Walthers Penn Central Gondola #525702 Review & Repair

Greetings All,

On a July 2021 visit to my Local Hobby Shop I spotted a Walthers Trainline Penn Central gondola #525702 on sale. I knew if I left the store without it I would only comeback for it the next day so I bought it then and there.

According to the book Penn Central Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by James Kinkaid Penn Central gondola #525702 was part of the ex PRR G36M class of gondolas numbered #525561-525749. The G36M class involved numerous subclasses. I was not able to confirm any other information on the 525702.

Here is the model ready for unboxing. Looking at the right side that drooping coupler will need repair before placing the car in service.

Here is the car on the layout right out of the box.

The "W" in the circle in the center of the car indicates the car has a wooden floor. GB is the AAR classification for gondola and the P-62 12-74 indicates the car was painted at the PC Holidaysburg Shops in December 1974.

The gondola gets the coupler heights tested and fails. The coupler box is oversized and allows a tremendous amount of vertical play that I call coupler slop.

Here is an open coupler box, The area at the rear of the box behind the bolster is recessed. So when you tighten the coupler lid screw it forces the coupler into the recess and makes the front end sag and allows the coupler to freely move up and down.

The fix for this was to place the Kadee phosphor spring first, then a Kadee #5 coupler and then a Kadee #206 red fiber washer on top of that to fill the coupler box. Below we see the Kadee coupler is at the right height.

An ACI label has been added and the trucks and wheel faces have been painted flat black.

The 525702 makes a test run on the layout. The car passes and is  ready for interchange service.

The 525702 is loaded with a pair of Chooch Wire Reels that add some weight to the car. The car is ready for pick up and forwarding to the LIRR for delivery to the Long Island Lighting Co. 

Below the 525702 has returned to Terminal Yard with a load of scrap steel and is now lightly weathered from being in revenue service. 

This is very nice looking model and aside from the coupler issues mentioned above I'm happy to have it in my fleet. The trucks are very free rolling and the car, numbered into a prototypical class with many sub classes, may actually be prototypical. 

Here is a photo of PC G36M gondola #525525 holding the Juniata River RR Bridge in place during Hurricane Agnes in 1962

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!