Lionel's New 65' Mill Gondolas

Welcome!

Great to have another one of the Lionel team here on the OGR forum (it can be habit forming). Thanks for the extra info and pictures of the new gondolas.

Who actually wants the accurate BNSF and CSX black scheme on this Mill Gondola?

Andrew

The CSX cars are fairly common on the River line [Selkirk,NY to Newark NJ] as a 2 rail scale guy I am interested but would like to see one first, both MTH and Lionel do not always build to scale dimensions for a number of reasons. JMO

Welcome aboard David.

Doug

Since this car is a gondola about 66' long, then it should have the TTX GNTX railgon schemes put on them with real reflective tape added.

 

Andrew

There was an series of railgon GNTX gondola built by Trinity that look similar to the Greenbrier gondolas.

 

Andrew

Good example of the same class gondola built by a different car builder note some variations 18 ribs instead of 17 and a straight line bottom edge with lip for ribs obviously Lionel could have chosen this builder [Trinity] version over the Gunderson version both are current, the Trinitys and NSC cars are common to the TTX fleet.

The newest GNTX gondolas are the FreightCar America gondolas.

The National Steel Car gondolas have a distinct rib shape and an angle at the bottom.

TrinityRail has a 66' Mill Gondola as a current freight car.

https://www.trinityrail.com/pr...x?id=34&catid=30

FreightCar America has a gondola, but they do not have close-up photos posted.

http://www.freightcaramerica.c...x.php/manufacturing/

National Steel Car has gondolas with distinct ribs and undersides.

https://www.steelcar.com/products/gondola

Andrew

These gondolas are the Freight Car America design. Which is similar to the style of gondolas from Trinity and earlier, shorter Thrall Car and Evans Products  gondolas. This is the type of gondola that is not available widely in O scale.

Here is a photo of a repainted Chicago & North Western 65' gondola that is similar to the Greenbriar 65' gondola. This photo was taken in 1988.

CNW 372019

http://canadianfreightcargalle...=cnw372019&o=cnw

 

 

Andrew

Going to order the CNW's and will probably 2-rail them to match my other CNW gons. Also looking at that Theater business car to go with the UP business/excursion set on order.

falconservice posted:

These gondolas are the Freight Car America design. Which is similar to the style of gondolas from Trinity and earlier, shorter Thrall Car and Evans Products  gondolas. This is the type of gondola that is not available widely in O scale.

I have been making these for 3 years , there are 2 type logos the most modern and the large yellow , which I produce and I am fixing to use on 2 gons I am building , the newer type and the large yellow .I also make  CSX highside 52 ft gons for scrap service , as well as a NS version and DJ JOSEPH type. I see them all the time here , I make all my own decals  , USSTEEL (metal) pipe loads and wood cribbing,real metal banding, real metal scrap loads ,metal tie down chains and winches  . I also have full underbody detail with brake rods running all the way to the trucks. Inside length on the TTX gons is 66ft 3764 cu ft 16.5 inches in O scale . A friendly recently called them ,"Bernie's better than brass" , because mine come painted, weathered , loaded and ready to run . With companies like Archers transfers , Wiseman model services ,I make masters of any car out there today , however I do not show them here .I have many modern freight cars you see HO . The best part  is MADE IN THE USA by an American .

. TTX

SCRATCHBUILDER How did you make those USS logos for the pipe loads?Nick

Dave Olson,

Question, what modeling software are you using?? 

Thanks

mjrodg3n88 posted:

Dave Olson,

Question, what modeling software are you using?? 

Thanks

Hi Mike!

I use SolidWorks at Lionel. I've used CATIA and Pro-Engineer before, but SolidWorks is great for all the various kinds of projects we do. It also works well with the CNC mill we have in our prototyping shop.

BTW, SCRATCHBUILDER, your models look fantastic! Very envious of your modelling talents.

Thanks all,

Dave

The NS Norfolk Southern mill gondola numbers came from a series built by Ortner for the Norfolk & Western. The Ortner 65' gondolas are similar to the Trinity and Thrall Car designs. Since they are nearing 50 years old, it might be possible that NS will retire and scrap them. Take photos of all the NS gondolas while they are around in the next few years.

Andrew

Why not make both a Trinity 65' Gondola and a Greenbrier 65' Gondola since they have distinct differences?

Andrew

The number for the CNW gondola is correct in the image, but wrong in the text for each numbered car. Please correct this before numbering the Chicago & North Western 65' mill gondolas. Check the photos again. Thank you.

I do plan on getting 2 of the CNW gondolas. I hope that the final version has the number series in the illustration. That matches what the real cars were like. The green paint should be a glowing emerald color. There is no point in making a pre-weathered gondola.

Andrew

Falcon Service

I would like to preorder several of these. Does anyone know which paint schemes that Lionel is offering are accurate for the its Greenbrier version of a 65' mill gondola?

Thanks, Allan

Look up the gondolas on rrpicturearchives and on the Canadian Freight Car Gallery to compare the real ones with the images in the catalog. 

Andrew

@Dave Olsen I have a question about those trucks on these gondolas (and possibly the Lion Scale Modern Box Car too). Is the whole truck able to come off and a different set of Lionel trucks able replace it?

I'm not a fan of the thumb tact uncoupling tab and I want to use those trucks from Lionel's scale rolling stock where the uncoupling mechanism is between the axels of the truck.

I might do 3 rail scale later and do kadee couplers, but I want the flexibility to move back later without doing damage prior.

Insight on this will be appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks Andrew,

I found pics of the CSX version on  http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...d=CSX&rid=491600. The Lionel version is accurate for CSX. Actually, 65' is the interior length. Exterior length is 71' and at Lionel's catalog length of 17", the Lionel mill gondolas represent a 71' gondola.

Allan

elementdude195 posted:

@Dave Olsen I have a question about those trucks on these gondolas (and possibly the Lion Scale Modern Box Car too). Is the whole truck able to come off and a different set of Lionel trucks able replace it?

I'm not a fan of the thumb tact uncoupling tab and I want to use those trucks from Lionel's scale rolling stock where the uncoupling mechanism is between the axels of the truck.

I might do 3 rail scale later and do kadee couplers, but I want the flexibility to move back later without doing damage prior.

Insight on this will be appreciated.

Thanks

Since Lionel now installs it on their scale 86' boxcars, scale 89' auto racks, and their top of the line 21" passenger cars your gondolas will look out of place 

Does anyone know if the cabooses will go back to this style truck also?

elementdude195 posted:

@Dave Olsen I have a question about those trucks on these gondolas (and possibly the Lion Scale Modern Box Car too). Is the whole truck able to come off and a different set of Lionel trucks able replace it?

 

The new trucks have been designed to be a direct replacement. No changes to the car frames have been made. So the existing scale trucks will fit.

Same goes for the LionScale cars. The trucks were designed as a direct replacement.

Dave,

Welcome to the wonderful world of the OGR Forum! Nice to have you on board, and look forward to your comments.

Alex

Dave Olson posted:

elementdude195 posted:

@Dave Olsen I have a question about those trucks on these gondolas (and possibly the Lion Scale Modern Box Car too). Is the whole truck able to come off and a different set of Lionel trucks able replace it?

 

The new trucks have been designed to be a direct replacement. No changes to the car frames have been made. So the existing scale trucks will fit.

Same goes for the LionScale cars. The trucks were designed as a direct replacement.

Appreciate the answer. I wll try them out and see how it plays out when I get them.

 

By any chance anyone know the part number for those trucks? I'm having difficulties on the website with all type of keywords and item numbers from catalogs to try pull up those trucks that will fit on these gondolas.

Recent Lionel catalogs have the information on the 50 and 70 Ton conversion kits.

rdunniii posted:

Recent Lionel catalogs have the information on the 50 and 70 Ton conversion kits.

I was not looking for 2 rail trucks nor conversion kits. I was looking for 3 rail trucks with uncoupling mechanism between the axels.

I did see some others on the last few pages of the catalog(never turned the page that far before) but I wanted to compare them to the ones on the service part list of scale rolling stock to make sure it's the same thing I'm looking for before I pickup a box of trucks.

Look what came in today!  Here are just a couple of quick teasers of the first tooling samples from the gons. We will have these samples on display at York in a few weeks. While Dave and I have already found a few things that will be changed in the final production, we are both very happy with the way things look at this stage. Currently, these cars are on the factory schedule for June and should be arriving at dealers in mid August if things continue to look good.

That looks great. I ORDERED 3 already. I will get some more later. Perhaps ILLINOIS CENTRAL, SOO LINE, NORFOLK & WESTERN can be made next time.

Sorry, that button coupler kills it for me.

Hal

Scratchbuilder...first wow nice work ! secondly the power plant in your photo background is the Muny Power plant in Cleveland Ohio which over the last couple months has been torn down. Where o where did that backdrop come from ! conrail john

Why not just cut the button off with a Dremel cut-off wheel? I did it on all my GGD passenger cars. Seems to me if you really want this unique item, removing the button is small task.

Charlie

Really wonderful car so far, Ryan. That chain detail looks sharp, and I love how low it seems to ride.

john f penca jr posted:

Scratchbuilder...first wow nice work ! secondly the power plant in your photo background is the Muny Power plant in Cleveland Ohio which over the last couple months has been torn down. Where o where did that backdrop come from ! conrail john

John the old Muny plant in Cleveland did not come down It was the old Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.E.72nd plant that came down.Nick

Scratchbuilder1-48 posted:

I have been making these for 3 years , there are 2 type logos the most modern and the large yellow , which I produce and I am fixing to use on 2 gons I am building , the newer type and the large yellow .I also make  CSX highside 52 ft gons for scrap service , as well as a NS version and DJ JOSEPH type. I see them all the time here , I make all my own decals  , USSTEEL (metal) pipe loads and wood cribbing,real metal banding, real metal scrap loads ,metal tie down chains and winches  . I also have full underbody detail with brake rods running all the way to the trucks. Inside length on the TTX gons is 66ft 3764 cu ft 16.5 inches in O scale . A friendly recently called them ,"Bernie's better than brass" , because mine come painted, weathered , loaded and ready to run . With companies like Archers transfers , Wiseman model services ,I make masters of any car out there today , however I do not show them here .I have many modern freight cars you see HO . The best part  is MADE IN THE USA by an American .

. TTX

Bernie,

Are you totally getting out of model trains and scratchbuilding altogether?   If not,  is there any chance of you building/decaling a couple of pipe loads as in these photos to fit an MTH Premier McKeesport Connecting RR gondola?   Or at least  print me a sheet of the USS United States Steel decals as on the pipes.

Thanks,

Nick 

Great modeling on the gondolas.