coal gondola – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Shawmut freight car update

I was recently searching for something on my blog and I came across Perry Squier’s posts on Shawmut freight cars he was building. After reviewing his posts again, I realized the final appearance of some models had not been shared. It’s time for project closure!

Shawmut coal gondolas

Perry Squier has added several coal gondolas to his HO scale Shawmut layout. Perry sent the following photos and notes.

A distinctive freight car missing from my layout were the 6001-6500 series drop bottom gondolas bought by the Pittsburg Shawmut & Northern in 1907. These 50-ton capacity, 40-foot gondolas had steel centersills and wood sides. They also had a 4-foot, 8.5-inch interior height with six drop doors. These were big cars on the Shawmut.

P&R GAc steel drop-door gondola kit

Bob McGlone sent an email the other day with an interesting model announcement. With his permission, it’s now a blog post.

I’d like to make early rail modelers aware of a new item that is now available. It’s a 3D printed model of the Philadelphia & Reading GAc class steel drop-door gondola.

HO wood coal gondola

I recently came across an email thread by Doug Forbes and this interesting Illinois Traction wood coal gondola model. This is a 3D printed model that Doug created using computer software. Doug’s original interests began with the Illinois Central but he has gravitated to the Illinois Traction System for a unique kind of model building. He enjoys putting together freight cars that are out of the norm. Continue reading “HO wood coal gondola”