I picked up a white HO Motorola (w/ company logo) gondola car at a flea market the other day and am wondering what type of loads this might carry? Or is this a “novelty” item?
Cedarwoodron
I think it is more of a novelty item.
Well, in that case, does anyone have a suggestion (N[8o|]- not putting a cell phone in there!!!) for a possible REAL load or type of equipment which may give some credibility to it ???
Cedarwoodron
I haven’t deal with Motorola personally for years, except to complain about my Bat Wing special cell phone that has AT&T phone numbers hard coded into its contact list. [:(!] [:(!] [:(!]
However, in the past they were a major supplier of land mobile (two way radio) and military communications equipment, plus other commercial/industrial systems. They probably still are. I know they currently supply radio equipment for WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Provider). Like many other companies, they sell externally sourced ancilliary equipment to their customers, so they probably sell attenna masts and towers.
You could stack some communications tower sections in the gon. I think it would be a bit of a stretch, but not totally out in left field.
Hope this helps.
How about a couple of electronic gear cases of the kind usually found along the ROW adjacent to signals and crossings? Paint them grey, put a Motorola logo on them and just make sure they are solidly anchored.
Or possibly a disassembled cell phone `tree’ antenna.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - NEC, not Motorola)
Loads of white sand to melt down and make the silicon wafers for integrated circuits ? [:-^]
And…after a bit more research, I came across a “Motorola” Ho train set, with all cars so labeled- there is also a John Deere set, etc, etc. So, I guess it IS a novelty item.
But…Chuck’s idea of putting some large electrical crates/machinery labeled for Motorola is a good one!(despite the fact that the company’s product lines were not that large- ever)
Anyway, it’s MY railroad…[:D]
Cedarwoodron
Probably the most plausible load would be to pretend Motorola installs towers for cell phone or wireless WANs.
Today, yes…but…
I am building in the world of 1948 thru 1958. Motorola had already emerged from a “family business” after WW2 into a major communications manufacturer, not to mention the newer retail markets for TV and stereo consoles they were already working in. These products would likely be boxed/packaged and shipped in enclosed boxcars for retail destinations. The concept of cell towers may have been already conceptualized in some way on paper or actually engineered equipment (using line-of-sight microwave technologies), but not back then. (except maybe on “Science Fiction Theater”- a great show!)
I think the large electrical equipment idea works better, for a “fit” with the golden years of transition era railroading.
Having fun working on the railroad!
Cedarwoodron
Or you could just paint the gon and decal it for your road.
Maybe the gon could carry the scrap from TV and radio chassis stamping.
Ed
I think we can all agree that there were no Motorola gons on the mainline, so whether you run the gon or not is a matter of how much a stickler you are for prototype accuracy.
I assume that the same rules against billboard reefers would have impacted a railroad allowing any type of business to paint its name on a gon as a rolling advertisement. If Motorola owned that gon that would be a different matter. That is why Swift could own billboard reefers because they shipped Swift, not Armour, products.
But all is not lost. I have seen really large factories have gondolas, flats, and even boxcars in totally captive service, meaning the industry was large enough to have substantial trackage of its own and uses the captive cars to move stuff around its own complex of buildings. I have seen such captive boxcars, probably for storage, painted and lettered for the business. I have not seen gons so painted but it is not too much of a stretch to imagine it.
I have also seen a very large factory have a retired captive gondola parked on a siding with a large steel baffle mounted on the side at one end, with a huge steel chute running from upper floors of the factory to the gondola. Thus the refuse from the manufacturing process on those upper floors would be tossed down the chute into the gondola, which I assume from time to time would be moved and emptied for disposal.
If you imagined a Motorola factory on your layout it is not too far fetched to imagine a similar situation with the gon being painted as a sort of permanent advertisement.
Dave Nelson
Any chance you could post a pic of the car? My brother works for Motorola.
I dunno. I think we’re are digging ourselves a big hole. [(-D] No offense intended.
But I did work for Penn Dixie Steel that had its own plant trackage and we had our own captive cars and locomotives. But the gons that moved scrap metal or ingots around were bought on the second hand market and not lettered for the company other than crude stenciled ID for asset management. I think our cars no longer had working air brakes or brake shoes. Some of the gons dated back quite a few years. This was in the early 80s and I remember we had some gons still lettered for the Southern and the PRR.