Gondola With Scrap Steel Load Project

This is a Revell HO scale gondola I picked-up at the Whistle Stop in Pasadena for $3.00. Fred’s price point was just too alluring to ignore. This model dates to the mid-1950s so it’s just about as old as the six-transistor radio I still own, but that’s another story.

By the standards of the day this was a pretty good model when introduced, featuring a low center of gravity and free rolling sprung trucks with metal frames. All details were cast on the body. But for my purposes I replaced the sill steps with steps from A-Line and retired the trucks as the flanges of the plastic wheels were a bit too deep and the trucks had talgo-mounted couplers. My replacement trucks from Old Pullman had metal wheels.

I installed a Kadee-compatible coupler mounted in a Kadee coupler box. The coupler box was secured to the body with a screw.

I thought I needed a new brake wheel as I did not see one on the car. Upon closer inspection I discovered the car had a simulated lever brake wheel. These were found on prototype cars but I can’t think of any I have seen on the several hundred freight cars from many manufacturers on my roster. Something different yet still prototypical.

Now to the load. I cut up a large plastic drinking cup and the plastic tops of takeout food containers to make scrap steel for the load. The thin cross section of this plastic makes them idea as a starting point for prototype scrap. The pieces are supposed to represent steel sheet cut from storage tanks or ships. Truthfully, my pieces are a bit too large for this type of scrap going to a steel mill for recycling. The pieces probably should be no larger than four-feet by four feet, or thereabouts.

The pieces were painted with either red oxide or dark gray automobile primer paints. Some of these pieces received a second coat of Rust-Oleum Rustic Umber Multicolor Textured spray paint.

When dry each piece received a dusting of one of several PanPastel rust and earth toned weathering media. The objective was to differentiate the individual pieces so they did not all appear to be the same rusty color. The pieces with the textured paint took on the appearance of heavily rusted metal, further distinguishing the individual pieces.

I intended this to be a permanent load so the pieces were glued into place with Canopy Glue, one layer at a time. They received further dusting with various PanPastel media.

In terms of time and effort this was a simple load to construct. And I received some satisfaction from being able to use such an old model on my railroad.

 

Swift Reefer Trio

Here is a trio of Rapido HO scale Swift meat reefers on my Citrus Belt Railway. They are some of the mainly empty freight cars being hauled from the Los Angeles area to San Bernardino, where they will be blocked and sent out on various trains headed to the Midwest and Southwest. On my railroad this local train is known as the “Bulldog”, the same name for a similar train once operated by the Santa Fe for a similar purpose.

Until I started the Railway Bull Shippers group ( https://groups.io/g/RailwayBullShippersGroup ) back in 2006 I had no meat reefers on my railroad. This railroad still concentrates on the citrus industry and produce reefers, but the roster of meat reefers grows a bit each year. I just don’t have any meat packers or meat packer branch houses on the railroad, so the cars only appear in moving trains.

The Rapido reefers are highly detailed and operate quite well. The trucks rolled so freely I didn’t bother lubricating the journal cavities with Teflon.

I used PanPastels to weather them. Compared to most prototype photos I have seen of the red Swift reefers these models are a bit more weathered on the sides. However, the prototype photos from the mid-1950s show a lot of soot on the roofs and wheels splash residue on the ends. My guess is that Swift regularly cleaned the sides of their cars but didn’t bother with the ends or roofs.

 

Modeling Project: Second Cull Lemon Load In A Gondola

An article on prototype gondolas for transporting lemons was posted on the Railroad Citrus Industry Modeling Group in 2018:

https://tinyurl.com/3m7yr5p2

The article kindled my interest in building an HO scale gondola with a cull lemon load. I reported on this project last year:

https://tinyurl.com/bddpf3dx

I followed up that project with a second gondola from Red Caboose/Intermountain. Model photos of the HO scale gondola:

https://tinyurl.com/y4b42btj

http://www.owlmtmodels.com/lumber/OMM3004SP150143-D.jpg

Data, photos and a drawing of this car appeared in the February 1984 issue of Mainline Modeler on Page 54.

I followed the same steps as with the first model, which were to detail and weather the model. Unlike the first model (Accurail), this was an R-T-R model.

I prepared the gondola as usual: Cleaned the truck journals with a reamer, painted the truck frames and faces of the wheels, lubricated the journals with Teflon, sprayed the gondola body with Tamiya TS-80 Flat-Clear and weathered the car body and trucks with various PanPastel media.

The next step was to make a raised styrene base for the load. This base was primed, painted yellow and given a coat of Tamiya TS-80 Flat-Clear.

For lemons I used my original stock of JTT Scenery Products #92124 miniature fruit, which included a packet of lemons. JTT now is owned by Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC), who markets this product as JTT #0592124.

Be advised that these may be the only lemons available in HO scale. Woodland Scenics did not offer scale lemons and neither did Alpine Division Scale Models. Both of these companies no longer offer scale fruit of any kind. In fact, Alpine Division Scale Models no longer is in business.

For lemons your best source is E-Bay for the old JTT stock or MRC.

I coated the base with Pacer Technology's Formula 560 Canopy Glue and sprinkled on some lemons. Adhesion was good. When dry I gave the first layer another coat of Canopy Glue and added more lemons. I added a third coat just for insurance. This produced a good, built-up layer of lemons with no bare spots showing through to the base.

When this was dry, I shook off the excess. The load looked fine so it was placed in the car. Done.

The photo below is the finished model temporarily parked on a siding next to a scratch-built shallow relief model of the Corona Citrus Association Packing House, which still stands. This packing house would not have processed cull lemons so this car is awaiting transfer to the nearby Exchange Lemon Products Plant, which on my railroad probably never will be modeled.