Covered gondola loads

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

What kind of loads were carried in covered gondolas, such as Athearn’s blue box 50’ gondolas?

2

Most of the time metal products, namely steel coils for example.

3

cnw8835,

Thanks for the info.

trnj

4

Gondolas set up to carry coils usually have their roofs in two or three sections, also with the height of the gondola as short as the Athearn car is, the hood (roof) would probably have to be semi-cylindrical or have a pitch to part of it on each side. I think that contaminated dirt is sometimes carried in covered gondolas. Although from what I hear, there is no prototype for Athearn’s gondola, I would say it is a generic model of a tranisition era car, espcially since the roof has a roofwalk. I am not sure there was much contaminated dirt moving around back then.