Large Scale Central

Firewood Gondola

The ER&I needs to add a 30’ Gondola to it’s roster to haul firewood from the sawmill to the town of Elk River. They had been using a couple of ore cars, but the boss wants a dedicated car. It will also be used as a garbage gon on occasions.

Framework has been started. 1:20.3 Standard gauge.

Now this will be part of the future of rolling stock for your RR. I have a number of cars that are home built, the only need for them is trucks with metal wheels and couplers. Even house cars with sliding doors can be built. And yes I know a gentleman who builds his own Locos and has some very interesting units. He does need a motor block but the rest of the engine simple material that is commonly available. But track is always going to be a problem, as it is either rolled or extruded and that is very expensive equipment.

One other factor is younger men and women getting interested in the hobby. We, the old gizers, need to encourage them and help them.

Paul

A good start and a good back story as to why it is being built.

I am guilty of robbing trucks and couplers off of my old LGB stock. So I will have a bunch of LGB bodies to dispose of. When I do run freight trains, I now run scratched or bashed rolling stock only. Except for 1 scratched loco, I usually run weathered, modified a little, stock locos. Some have heavily modified tenders.

Knew you had a gon fetish but you have to have more than one John ! Will you be building a back dated SD90 mac to pull the gons?

(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

The gon needs side doors for easy loading and unloading by hand. The crew cobbled up the doors from a wrecked reefer.

Cool, very creative!

Looking good John!

John looking like a very good model, it is a good idea, wood is always an essential commodity in the earlier days. Hauling wood was a very big job that required alot of people.

Dennis

Done and ready for paint.

Brake end.

Hooked to the RR’s caboose.

I like that. And it’s an unusual looking car!

You sure have been busy building some very cool equipment John. Your work is so clean and tidy too. I think that really adds to a sharp model once the paint goes down. The chains inside are interesting. I’d like to see it with a load in it. Will it get one? ( not that I’m volunteering to stack it all! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif))

Very nice John (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Thanks guys!

Eventually it will get a firewood load. The crew plans to apply “tar” to the inside first. It will help protect it. They originally were going to apply sheet metal to protect it, but figured tar is easier.

Very cool!

Hey that’s really nice John! Great model!

Done and now heading out to get a load of firewood for the camp.

The car (and the caboose) look great. Good painting job too. I wish I had about ten of 'em.

Three questions: How did you attach the trucks underneath the car? How did you attach all those great details and where did you get them. How much did all of them together cost?

Another question I guess…why didn’t you weather/rust the couplers? I think it would look better myself.

Tiny brass escutcheon pins are used to fasten hardware. Piloted with a dremel, then dip the point in super glue and tap them in with a fine hollow punch and small tack hammer.

Trucks are held on by 8-32 brass threaded inserts screwed into the wooden bolsters. There are fender washers between the trucks and the insert.

As to parts, most I already had in my parts drawers. But I did spend about 20 bucks at Ozark Miniatures for this model.

I ran out of rust paint for the couplers. That will be rectified shortly.