RMC review of Athearn 65' mill gondola

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

In this month’s RMC there is a review of the Athearn 65’ mill gondola. I’m told it said that the model was only truly accurate for a short list of the roadnames offered. Could someone with that issue confirm this? Which roads is it OK for?

TIA,

KL

2

The issue states that railroads whose gons were closest to the AAR drawings were ATSF,SP,WP,WM,SAL,CP,and IT. It also state that gons matching or similar to AAR drawings includeReading,Southern,Erie,Santa Fe,Candian National,Canadian Pacific,Southern Pacific,Chicago&North Western,Chesapeake&Ohio,Central of Georgia,Erie Lackawanna,Nashville,Chattanooga&St.Louis,Seaboard Air Line,Western Pacific, Western Maryland, and Wabash. So take your pick from these roads, each roads gons may have had different options, wood floors, ladders, etc. I’d stick with the closest ones

3

Frankly even the spot-on “short list” is a pretty good list offering geographical diversity making interchange likely on almost any layout, and the expanded “pretty close” list means this is one reasonably generic car that suits the “one casting/many paint schemes” plastic market very well. A 65’ mill gon is a darn impressive car in person!

Dave Nelson

4

Thanks Mike,

KL

5

Here is a photo from the Athearn website…

6

Even though they offer it as such, it is NOT correct for Reading. One too many ribs for the class it is lettered as. Or am I thinking of the Walther’s one? haha n/m

–Randy

7

First there were rivet counters. Then came rib counters… Or was it the other way around?

8

Close is fine, but that’s pretty obvious looking at it. Heck I have an MDC caboose done as Reading, it looks slightly odd next tot he P2K one, plus I had to bash the ladders since the MDC came with ladders that looped up tot he roofwalks, but it has the proper brown roof, and correct number, and with the handrails painted yellow it doesn’t look too bad. There’s been a bit of an effort these days to letter cars only for the roads they fit, except it seems on Walther’s part - look at their passenger cars. They are accurate matches for a couple of the roadnames they come in, but the others are fantasy.

–Randy

9

actually, according to RMC, the Reading car is welded, not riveted, so there’s none to count…