Manufacturer:
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
www.walthers.com
Era: 1975 to present
Road names: Single car and two 6-packs each: Burlington Northern, Cajun Electric, Consumers Power, Detroit Edison, Fayette Power Project, and Southern Ry. Undecorated single car also available.
Features: A ready-to-run model of a Pullman-Standard 4,000-cubic-foot-capacity coal gondola is the latest offering from Walthers. The model, part of the moderately priced Walthers Mainline, is cleverly designed. It has a one-piece plastic body that includes the center sill, crossties, crossbearers, and body bolster. A metal weight is sandwiched between the underframe and a detailed plastic floor insert. The interior braces are separate pieces.
The car features a separate brake wheel, reservoir, brake cylinder, and control valve and associated piping. The ladders and grab irons are molded.
The model’s details and lettering closely match prototype photos of the gondola that I found online. The car lacks interior rivet detail and Automatic Car Identification plates.
The distance between the truck centers and over the strikers matched drawings in the 1980 edition of Simmons-Boardman’s The Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia. The interior length and width are short, but this is typical on gondolas as plastic models are made of thicker materials.
At 3.9 ounces, the gondola is 0.35 ounce too light based on National Model Railroad Association recommended practice 20.1. The Proto-Max knuckle couplers are at the correct height, and the metal wheelsets (on plastic axles) are correctly gauged.
Though these cars aren’t commonly seen on unit coal trains anymore, some can still be found transporting old railroad ties and scrap metal.
