Walthers Crossing Guard Tower
and Shed
A2Z CNC |
Walthers 52’ Thrall Gondola
Wm. K Walthers
HO Scale
The Prototype In the 1960’s the railroads were actively upgrading their freight car rosters to meet the demands of shippers, to address the changing character of the rail freight business and to counter competition from other modes of transportation. The steel industry in particular pushed the railroads to introduce gondola cars with higher capacity and higher sides. The higher sides were needed to achieve the greater capacity, but also to ease load-securing problems associated with earlier low-sided gondola designs. In the early and mid 60’s the 52’ gondolas were frequently 70-ton capacity cars with 4’ or 4’ 6” sides. The 1970 Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia note that by that date a significant portion of new gondola construction was 100-ton capacity cars. The Thrall Car Manufacturing Co. was a major supplier of the new higher capacity freight cars, and specialized in all-welded construction. Thrall was a family owned business located in the Chicago area until sold to Trinity Industries in 2001. The initial Thrall 70-ton gondolas were characterized by welded construction with fish belly sides having 13 or 14 ribs, and could be ordered with a variety of side heights, ends, floors and load restraints to suit customer needs. In the late 1960’s Thrall introduced 100-ton cars that featured larger side ribs that distinguish them from the earlier 70-ton cars. Thrall continued to build these cars well into the 1990’s. They were supplanted by the current production 52’ 6” IL cars that typically have 5’6” sides and a higher 115-ton capacity. These cars are used by the steel industry for hauling both steel scrap to the mills and finished steel products. They can also be seen with loads of pulpwood, machinery, aggregates, track materials, etc. The Model The Walthers model is based on the Thrall 100-ton car with 5’ sides having 14-posts. The specific car reviewed was lettered for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton car number 9676, Walthers item number 932-40257. The paint and lettering conform to prototype photos, and are neatly applied and very crisp – all the words in the minute equipment lease stencil can be read with a magnifying glass. The car comes fully assembled except for the grab irons. The modeler must drill #80 holes at the locating dimples, install the wire grabs provided in the kit, and paint the grabs in an appropriate color for the car. (For the DT&I car, the grabs were initially yellow like the ladders, but quickly became black as the cars saw heavy use.) The www.rr-fallenflags.org web site has a great number of prototype rolling stock photos that can be used to confirm colors for the other road names Walthers offers.
Walthers includes a removable interior rack for securing coil steel loads. The model has abbreviated underbody detail with longitudinal and transverse ribs together with air brake cylinder, triple valve and air reservoir, but no air piping or brake rigging. Prototype photos show that some of the brake rods are visible below the fishbelly sides, so modelers with eye-level trackage may want to add these details. The car comes with rigid frame roller bearing trucks with metal RP-25 wheelsets and working knuckle couplers. The car weighs 2.5 oz., somewhat less than the NMRA recommended 4.75 oz. for a car of this length. However, this is easily remedied by adding any number of different loads.
These widely used cars should be at home on any layout modeling the period from the late 1960’s to the present. Walthers has announced the following road names for these gondolas as both single cars and two packs:
932-40250 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Undecorated
932-40251 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Soo Line 932-40252 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Wisconsin Central 932-40253 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Milwaukee Road 932-40254 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Green Bay & Western 932-40255 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Union Pacific(R) 932-40256 - Thrall 53' Gondola - Conrail 932-40257 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Detroit, Toledo & Ironton 932-40258 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Illinois Terminal 932-40259 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Denver & Rio Grande Western 932-40260 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Florida East Coast 932-40261 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Missouri-Kansas-Texas 932-40262 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola - Wisconsin Central 932-240251 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Soo Line 932-240252 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Wisconsin Central 932-240253 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Milwaukee Road 932-240254 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Green Bay & Western 932-240255 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Union Pacific(R) 932-240256 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited-Run Two Pack - Conrail 932-240257 - Thrall 53' 14-Post Gondola Assembled Limited-Run 2-Pack - Detroit, Toledo & Ironton 932-240258 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited Run 2 Pack - Illinois Terminal 932-240259 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited Run 2 Pack - Denver & Rio Grande Western 932-240260 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited Run 2 Pack - Florida East Coast 932-240261 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited Run 2 Pack - Missouri-Kansas-Texas 932-240262 - Thrall 53' Gondola Limited Run 2 Pack - Wisconsin Central Reviewed by Gary Quale |
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