So, my trackwork is complete along with a majority of my industries which will be served by the railroad. Those that have not been completed are at least planned for in my head. My problem is that I am left with 2 gondolas that I am rather fond of and would like to incorporate into the railroad. Since there are no spots for these at any of the industries, I would like to have these loaded/unloaded on a team track (house track for us SF guys) but I am drawing a blank for what goods these could carry. Any ideas?
Also, I already have the scrap steel and scrap rail gons elsewhere and would like to avoid duplicating.
Judging from your signature picture, you are modeling the 1950s maybe?
No matter, since you mention scrap steel, why not the obvious - steel I-bars, pipe, or rail to be used on a local project, transloaded at your team track. Coil steel, perhaps 2 coils, lying on their sides over the trucks, with thick wood bracing below them to protect the coils from the gondola floor (and make removing them easier),
But, in the 1950s? Maybe early, primative containers like those for coke, cement, or even dry goods.
Since they are going to a team track how about loads for the local track gang such as new crossties, 39’ sections of rail, rail spikes (in small steel drums), tie plates or rail anchors?
Used to see loads of coal on gons in the 50’s, probably drop bottom. Could do sand for your sand house.
I have a couple of diesel generators that I plan to put on a flat or gon. Any large machinery, in the open, boxed or under a tarp wouldn’t be out of place.
Loads of ties or rail for a track repair crew. Load of wheel sets coming in to the servicing facility.
They are very versitle cars, can carry most anything that can be exposed to the weather or travel tarped or crated.
How about some tractors or other machinery for the local town supply or even a load of sandbags on their way to shore up a fictional flood down the line…
How about a nice weathered floor and some dunnage. They have to return the empty sooner or later!!
Or maybe some rebar delivered to your local cement terminal…
I used lengths of stranded wire, cut to scale 20’ and stripped of insulation. To simulate multiple layers, I put a layer of round toothpicks at the bottom, then laid strips of balsa wood to represent dunnage supporting the top layer. I painted the load with a blend of black and silver craft acrylics to get a dark gun metal color. A couple of washes of a brownish red rust color finish it off. Like all the loads I make, it is removable.
My favorite though, is scrap…
You can either go out and spend money on scrap loads the look pretty good, or you can follow the prototype, and make your own with junk you have drifting around your work bench. N scalers will immediately recognize a lot of the stuff that went into that load… Micro Trains shim plates, old Kadee wheels, sprues from various kits… among other things. I built a “form” that matches the size of my gondola fleet, and cut a piece of styrene to next inside it. I then threw a bunch of bits and pieces in there, and flooded it with some diluted white glue. I let it set up over night, then went back over it with a couple of coats of red oxide primer from a rattle can. Once it all dried, I pulled the form away, dry brushed on some highlights, and PRESTO. Free scrap load, and cleaned up workbench, all in one stroke!
Those types of loads would not go to a team track they would go to the MOW yard to be stored till needed.Spikes came in wooden barrels in boxcars and was unloaded at the MOW stores building-not left in the open.The section boss would need to sign for his supply of spikes,ties,tie plates etc so the stores department could keep a accurate record.Of course supplies for larger projects was loaded into MOW cars and moved by a special work train to the work area.This train would be kept at a outlaying yard,on a passing siding or any available track-this would include locomotive and caboose…In the steam era the engine would return to the engine service area for servicing.
Just another idea, though don’t know if the cement containers are made in “O” scale and if indeed these cars made it on to SF rails.
Note: as your’e fond of your “spare” gons if you were to add cement containers you don’t have to hack holes in the sides of them, only certain roads did that.
Annnnnnd…you could just plain run them empty. Not every hopper or gondola or flat car has to have a load in it or on it. Once a load is unloaded, empties need to be transported somewhere in order for them to be reloaded again. So, this wouldn’t be an uncommon sight.
I agree that in my experience a gondola is infrequently encountered at the usual team track, where flat cars and boxcars seems to dominate (although there are exceptions, including covered hoppers and Center Flo cars) Now having said that, there are and were gondolas with ends that folded down so a team track with an end platform is a possible site of a gon. Never say never. One thought - a team track with a dedicated clamshell or magnetized crane to transload/unload onto trucks. Back in the days of cheaper labor I suppose a crew of guys with shovels might have emptied a gon at a team track, of rocks or sand or you name it.
Thinking outside the box for a moment, rather than focus on ideas for the cars to stay on the layout, one thing to consider is a car forwarding system that actually moves cars off the layout and replaces them with cars from storage. A friend of mine uses that system on his layout and it has three great virtues: it prevents the feeling of “Haven’t I run this very consist before?” It avoids the situation where the very same industries are switched each and every session, since based on his system, a flat car might come off the layout, but the car that replaces it might be a tank car (just an example).
The third virtue has less to do with encouraging prototypical operations: it enables my friend to have the usual excessive supply of freight cars without overstuffing the layout itself. Depending on how many operating sessions he has, it can take months before a car sees the layout again. But he always has just the right number of cars on the layout.
Years ago on an excursion train running west from Rochelle Illinois we passed an industry in, I think, Sterling IL. It was a multi-story old brick curtain wall building of the sort Walthers and DPM sell. Anyway an upper story had a sort of chute for industrial scrap. The chute went down a floor or two but not all the way to the ground
Because I am having these unloaded on a house track, I was looking for the smaller loads that could be unloaded manually instead of mechanical assistance. One of the gondolas is a drop-bottom so gravel/coal is a possibility that I had not considered since it could be shoveled into a truck and hauled off.
I am also liking the pictures of the pipe loads. I’m thinking that if I went with 2" pipe these could be manually unloaded. Standard lengths today are 21, 24 and 42 ft. A 24’ length 2" diameter pipe is manageable for 2 guys and could be could be transferred (one at a time) to a flatbed truck.
I also found a pic of Studebakers being unloaded from drop-end gondolas in Alaska circa 1949. I don’t have any drop-end gons but it’s interesting anyway.
The sandbag idea is good as well, however, the only sandbag models that I have ever seen in O are metal, and thus, would be too heavy to fill an entire car. I will keep an eye out for plastic ones though.
Thanks again for the great ideas, looks like I have some decisions to make.
In the 60’s I saw 3 gons filled with thousands of 6oz, green 7-UP bottles headed to a glass factory to be melted, was quite a sight, I still have 3 bottles I loaned from the gon.
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