What was stored in the cannisters in gondolas?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi,

I have seen some gondola kits that have sivler and red cannisters in them. What would have been stored in the cannisters?

Thanks,

Kevin

2

I’ve got one in N scale made by Atlas that has powdered cement containers in it.

Tracklayer

3

Powdered cement was the main use for the round cannisters. I have an old MR article on how to kitbash one, something else I will need, unless someone makes an HO scale kit of them, since I will have cement traffic on my layout.
The square containers were used for varied commodities, sort of an early version of modern seagoing containers.

–Randy

4

Hi,

I would think that usig a covered hopper would be more cost effective way to carry cemment then the round organge & silver containers. Seems to be a lot of wasted space in the gondola around the cannisters.
I am asking because I am gathing rolling stock for my EL layout and have seen them for sale. I wondered what they carried and how I could incorporate them into my layout.

Thanks,

Kevin

5

The round-can cement carriers in gons (liberally coated with spilled and blown cement, cans and gons alike) predated covered gons for cement service. The reason may have had something to do with getting a cement-proof seal on the hopper unloading doors, since early covered hoppers used drop doors similar to those found on coal-hauling open tops. I remember seeing them (the gons, both NYC and Erie) in the New York City area in the early 50’s.

Perhaps someone can give a time line on exactly when they were phased out.

6

My sisters cooking. [(-D]

7

lol and ditto 2 the others

8

Here is a pic of one from the ELHS website I found.

I’ve recently run across a way of replicating these somewhat cheaply for my gons. I’m planning to use old party-popper shells by lopping off the top and filling them with hydrocal to give them some weight (they’re hollow). Six of them fit perfectly in a gon and they appear to be the right size (once the top is lopped off). Here is a pic to give you some idea of the size:

9

This is true, plus not every customer needed a full hopper load of cement. The covered hopper as we know it today (ok, well, they were smaller then) were quite new in the early 50’s. Some were even home-built by the railroads (at least on the Reading) by taking older open hoppers and adding a roof! Yet another project in my neverending list is to build a couple of these, also was in an old MR article.

–Randy

10

Not if the end customer needed only a limited amount of concrete. The first use of covered hoppers WAS dry bulk minerals like concrete, but only large aggregate companies needed that sort of quantity. For most small companies, one container could last them a few months.

But think about how much those loaded containers WEIGHED. It’s not a matter of available space that’s important, it’s how much weight is in the car. Boxcars were the primary way to move grain around into the 1970s, but grain weighs so much that boxcars could only be loaded about halfway full before they ran out of capacity.

Don’t forget the other types of containers carried by gons, those square corrugated ones. They mostly carried coke, a primary ingredient in steelmaking. There were thousands of small steel mills around the country, and they didn’t need a whole hopper load of coke at any given time. One or two containers was more than enough.

11

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I am learning every night I read the posts.

Kevin