does anyone know if this model had a prototype or was this one of those built in the toy train ideals from late fifties? I’m looking for car builder. I’ve seen certain roads had fifty footers, but could find any pictures.
According to the NEB&W’s website, the car’s not a prototype for anything:
(snip)
The 50 foot Athearn gon is a really strange car. Nominally a 50 foot car, it is really only 48 feet long, and therefore it is about five feet too short for the typical “50 foot” gon (which was a little longer - normally 52-1/2 feet - to be able to haul a 50 foot cargo). There are too many ribs for a typical car, creating a 14 panel car, but the first and last rib are in too far, bunching up the rest. And most 50 foot gons had drop ends. (Shorter gons were used for bulk loadings like coal and tended to have fixed ends. If they wanted to get more capacity, instead of increasing the length, they raised the sides, which from an engineering standpoint makes more sense. The reason for a longer car was to haul structural shapes, and drop ends were useful for this.)
Mike Clements suggested the real reason behind the design of the Athearn gon: It was designed around their existing underframe from their 50 foot flat car. The ribs were set around the cross members of the underframe. This is the reason they don’t finish over the bolster. The car’s height must have been scaled down in proportion with the length to keep the overall look intact. All this inaccuracy, he said, just to keep from having to mold two additional parts, makes you want to scream. Anyway, he gave it another look tonight and am wondering if a splice job, creating a 20 panel 65 foot gon would have any similar prototype? (yeah, the end ribs would still be wrong) (Note to Clements - The ECW gon is 20 panels, and a better starting point even for those cars that don’t quite match the ECW kit exactly, at least in my opinion.)
The Dreadnaught ends peg this car as having been built c. 1930’s to 1944. At some point, they instituted the “40 year underframe rule” which prohibited cars from interchange when their underframe was over 40 years old. This would thus prohibit this model from 1984 and on.
For a long time, this was
thanks,I do have one that I cut off the fishbelly,the grabs,then beat the life out of it with light taps with hammer, pliers, and foil rolled in balls and heated with a soldering iron. then I added shortened ladders from boxcar kits,new stirrups, cut levers,and weathered it. it’s not half bad,but now I’ll buy p2k gons.
The closest prototype match identified are B&O prototypes designed for coil steel service – thus the extra rows of rivets on the sides. As pointed out, prototypes are the normal 52.5’, and the outermost ribs are not located properly either. DRGW, GTW, NW, and WM had similar cars.
True, but the five foot length difference doesn’t make them a very GOOD match…
Where some modelers find a fault, others can find an opportunity.
Even though Athearn’s 50 foot gondolas are not the most accurate they sure do look nice on a layout like my HO scale Leelanau County Railway. i have 12 of the gondolas from lines such as South Shore, Western Pacific, N&W, UP, BNSF and NS. Hopefully Walthers will reproduce their 53 foot thrall gondolas they made in the mid 1990s
The Revell gon, now a Con-Cor model, was also a longer gon at a time when Varney and Mantua were offering 40 ft gons. (Ulrich made a long gon but it was outside braced). A lot of kitbashers use the Mantua as well as the slightly different Tyco gon for various projects. I gather the rib spacing on those gons is more accuate than perhaps the Athearn is.
I am not sure the Revell/Con-Cor gon is an accurate model of anything either but rather amazingly the late 1950s tooling holds up rather well.
Dave Nelson
Believe it ro not, the Revel car is of a real prototype (unlike the Athearn mess). Here’s what the NEB&W website has to say about the model (condensed version):
(snip)
There were two type of cars that fit under this category, those with the alternating thick and thin ribs, and those with typical all-narrow ribs as on most gons. I don’t have a better term for this type than simply “Revell” type, although C&O or Pennsy G-31 might be an alternative.
There were several prototypes of 14 panel 50 foot gons, where the ribs didn’t extend down into the fishbelly. However, you would have to overlook the shape of the ribs themselves. On these prototypes, the ribs are the typical narrow ones, all the same width, instead of the alternating width ribs on the Con-Cor kit. Prototypes include:
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe class GA-69.
Baltimore & Ohio class O-59, series was 259000-260449.
Baltimore & Ohio class O-59a, series was 260500-263299.
Central of New Jersey.
Lehigh Valley 32000-32599 series and no. 33350.
PRR class G28.
Reading 25900-26099 series, probably 26100-26899, and 27000.
Texas & Pacific.
WAG 3001-3006 series.
Western Maryland 54001-54460, 54911-54920, 55479-55637, and other series.
The prototypes with the alternating thick and thin ribs include:
Atlantic Coast Line.
Chesapeake & Ohio.
Delaware & Hudson 13700-13899 series.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 68500-68999 series.
Pennsy class G31, series 363400-364799, G31c, series 371200-371949,
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 3301-3350 series.
Southern 60000-61499, 62700-62726, and 328000-328599 series.
Southern Pacific.
Models
Con-Cor
styrene kits
223-9000 50 Foot mill gon, undec. - Con-Cor reissued the Revell gon, which is a model of the C&O 50 foot drop-end gons acquired around 1950, with 14 panels. Unlike the Athearn gon, the ribs do not extend down