I had the chance to grab one of the old Amer. Standard Car compnay gondola kits. Its just ok...some parts missing. I was wondering if you could show some more pics of you Railgon?

How did you do for weight?

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Trickcooley:
I had the chance to grab one of the old Amer. Standard Car compnay gondola kits.
How did you do for weight?

Hi Tc, My Railgon is a Adirondack car and foundry/Ed Reutling version of the American Standard kit, Ed made an improved one piece floor and frame casting that includes an open center sill where I glued in a 1/4 inch diameter metal welding rod, 1/4 inch square lead would be better but I had the rod on hand.
My gon weighs 11 ounces with plastic weaver trucks and P48 wheels...dave

Yea...the earlier model I have leaves alot to be disired. I am going to have to add alot of my own items like stirups and grabs and brake wheel stuff. Was the prototype gon only manufactured for Railgon? Or do I have a few other options for road names on this thing?

I wonder if Ed could add his 2 cents....maybe he has some parts I could grab from him??

Thanks dave!

Hey guys,

Might as well make this my first post... I have one American standard Railgon car pretty much complete, as far as the weight goes I was just going to add a second dummy floor and secure the weight underneath that... the gon is deep enough where I dont think the second floor will matter much. On the first one, I used their detail pieces and fashioned the grabs from the included wire... but its hard to get them all the same size even using bending tools. I did add some PSC brake parts like chain, a fulcrum, brake lines and levers. I also used the PSC freight car bolsters instead of those nasty wood ones.... I am using the weaver die cast RB 36 in wheel trucks, they look good on this model, but no rotating caps.

I have another railgon kit I am starting and on that one I am going use pre fashion drop style grabs, basically everything else the same as the first one I am doing. I think the main downside to this model as is is that the included detail parts are weak...

I actually like this model as it is at least a modern gondola. Complete, it can look better than most other stuff out there, has a nice beefy look suited for heavy work. The only other 2 that are even usable is the Lionel PS5 and the Atlas... but both of them have wooden floors which doesn't work for me as I'm doing mill work... I'm going over the Atlas one with a styrene "veneer" to simulate a metal floor. The lionel PS5 model requires only a little bolster work out of the box, but again the floor is wood... which I'm either going to veneer or replace somehow... The only issue is you still have the wood detail on the bottom of the car, I dont know that there is an easy way to conceal that....

Trick, you CR gon turned out great... You and I are on the same wavelength for sure, I love beat up gons. I just wish I had some more time to work on my stuff... with twin 11 month olds it's kinda tough...

As far as other roadnames go, the original instructions only list the numbers, builder, class, and date of build.. not sure if you got the instructions with your model, but if you are interested I could probably scan and email or mail to you.

You see these kind of gons used in Mill Work... so I am just doing mine up as general in plant US Steel or Union Railroad (URR) gons... nothing too fancy.

Have a good one....

Mike

Hey Mike, can you post pics of your gon?

I think I am gonna bend all my grabs from brass (019" I think that would look good) I agree that our Gon options are few, but kitbashing these models will help a lot to make the Gon fleet look less "run of the mill" so to speak.
As far as I know, MTH doesnt have a decent gon, or do they?

I am just starting to get into more kitbashing and the like as I have a boy due in 3-4 weeks and I thought I'd get used to the fact that I will be home more LOL.
What are you modeling and what time frame?

Thanks for the post..nice to meet ya!

quote:

Originally posted by Trickcooley:
I am going to have to add alot of my own items like stirups and grabs and brake wheel stuff. Was the prototype gon only manufactured for Railgon? Or do I have a few other options for road names on this thing?

I wonder if Ed could add his 2 cents....maybe he has some parts I could grab from him??

Hi Tc, Ed's Railgon kits have the same sides,an easier to construct bottom, but still require the builder to make their own grab irons etc. Ed builds neat unique stuff for the experienced builder but it takes some work to finish them off. I bent my grab irons from brass wire, stirrups from brass strip, and added the tie down hooks on the car sides. Not too many details to worry about on these. The hardest part for me was masking the paint lines, I got a lot of bleed under and had to touch it up in many places, thank goodness for rust!
I don't know if any other roads other than Railgon used the same car. I got two of these SP painted versions already built at O scale west a few years ago, I thought they looked pretty cool so I weathered them a bit and kept them. I don't worry too much about prototype correctness, I just build what I like...dave