New Haven steel coal gondolas

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Fellow Pre-Depression Era modeler Dave Parker has sent notes on a recent resin freight car kit build. Click on any image here to review a larger size. Here’s Dave’s story.

In 1929, the New York, New Haven and Hartford received 500 class GA-2 gondolas from the Pressed Steel Car Company. These all-steel, drop-bottom gons had an inside length of 40 feet, and were numbered in the 58000-58499 series. Based on my collection of Official Registers, 496 remained in service as of 1945, but by 1955 this number had dwindled to 276 cars, and all had been rebuilt as solid-floor cars (GB classification). At some intermediate date, probably about 1950, the 58000 series apparently contained a mix of original and rebuilt cars, but I do not own an ORER that gives the exact numbers.

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Simple Tools – 2

201509_emery_cigfact

Simple tools were popular here a couple of months ago. Fellow pre-Depression Era modeler Dave Emery shared several ideas so he steps in as a guest blogger with more details. Take it away, Dave!

The HO scale cigar factory seen above is more than just wood shapes, plastic castings, paint, decals, and other parts. It is the sum of work done with an assortment of common and uncommon tools. Let’s take a look at some of the uncommon tools from my workbench that helps me move projects forward.

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Resin Freight Car kit builds – part 6

Southern Railway SU box car design.
Southern Railway SU box car design.

On December 1, 2014, a few modelers from across the country began to build HO scale models of the Southern SU, 36-foot, double-sheathed box cars. Models by Funaro & Camerlengo and Westerfield were used in this group build.

Ray Breyer sent along his build updates though December and approved sharing them here on the blog. I hope to share a couple more of these builds very soon. Here are Ray’s thoughts and processes for his Southern SU box car build. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

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