Adding New Open Car Freight Loads

Greetings All,

A long time ago I read an article in a Model Railroader magazine where the author referred to the gondola as the "Rodney Dangerfield of freight cars" meaning they get no respect.

"Gondola, Reading" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is marked with CC0 1.0.

All these years later I still remember this (maybe because I'm a big Rodney fan) 

"“I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap.” – Rodney Dangerfield" by brightdrops is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 

One of my model railroading goals this year is to add freight car loads to my gondolas and flatcars to get them into my model railroad operations and get them some respect. To get the projects rolling I ordered several American Models Builder kits via a well known online retailer.

Laser Cut Wood Kits

To build the kits I used Aileen's Tacky Glue for the wood parts, CA for the cast resin parts and a new #11 hobby blade.

Electric Generators

The AMB-212 generator load is ready to be opened. 

The seven resin casted generators have been painted rattle can gray and are secured in the laser cut wood blocking. This load fits nicely on this 50' flatcar that I used for test purposes.

The load looks good and fits into the EBRR gondola.

The generators make for an interesting BN 50' bulkhead flat car load.

Nothing says wood like real wood!

AMB-201 is an extended lumber load designed for longer cars. I purchased three of these kits.

Building the kit was pretty straightforward. The base is to the left and the seven lumber pieces are glued together in a staggering manner as seen below. The stacked lumber look very good.

The lumber loads have been built to fit onto the NYC Model Power and EBRR Athearn gondolas. They are easily removable for running the cars empty or with other loads. 

The stakes are positioned on the lumber stack to fit into the Athearn flatcar pockets and hold the load securely in place.

The wood stakes needed a little sanding to fit easily into the Model Power flatcar pockets and make the loads easily removable

Four lumber stacks were used to make this lumber load for the 68' MDW bulkhead flatcar(more on these cars in a future post). The two extended loads will not fit onto a 50' bulkhead flat. The lumber loads have been moved to North Side Yard for delivery to Neal's Lumber and Hardware.

The Atlas metal based bulkhead flatcar pockets are not open and the bracing just enters the small depression to hold the load in place.

A Nice Pipe Load

AMB-209 is ready to be built. The kit includes all the parts necessary for the pipe and blocking. The pipe can be easily cut to length to fit a 40' or smaller car.

This was a pretty simple build that yielded very nice results. The pipe length is as delivered and has been painted with rattle can flat black and red primer.

Looks good to me in this P-2000 Drop End Mill Gondola.

A perfect fit for a 50' flatcar.

Large Wood Crate with Blocking

AMT-212 is another very nice laser cut wood kit. The build was pretty easy and resulted in a good looking load.

Fits nice and looks good on the 50' test flatcar.

The crate and blocking are a good looking gondola load.

The crate and blocking fit very nicely into this low side 40' gondola.

Crated Diesel Engines

AMB-221 contains the parts for two cast resin diesel engines and the laser cut wood crates and blocking.

After washing the diesel engine parts assembly has begun. If you built model cars, planes or ships this skill will come in handy here. There is much flash to deal with but it's easily removed. 

The diesel engines are painted rattle can yellow and are ready to be crated for shipment.

Here they are in their crates and partially loaded into a 40' gondola.

The crated diesels are at the Empire City Caterpillar loading dock ready to be shipped. Admittedly the yellow is a little light but it is what it is.

The crated engines get delivered to Hudson Coal.

Scrap Wheel Loads

While waiting for the above kits to arrive I was cleaning up under the layout and found a piece of basswood that I purchased for making scrap wheel loads, placed under the layout and eventually forgot about it. Call this model railroading synchronicity!

With all of the Delrin wheel sets I have changed out for metal wheelsets I have a couple of containers of them waiting for me to make into scrap wheel loads. 

Below the project is underway with the basswood painted rattle can black, the wheels separated from the axles and being glued onto the base.

The scrap wheels have been painted with rattle can red primer and are built to fit into an Athearn 50' gondola.

More scrap wheel loads are in the works with bases of various material cut to fit specific models.

 
Dunnage

There are plenty of leftover wood pieces for additional open car projects. What to build next?!!

Storage

I repurposed this box to store the loads when not in use. And have some space for more!

Increased Freight Car Utilization

A prime example are the lumber loads on the below flatcars. For a few years now they've been used sporadically as spacer cars or with a pipe load from time to time. The lumber now being carried has the option of going to any four on layout industries and can be sent off layout as well.

New Loads on the Move

The new loads are on the move representing some New England manufactured goods and lumber products along with some other open car loads.

Final Comments

I found the American Model Builders laser cut wood kits to be pretty easy to build following their directions. The wood and castings are of good quality and I recommend them. Check the link to see the products they offer.

The loads not only add visual interest to the freight cars and trains but have an added bonus of increasing my open car utilization as described above. This was a win win group of projects.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!