Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Wordy Wednesday - Santa Fe Composite Gondola Ga-22 ATSF 175218

Col. Chet McCoid photo, San Diego, California, November 6, 1955, Bob's Photo
Like many Western roads, the Santa Fe had a large fleet of GS gondolas with drop doors that could haul loose aggregate materials as well as "standard" gondola loads. The Santa Fe had 11,000 Caswell gons built between 1906 and 1926 as well as 300 taller Caswell gons added in 1927. In 1929 and 1930, the Santa Fe added an additional 875 composite GS gons total in three classes. The GA-20 (nos. 170600-170849) and GA-26 (nos. 169000-169199) were 50' cars from Standard Steel, while the GA-22 class (nos. 175150-175574) was comprised of 40' cars from AC&F. They all used corrugated drop doors with Wine door locks.

 ATSF 175218, a GA-22, effectively illustrates the wear and tear that gons absorbed, especially composite ones. Note the damage to the wood as well as the dings in the steel on the sides.

 HO scale modelers were fortunate to have resin kits available for these cars from Sunshine Models. I have a model for a 50-footer that I will build and chronicle here in the near future.
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1 comment:

  1. Jack MullenApril 18, 2019 at 8:17 PM

    Ted, nice photo! Thanks for the post. I'm surprised you didn't comment on the wood blocking above the Wine door locks. It appears that they've nailed pieces of scrap lumber to the cars sides. They're set against each latch to prevent the latch from opening and releasing the door. Why I don't know. I've always thought the Wine locks were positive and pretty much foolproof.
    Jack Mullen

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