Empty Gondola Project
I've been working on several HO scale gondola projects
involving various loads. This particular project originally started out to be a
gondola with a load of large earth moving equipment tires.
The car was an Accurail 3700 Series 41-foot steel gondola
lettered for the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad. Accurail's
description and photo of this car had a build date of November 1948 and a
reweight date of May 1952, good for my 1956 modeling era.
So that's what I ordered from Accurail. Imagine my surprise
when the car I received had the same body but a build date of May 1926. Looks
like I'll need to do some paint patch/decal work in the future.
The tire load came from a general hobby shop that carries
R/C models. I had been looking for tires for several months and settled on
eight tires for an R/C car that perfectly fit the gondola and looked OK, not
great, for earth moving equipment tires.
Then the project took an unexpected turn. As I began
weathering the car with special attention to the steel floor I realized that
the rusted effect was better than my usual efforts. I had been using a
combination of AK Interactive washes, Vallejo
paints and Doc O'Brien's weathering powders built up in layers with each layer
receiving a protective coat of flat finish.
All of this work would have been hidden with the tire load
so the plan morphed in an empty gondola project.
The tire load is destined for
another gondola awaiting inspection, weathering, etc.
