort.
SP G-50-3 Class 830 cars for SP and 300 for pre-T&NO roads
SP 53120-53729, 610 cars 1913SP 53930-53949, 20 cars 1914
SP 54190-54389, 200 cars 1910
GH&SA 41000-41099, 100 cars 1913 (T&NO)
T&NO 41100-41199, 100 cars 1913
ML&T 41200-41299, 100 cars 1913 (T&NO)
G-50-6 Class 280 cars for SP & NWP
SP 53730-53929 200 cars 1916NWP 4750-4829, 80 cars 1916
G-50-8 Class 500 cars for T&NO (and subs)
GH&SA 41750-42049, 300 cars 1924 (T&NO)LW 42050-42149, 100 cars 1924 (T&NO)
HE&WT 42150-42249, 100 cars 1924 (T&NO)
One for the Road!
Let's look at a car I kitbashed about 18 years ago. The SPMW 1902, a G-50-3 class car built between 1910 and 1914, it was originally SP 53482, it was retired from revenue service and assigned to Shop Service in April of 1940. The G-50-3 was characterized by only four pairs of drop doors near the center of the car, with the door mechanism under the 3rd panel from the center, and a deeper sill between the bolster and the endsill of the car.
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| SPMW 1902, ex-G-50-3 SP 53482, kitbashed from a Bachmann or Life-Like "toy" showing what can be done. |
Currently, the other five or so models I've been bashing up to be various other SP gondolas. They show a range of steps as to the progress I've made on them, so instead of looking at each one from start to finish, let's instead look at where they all are at the moment.
On with the Bashing!
First let's look at where the Bachmann models start at and what needs to be done.
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| Starting point for a G-50-6 model |
So the SP 53825 started about where this body is above. The ribbed ends are WAY too modern for these early cars, so that will be replace with a flat end with L-beam stiffeners. The lower line of rivets has already been removed. The lower sill will be re-added between the bolster and the endsill.
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| Stock underframe of Bachmann model. |
The main concept of this bash is the need to raise the whole car about 8-10" at the frame to make room for the drop doors. In the photo below, the areas where the drop doors will be installed have been removed from the solid floor. Also all extraneous details on the underbody have been removed. The centersill has been cleared to accept a lead bar weight down the length of it.
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| Here with floor sections removed for the addition of drop doors. |
The new doors come from Details Associates "Plate Doors" for GS gondolas, I had a couple of extra sets left over from G-50-22 and -23 DTA kits.
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| Here with new "plate" style drop doors installed, shimmed, and cross members replaced. |
Next come the ends, which I found were most easily replaced completely along with the endsills.
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| Ends removed, probably still need to remove the endsill |
On SP 53825 I used Details Associates "Plate End" replacement end for their old G-50-22/23 GS kit, but filed away the lower rib to match photos in Anthony W. Thompson's Southern Pacific Freight Cars Vol.1: Gondolas and Stock Cars (2002, Signature Press) on Page 75.
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| SP 53825 with new ends |
The new endsills are Tichy 40ft USRA Flatcar ends, which had to be spliced and lengthened. Also the draftgear striker plate and area was removed to fit a Kadee #5 style coupler box. -- Yes, I started this car a LONG time ago!
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| Side view of SP 53825 with proper T-section trucks and most of the kitbash completed |
On the SP 53825 I tried modeling the triangular shaped gussets at the bolster and was working on adding the thin sills from just inboard of the grab iron ladders to the endsill, obviously they didn't survive on the SP 53825, and I took them back off again to try a different method. The center sill is built up with extra styrene strips and sheet lead installed below the drop doors to bring the car up to proper weight.
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| The centersill raised, a lead bar installed down the centersill, couplers installed at correct height. |
Mostly what remains on the SP 53825 is putting in the rest of the underframe cross members, sills under the grab iron ladders to the endsills, brake components, grab irons, brake wheel, etc. One of the key things to note about the G-50-6/8s compared to the earlier G-50-3, is that the -6/8s seem to have a much higher floor level, but the ribs between the side panels extend down to or past the level of the endsills, much more like the later G-50-18 and -22 class cars (RC and DTA models show this), so there are subtle differences in the depth of the kitbashed centersill between a G-50-3 and a G-50-6/8.
Other "Knock-Offs"
Tyco, Life-Like, Rivarossi, Bachmann, Varney, and probably several others have made very similar bodies using this same design. Here's a few photos of them. Most of the photos above are showing the LifeLike or Bachmann versions.
Varney
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| Bottom of Varney model, going to be SPMW 104 |
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| Side of Varney 40ft Gondola |
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| Top of Varney 40ft Gondola |
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| Starting to cut up the Varney gon to replace the ends. seems the plastic steps on the other side are gone already. |
Rivarossi
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| SPMW 320 starting as from a Rivarossi body. |
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| Side of Rivarossi body. |
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| Top and interior of Rivarossi body. |
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| End and side of Rivarossi Body. |
In Closing
Here's another look at SPMW 1902, which has been 'finished' since about 1998, doesn't look too bad for 20 years of service and a 40+ year old body. --- Sounds about like the real thing in 1952!
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| Completed SPMW 1902 with a load of scrap heading back to the Company Foundry to be reclaimed. |
Hopefully this will inspire some Gondola Archeology at the local flea markets and swap meets in your area... for probably $15-20 you can pick up one of these older 'toys' and the parts needed to upgrade them to stand with your Tangent, Red Caboose, and Intermountain freight car models!
Jason Hill
Related Articles:
Ex-EPSW 40ft Ballast Gondola from a "Cheap Toy" Manuta body.
SP 65ft Mill Gondolas - Athearn's lovely 65ft Mill Gond's with drop ends.
"Musical Chairs" Modeling of SPMW Cars - The game of parts swapping
Mistakes in Modeling - Part Oops! - Don't be afraid to fix that research error when you've already "finished" the model!
Modeling an MOW Supply Train (Part 1) - Overview of Supply Cars and Supply Trains
LOVE the "Old School" reconditioning of the 40 foot cars. I myself go with taking the cars to make longer versions of the same car..... Sadly, you know that 40 and 50 foot model gondolas are common, BUT anything over 50 feet gets either non-existent, or well, expensive, so why not take the common, stand-ins of the car to make longer version, detailed accordingly to real prototypes..... That in itself gives the cars a whole life and service as well as fun to have something that much "different"! Glad to see I'm not alone!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure which cars you're talking about. Proto2000 by Life-Like made kits of very common 52'6" gondolas, and they are now in the Walthers like of RTR models, but the kits can still be found. Also check out my blog post from a couple of years ago about the SP 65ft Mill gonds, link is in the article above. The Athearn 65ft car is rather close to 2600 cars that the PRR owned in G26 and G26A. Those two cars types cover a LARGE proportion of the "over 50ft" classes of gondolas in the country in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Also the Walthers 46ft gondolas are very good starting points for PRR G25 class cars.
DeleteReconditioning the older 40ft models works, but I'd be careful trying to make any car longer than 53ft because the clearance plates required the longer cars, up around 65ft to be significantly narrower than the shorter cars to make it around tighter curves and not strike buildings or other obstructions.
No no, I'm NOT referring to ANYTHING "high end" I'm merely speaking OLD Train Set (starter set) types of 40 and even 50 foot gondola's.....
ReplyDeleteSee my thing is, I GOT a literal TON of gondola cars, ALL of them (for the most part) are the old Cheap TYCO, Bachmann, AHM, IHC and Life-Like (BEFORE Proto-2000) versions.... I got TONS and tons of them. SO that said, I was looking at some prototype cars of the 65 foot length and how to use some of those older cars I have in order to make the longer 65 foot versions I wanted. Make better sense of what I was referring too now?
Sadly I can't justify the $$$$ in a new car when I have hundreds of the old cheap ones laying around the shop and have no true use for them as-is, BUT have the materials and parts to make them something they weren't just like you did here with the drop bottom gondola you made.
Those old kits or RTR stuff from the 70's and the 80's CAN be used with a little work and some imagination these days to give them a second chance....