At the rail camp I hold every summer at the local railroad museum, I made up some "Flash Cards" with photos of different rail cars. To break up the modeling projects I hold them up one at a time and see which kids can identify them. Coiled steel cars are always a mystery, for some reason they don't recall ever seeing them. This year we had just finished discussing what they were when the kids heard a train blowing for the 3rd Street crossing. As is tradition, they drop everything and head trackside to watch the train. As luck would have it, there was a whole string of them.
Love this, very well done and now I can't wait for my passenger cars to arrive in the mail so I can start kitbashing. Sent from the magical mystery box
Right now there are no ladies in the Longview Kelso & Rainier MRRC but we have had in the past. Most moved away when their husband's job required a move out of town.
As a side note- We had a gal here as a forum moderator for many years. Well liked and good fun. Unfortunately Barb had some health issues and stepped away.
Colonel - Nice comeback! Built this caboose over the weekend. Started with a microtrains wooden cab and cut in the side doors and rewoked some details, paint and dry transfers, weathering and voila!
I do not know of any other Rock Island cars painted green, the Rock Island had at least a few hundred of these boxcars as I have found pictures in the 27000 and 28000 number series. By the way do none of you model the auto parts industry, coil steel cars were endemic, I can run a train of 20 coil cars, mostly DT&I but with a few others thrown in. Rick J
Coiled steel cars started to show up in the 1960s. The PRR G40 and G41 class cars were built in 1964-65. I model primarily transition (steam/diesel) so I can't use them.
I am about mid-60's, not later than early 1968. I don't remember seeing many of them, until after then.
Your correct, the PRR Coil Cars were the earliest of the Coil Cars, with the Evans car not far behind. Before that Coils were shipped in Gons with either covers or tarps to protect the coils from the elements. Until the coil cars, the railroads had lost the shipment of coil steel to trucks, who could deliver it more quickly and in better condition than the railroads. The dedicated coil cars were a development to gain back that traffic for the railroads. Hot Coils were shipped in gons and dedicated coil cars without covers as the steel did not need the protection from the elements and were not used in where precise shapes and tolerances were required like rails and reinforcing steel. Rick J
