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Bluford
Shops is proud to announce for the first
time in any scale, 52’6” 15-panel DENTED Mill Gondolas.
That’s right, these N scale models are factory dented! These
ready-to-run cars will feature:
- Diecast
floors for superior tracking
- Plastic
sides, ends, draft gear, body bolsters and additional brake
gear.
- Cars come
standard with our metal wheels and magnetically operating knuckle
couplers.
- Variations
include Dreadnaught or PS style fixed ends with Ajax end mounted
brake housing and two styles of brake wheels
- Drop ends
from Dreadnaught or PS (or the identical Carbuilder’s ends)
with end mounted lever action hand brakes or side mounted brake
wheels as appropriate for each road name.
- Minimum
Radius: 11”.
- Third Relase
Minimum Radius: 9.75”.
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FIRST
RELEASE
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SECOND
RELEASE
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THIRD
RELEASE
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| Conrail |
Burlington
Northern |
Pittsburgh
& West Virginia |
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|
|
|
| Conrail inherited
this style of mill gon in quantity from both Penn Central and Erie
Lackawanna. Many had been built with drop ends but were rebuilt
with fixed Dreadnaught ends and Ajax brake housings as seen here.
|
Burlington
Northern inherited this fleet of mill gons from predecessor Chicago
Burlington & Quincy. We present them here in the original Cascade
Green paint scheme with the large BN “wrenches” logos,
ACI tags and 2-box format consolidated stencils. The cars were equipped
with fixed Dreadnaught ends, Ajax brake housings and IP80 brakewheels.
|
Pittsburgh
& West Virginia was a small but vital bridge line connecting
Nickel Plate’s former W&LE in the west, through Pittsburgh,
to a connection with the Western Maryland in the east. These lines
plus Reading and others were referred to as the Alphabet Route between
the Midwest and east coast. P&WV received this fleet of fixed
end gons from Pullman Standard in 1957. P&WV specified Greenville
style ribs but PS style ends – a combination reflected on these
models. |
| Chicago
Burlington & Quincy |
Detroit
Toledo & Ironton |
Pittsburgh
& Lake Erie |
|
|
|
|
| When Chicago
Burlington & Quincy required another 750 mill gons in 1957,
they chose to build them themselves at their Havelock, Nebraska
shops. These cars were equipped with fixed Dreadnaught ends and
nailable steel floors, the instructions for which are seen to the
right of the Burlington Route logo. |
Detroit Toledo
& Ironton took delivery of this group of gondolas in 1957 from
Pullman Standard. DT&I opted for the narrower style ribs such
as those used by Greenville and other builders rather than Pullman’s
new wider ribs. However, Pullman fixed ends were used. These cars
also used Ajax brakes with IP80 brakewheels. |
This run of
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie gons is depicted in their “as delivered”
paint scheme appearing late in 1951 from Bethlehem. They had Dreadnaught
drop ends with lever hand brakes. With this delivery, P&LE had
more than 10,000 gondolas, an astonishing number for a 233 mile
regional railroad. If they all returned home at once, they would
have 43 gons on every mile of track! |
| Erie
Lackawanna |
Erie |
Penn
Central |
|
|
|
|
| Erie Lackawanna
inherited these mill gons from Erie Railroad who had pioneered the
design in cooperation with Greenville Steel Car in 1940. Under EL
ownership, this batch maintained their Dreadnaught drop ends and
lever action hand brakes. We present them in this run as they appeared
in the last few years of Erie Lackawanna operations and the first
several years of Conrail. |
Erie was the
first railroad to adopt this design of mill gondola, developing
it in cooperation with Greenville Steel Car in 1940. Ironically,
this 800 car batch came not from Greenville but from Bethlehem over
the winter of 1946-1947. Like Erie’s earlier batches, these
came with Dreadnaught drop ends and lever action hand brakes. |
Penn Central
inherited this fleet of mill gondolas from New York Central. While
PC replaced the ends of many of their older mill gons, this particular
group retained their drop ends and lever hand brakes. Cars in this
paint scheme survived well into the Conrail |
| Great
Northern |
Louisville
& Nashville |
Maine
Central |
|
|
|
|
| Great Northern
took delivery of 200 of these gondolas from Pullman Standard in
1957 in the vermilion paint scheme. Although they used the Pullman’s
fixed ends, GN opted for the ribs used on the original Greenville-Erie
design. They also used the Ajax 3059 brake wheel instead of the
usual IP80 design. These details are reproduced on this run. |
Louisville
& Nashville inherited this fleet of gondolas in the split of
the Chicago & Eastern Illinois between L&N and Missouri
Pacific. Since the portion of the line going to MP would continue
to be known as Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Louisville &
Nashville quickly repainted most of their portion of the C&EI
freight car fleet. These cars had fixed Dreadnaught ends and Ajax
IP80 brakewheels. |
Maine Central
was not a railroad one would identify with the steel industry but
they did have enough gon-appropriate loads such as scrap, poles,
gravel and the like to warrant acquiring this group of cars. These
cars have fixed Dreadnaught ends and Ajax IP80 brake |
| Nickle
Plate Road |
Missouri-Kansas-Texas |
Elgin
Joliet & Eastern |
|
|
|
|
Greenville built several batches of these mill gons for Nickel Plate
Road over the years with details varying from batch to batch. This
group outshopped in 1949 had Carbuilders drop ends and side-mounted
Ajax 3059 brake wheels. The fleet was passed to Norfolk & Western
with their 1964 merger. |
Missouri-Kansas-Texas
took delivery of this group of mill gons from Greenville in 1967
as part of President John W. Barriger’s effort to update Katy’s
freight car fleet. The gons, including their roller bearing trucks,
were painted Barriger Red (formerly known as Deramus Red) and equipped
with fixed Dreadnaught ends and the familiar combination of Ajax
brake housing and IP80 brakewheels. |
Many think
of the Elgin Joliet & Eastern as a terminal road hosting transfer
runs between Chicago’s myriad of Class One roads. In fact,
the lion’s share of EJ&E business came from the huge US
Steel complex on the eastern end of the line. In fact USS owned
EJ&E for most of its history. Like the B&LE and AA cars,
this EJ&E fleet also had their drop ends welded shut with the
new brake housings bolted to the B-end. |
| Pittsburgh
& Lake Erie |
Norfolk
& Western |
Conrail
(version 2) |
|
|
|
|
| Pittsburgh
& Lake Erie took delivery of this batch of gons in 1946. P&LE
had been a subsidiary of New York Central for many years but following
the financial collapse of NYC successor Penn Central, P&LE,
which was still profitable, began to distance themselves from PC
including removing the “mating worms” PC logos. P&LE
would remain nominally independent until 1993 when they acquired
by CSX. This paint scheme represents this period of independence. |
When Norfolk
& Western acquired the Nickel Plate Road through merger in 1964,
a considerable fleet of mill gondolas came with them. N&W had
already adopted the “Hamburger” N&W logo and began
applying them to the NKP gon fleet as they came due for repainting
and renumbering. During this period, only gondolas received this
wonky version of the NORFOLK AND WESTERN billboard lettering (note
the strange R’s, K and S.) This group of gons had fixed Carbuilders
ends with Ajax brake housings and IP80 brakewheels. |
This second
version of Conrail cars follows later painting standards. The placement
of the road number and dimensional data is different. An updated
(in 1983) version of the consolidated stencil has been applied and
the Conrail logo is larger and has the CONRAIL above the logo. The
trucks are now black and this group uses PS style fixed ends to
replace the original drop ends. |
| THE
ROCK |
Pere
Marquette |
Chicago
& Eastern Illinois |
|
|
|
|
| This group
of gons lettered for THE ROCK was originally built in 1957 by Pullman
Standard. The cars were rebuilt in 1978 retaining their dented sides
but with the original drop ends replaced with fixed PS style ends.
The old lever action brakes were also replaced with new Ajax brake
housings and wheels. |
Pere Marquette
took delivery of this batch of gondolas from Greenville in 1944.
PM served the Chicago-Detroit-Buffalo corridor and the heavy industry
therein and later became the Pere Marquette District of the Chesapeake
& Ohio. These gons were equipped with Dreadnaught style drop
ends and lever action handbrakes. |
Chicago &
Eastern Illinois received this group of gondolas from Thrall in
1966. Props to C&EI for applying a “billboard” paint
scheme to these fixed end mill gons. It also illustrates C&EI’s
comical disregard for AAR size standards for reporting marks and
road numbers. Like the C&EI itself, this fleet was later divided
between MP subsidiary C&EI and Louisville & Nashville. |
| Frisco
(SL-SF) |
Western
Pacific |
Chesapeake
& Ohio (stripes) |
|
|
|
|
| Frisco received
this batch of gons from Pullman Standard in 1953 in this boxcar
red scheme. They had PS style drop ends and lever action brakes,
With Birmingham (the Pittsburgh of The South) on the Frisco system
map, steel and related commodities were important sources of traffic.
Many of these cars served well past the merger with Burlington Northern. |
Western Pacific
greatly increased their steel business during the Second World War
when large steel mills opened on the east end of the railroad in
Utah. This particular batch of mill gons was built by Greenville
in 1949 equipped with Dreadnaught drop ends and Ajax 3059 side mounted
brakewheels. About 50 of these cars were still in revenue service
at the time of the merger with Union Pacific. |
Chesapeake
& Ohio obtained this group of mill gons when they acquired Pere
Marquette in 1947. After a decade of C&O service, they began
to receive this paint scheme with its distinctive stripes. The car’s
Dreadnaught drop ends were retained along with their lever style
hand brakes. |
| New
York Central |
Wabash |
Birmingham
Southern |
|
|
|
|
| Although New
York Central would build thousands of these mill gons in their own
shops, this particular batch was built by Greenville in 1949. They
used the Dreadnaught style drop ends and lever action brakes. This
batch was also equipped with nailable steel floors (instructions
for use are seen to the right of the road number.) |
Wabash built
this group of mill gondolas in their own Decatur Shops in 1954 using
Dreadnaught drop ends and lever action handbrakes. The last of these
cars still wearing this paint scheme was retired by Wabash successor
Norfolk Southern at the end of 1990. |
For most of
its history, Birmingham Southern was owned by United States Steel.
It served as a terminal and switching line in the steel producing
region around Birmingham, Alabama so a substantial fleet of mill
gons (fixed end in this case) was a given. BS was acquired by the
Watco shortline group in 2011 and the name was changed to Birmingham
Terminal. |
|
|
Buffalo
& Pittsburgh |
|
|
| Buffalo &
Pittsburgh was launched in 1988 to link Buffalo with the greater
Pittsburgh area plus branches totaling 729 miles (a bit bigger than
Jersey Central in their day.) BPRR picked up these fixed end gons
on the second hand market. Note the first two road numbers have
a black patch under the road number while on the third road number,
it’s brown. |
| Bessemer
& Lake Erie |
|
|
| These Bessemer
& Lake Erie mill gons also have had their drop ends welded closed
and a new Ajax hand brake housing bolted to the end. The demand
for drop end cars never approached the supply and welding them closed
reduced the number of mechanical failures that could take the car
out of service. |
| AOK
(Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad) |
|
|
| Although AOK
reporting marks are officially assigned to shortline Arkansas-Oklahoma
Railroad, they leased the reporting marks to Greenbrier Leasing
and their successors. This is done because there are differences
in how cars with railroad reporting marks and cars with private
owner reporting marks (which end in X) are billed for movement when
empty. These cars with fixed Dreadnaught ends are depicted as they
appear in the current conspicuity stripe era. |
| Ann
Arbor |
|
|
| Ann Arbor received
this group of gons in 1969 from parent DT&I. They had already
been reconditioned with the drop ends welded shut and a new Ajax
hand brake housing bolted to the end (replacing the lever style
brake.) The brake chain was routed through a hole cut in the top
of the end sill. |
