Price: $24.98
Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
5601 W. Florist Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53218
www.walthers.com
Road names: Great Northern; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Burlington Northern; Conrail; Southern Pacific; and Union Pacific
Era: Late 1960s to 1990s
Comments: Walthers is offering a ready-to-run version of the HO scale Thrall 53-foot corrugated-side gondola that it sold as a kit in the 1999 catalog. The prototype was built in the late 1960s, and a few battered specimens served into the 1990s and later in maintenance-of-way service.
Included with the model are a coil cradle and two removable bulkheads.
The car is smoothly painted, and all lettering is crisp, opaque, and legible, even where it crosses body panel corrugations.
The car’s major dimensions match a prototype diagram reproduced in The 1970 Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice (Simmons-Boardman).
A metal weight is sandwiched between the floor and underframe. The car weighs 2.5 ounces without the bulkheads or coil cradle, which is 2.25 ounces lighter than National Model Railroad Administration recommended practice 20.1 guidelines.
The underbody has molded simplified brake gear without piping or rods, though those could be added by the modeler using brass wire.
The blackened metal RP-25 contour wheels are in gauge. The knuckle couplers are at the proper height per the NMRA S-2.
The car had difficulty on the 19″ curves of our Eagle Mountain project railroad, with the inside of the wheels contacting the draft gear boxes. I’d recommend running this car on 21″ radius curves or broader.
Walthers’ Mainline 53-foot gondola is a fine choice for modelers looking to fill a specific niche in their fleet. A steel coil, pipe, or pole load would make it an interesting addition to an HO scale freight car fleet set in the 1960s on.
Is this a 100 ton car or a lighter car?
The data on the car says “LD LIMIT 201000”
Is this a 70 ton or 100 ton car?
My two cars will not track on 26″ radius curves. Not at all happy with the wheels.