Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
Do you recognize this gondola? I know you recognize the railroad name, but do you recognize the car design? It looks similar to many gondolas used in the first four decades of the 20th Century. The B&O had more than 2500 of these O-17 class gondolas listed in an October 1926 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Are you surprised?
Do you recognize this box car? I know you recognize the railroad name, but do you recognize the car design? I’ll bet most readers are not familiar with this car design. It does look similar to many box cars used in the first four decades of the 20th Century, but this was the most common B&O box car until 1926. There were 9988 listed as in service in an October 1926 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Are you surprised?
Here’s a photo I nearly forgot about. I took this from a Southwest flight into Pittsburgh in March 2017 as I traveled to the RPM-East meet. As you can see, the weather cooperated for a nice look over the Ohio River Valley. This is just downriver from Wheeling, W. Va., and where the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad crossed the Ohio River. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
A couple more completed freight cars have been discovered among the boxes of hobby kits and supplies. Each of these two flat car kits were built several years ago and even painted. The black car with fish belly side sills is a Funaro & Camerlengo kit for a Baltimore & Ohio P-11 class flat car. The other car is a Tichy Train Group kit that I may have built 20 years ago. The model is pretty close to representing several prototypes that fit my 1926 era. I have a few flat cars in service but none are proper for my era so these two newly found models were given the fast track to completion.
Many model railroaders have projects that have been set aside long ago for one reason or another. I’m no different. You saw in the last post how six USRA box cars were finally completed, five years after the initial start of construction. I took some ribbing about those, especially since they were plastic kits. I expected those comments but long term projects are part of the hobby. I just finished up two more HO scale freight cars that go back a few more years.