Gondola With Automobile Frame Load Project

Gondola With Automobile Frame Load Project

I finally finished this very satisfying but simple project. It all started with a similar gondola I saw on Andrew Merriam's layout during the Central Coast Railroad Festival last October. That motivated me to look for prototype examples.

What I found were gondolas with an assortment of load restraining designs, each similar but probably specific to individual railroads. But the photos gave me ideas for my own design to be applied to an InterMountain HO scale Southern Pacific gondola.

The gondolas (and probably the flat cars) that carried automobile frames usually were in dedicated service. The SP community I consulted could not say for sure that SP had any such dedicated cars. Most of the prototypes I saw were from eastern railroads with the notable exception of the Santa Fe. At the time I couldn't find the appropriate Santa Fe Ga-44 gondola that InterMountain once produced. This car would have been my first choice, although two automobile frame kits would have been necessary to complete the load and a lot of frames would have been left over.

The HO scale automobile frames were made by JJM Railroad Enterprises. These can be purchased from B&G Train World. Scroll down this link:

http://www.bgtrainworld.com/storefront/shop/category.aspx?catid=25

On the DT&I Modelers Page website Scott Heiden designed a simple cardboard jig for assembling the automobile frames:

http://dti.railfan.net/Model_Building_Articles/Freight_Cars/DT&I_9100s_Model/G31DFrameRackInstr.html

I built a similar jig from two wood blocks glued to cardboard that was glued to Styrofoam. From the prototype photos and Scott's example I chose forty-degrees as the angle for the frames to rest upright in the gondola. I used double-sided tape to secure one frame in place on the jig at a forty degree angle and then added five more frames to the jig, gluing frames two through six together and leaving the first frame in place as part of the jig.

 Straight pins helped to keep the frames together as the solvent glue set. I then glued the groups of five frames together until I had enough for one side of the gondola. These frame groups were secured with a strip of plastic glued along the bottom. This strip would not be visible on the finished load once it was in the gondola.

I constructed restraining hardware (frame cradle and hold-down harness) from Evergreen styrene channel and "L" stock. I added stained strip wood to the contact surfaces. Lastly, I used brass wire for the hold-down harness tension rods.

I drilled two holes in the hold-down harness for the rods. On the top side of the hole I inserted Tichy plastic nut-bolt-washer castings.

If you don't want to scratch-build the restraining hardware, American Model Builders does offer a kit for restraining hardware at $18.00. Here is the link: http://www.bgtrainworld.com/storefront/shop/item.aspx?itemid=3379

Like I said, this was very satisfying but simple project. I paid $13.00 for the auto frames and the other materials were from the parts and scratch-building trays.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

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After I finished the project I found this very informative article on automobile frame loads by John Brown:

http://www.augusthealthservices.com/login_files/CLINIC%20HANDOUTS/C597_Brown%20Auto%20Frame%20loads%20hand%20out.doc