Pennsylvania Railroad G28 Gondola in HO

 

I recently completed the pilot model for my latest kit, the Pennsylvania Railroad G28 gondola (prototype details can be found via this link.) I am biased, but I think it is one of my finest yet.

Plate C produced some exceptional 70-ton National Malleable Type B trucks to match the prototype's.

I finished it to represent a one year old repaint circa 1952, so the weathering was minimal. I added sparing amounts of Tamiya Brown Panel Line Accent Color at all of the structural members on the side. It is hard to capture photographically, but the effect is convincing. I am especially happy with the Universal lever-type hand brake, the underframe and brake arrangement, and the board-by-board floor inside the car. I did mess up one thing: I installed the drop end doors reversed (the outside should be inside) and don't have the heart to tear things apart, so cut me a little slack on that.

 

The chalkmark decals are from National Scale Car, set D135.

Coming over the horizon, metaphorically

 

If you market just about anything these days, you are only as good or relevant as your last offering. With the Milwaukee car in production, I have been transitioning to the next car to be released, the PRR G28 mill gondola*. Now that I am casting parts, too, that is a natural part of the thought and design process as well as a source of potential angst! This car is one where I was worried about how I would be able to cast the body. The person who cast most of my kits in the past did not view it as a huge obstacle. However, given that the sides and floor are 0.020" thick, getting resin to flow through that thin a profile over a fifty+ foot car body made me nervous. Turns out, it is actually proving to be far easier to cast than the Milwaukee auto car bodies have been. Thus far, I have cast several bodies, with little in the way of issues. I can also report that they look really good, too. I am very excited to build up the pilot model for this one. It should be a lot easier than the previous few builds, but be no less attractive a model when finished. Coming soon!

*the G28 was a 52'6" drop end mill gondola, similar in concept (but not design!) to the other prevalent mill gons of the era, including the Erie/Greenville design (think Proto 2000,) the LV/Bethlehem design (Tangent Scale Models) plus the Pennsy's "other" one, the G27 class. The G28 class was 1,900 cars built in 1940-1941 (car nos. 342600-344499.) It had a trait common to many PRR-design gons, with side structural members of two different sizes, with some being markedly "beefier" than the others. It also featured a welded underframe with some unusual crossties, making it an extremely cool modeling opportunity (for those of us who care about underframes.) 

Some cars were equipped with racks for auto frame loading, like shown above and a small group also received roofs, making them covered gondolas. Jack Consoli covered the making of the these roofs in The Keystone Modeler issue 57.

We have also made a spectacular (we may be biased) replica of the Universal lever style power hand brake shown here, including an amazing etched lever that is as gorgeous as it is durable.

Where we are at...

 

I am typing this from an almost horizontal position. I was supposed to be arriving at Naperville today, but my balky back made other plans. So, I type this from home. It's been a couple months or so since I started things back up in earnest, including casting. As the "RPM season" sets in, I thought it a good time to share a little bit about what's coming over the next few months.

Some old Speedwitch stuff turned up: DT&I gondola, MEC ARA box car parts, NYC stock car roof and 50' combination rectangular and diagonal panel roof (some prototype details here.)

Parts sets have proven to be a good way to dip my toes in the casting pool. I mostly learned a few things about what shape of mold works best for me and how I like a few varieties of silicone. I am adding a couple wrinkles to the existing offerings. First, for the ATSF Bx-34 parts I have added the 1959-1970s scheme, illustrated in the photo at the top of the page. In addition, I have added Shadow Keystone decals covering 1950s+ schemes for the PRR X32A parts. 

This and the following three photos are of the R-40-25 parts

On the parts front, there are also a couple other offerings nearing release. The first is the PFE R-40-25. This set is intended for an undecorated Intermountain R-40-23 kit or any Amarillo/Intermountain PFE R-40-25 that is NOT the delivery scheme as the UP medallions on those cars are incorrect (I will share info on that when these parts are released.) The sets include correct resin ends and etched parts to correct/upgrade the underframe, side sill details, ladders, hatch cover supports, steps, etc. [there is a companion set for the R-40-26 that is in the works, as well; see undeframe photo below.] The other parts release is for the ITC 1937 AAR box cars with AC&F Carbuilder's ends and also includes resin details, etchings, and decals.

R-40-26 underframe floor casting... board-by-board!

Illinois Terminal AC&F Carbuilder's end for 1937 AAR box car (pre-production before changes)

Photo illustrating the extremely subtle ripples in the side sheathing of the PRR X43A

I am also charging ahead with some full kit offerings. The first is the Milwaukee 50' single sheathed auto cars that I teased awhile back. It will be released November 1st via the Speedwitch site (all decals, etchings, trucks, and other parts are already in house so they will ship immediately!) Another project is the Pullman-Standard-built Central of Georgia 10'0" inside height Emergency box car (PS if you have National Scale Car's set for the A&WP/WofA/Georgia, those decals will work on this model, as well.) If the CofGa offering proves popular, I will add Birmingham Southern, as well. I also have three PRR cars in the hopper: the G28, X43A and X45. The G28 is a project that I started years back. It will be a showstopper, with full underframe detail... and the underframe was a unique welded design with very interesting crossmembers so it bears full attention! The X43A was a 40', mostly postwar AAR design car, with welded sides. I have created patterns with extremely subtle waviness to the sides that I am extremely pleased with and they were unusual in the PRR universe in that they were delivered with black roofs. The last of these three is the X45, a proprietary PRR design for a 50' welded box car. I again added waviness to the sides and the Pennsy proprietary details, including the underframe, are really cool. 

The last of the full kits, but by no means least, and listed in its own paragraph, is a Western Pacific flat car built by AC&F in 1942 that is a fully 3D printed offering. It is spectacular. More details to follow on this gem...

A final tease... several years back I presented a clinic including details about scratchbuilding board-by-board patterns for single sheathed cars. I have been fruitlessly looking for those patterns for over a year. I thought they were lost in the past year's move. Well, a few weeks back, they were presented to me. Turns out I had sent them to someone along with a bunch of other stuff and they were returned! Here is the end for the car in question. IYKYK 

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

 

One of the things about being in any business is that even if you invest the time, sweat, resources, etc., there are no guarantees that any of that will bear fruit. Over 15 years ago, I made that investment in a project and created what I thought was a really solid set of patterns. Life intervened and things were pushed to the sidelines. I pulled out a box recently and was looking at the physical manifestation of my efforts (photos below). It still looks really good to my eye. However, while I dithered, the market did not. Funaro & Camerlengo released a kit of the PRR G28 I had worked so hard to create. I was scooped. I am still unsure what I will do, but I will likely have a helluva nice one-of-a-kind model and little else to show for my efforts. Time waits for no one. Get things done...