Arrowhead HO ARR-1229-1 Greenville Steel Car Company 2494 Gondola 'Railgon' Baltimore & Ohio 'Ex Railgon' B&O #350857 Lombard Hobbies Exclusive

Description

Please note picture is representative of the exact paint scheme, but may not be same road number. Always refer to product description for actual product details.

Arrowhead HO ARR-1229-1 Greenville Steel Car Company 2494 Gondola 'Railgon' Baltimore & Ohio 'Ex Railgon' B&O #350857 Lombard Hobbies Exclusive

These B&O Railgons cars are only available through Lombard Hobbies!

About the prototype:

Railgon, a Trailer Train subsidiary, was formed in 1979 in response to an industry-wide attrition of serviceable gondolas in the 1970s. Railroads would have access to the cars by entering into a pool agreement. By March of 1981, even before the last GONX cars were delivered, 135 railroads were in participation.

The Railgon/GONX gondola was built to a proprietary design of Trailer Trains research department. These cars were built by major car builders such as Thrall, Greenville, Pullman-Standard, Bethlehem and Berwick. Each builder tweaked the design enough to produce visually distinctive cars. In total, Railgon built 4,000 GONX cars which were delivered between July of 1980 and October of 1981.

In the 1980s, a recession hit and the demand for gondolas dropped. Railgon immediately began moving those cars into storage and as of March 1982, roughly ¾ of the fleet was stored. In 1984, the need to restructure Railgon’s financial obligations caused 2,000 car leases to be transferred to Chessie and Seaboard System. In 1986, Railgon transferred an additional 100 leases to Kansas City Southern, and in 1987, 589 leases were transferred to CNW and D&RGW. The result of storage and low utilization was that the yellow and black livery remained visible into the late 1980s. Stored GONX cars were dispersed among participating roads and other available locations in the mid-1980s.  In 1988, the economy improved and utilization rates surged pushing GONX cars back in use. Through the 1990s, over 1,300 GONX cars remained on the roster and generated sufficient revenue use to be seen throughout the United States.

Model Features:

• 199 parts overall parts per car on this unique hybrid brass and plastic car
• Comprehensive paint scheme fidelity - all data, Light Weight ‘LT WT’ and Load Limit ‘LD LMT’ is correct for all the cars on a per road number basis.
• 81 wire parts per car, including: grab irons, pull loops, tie downs, coupler cut bars, air reservoir plumbing, retaining valve lines, release valve rods, brake rod and brake lever hangers, and side post tie downs.
• 34 etched brass parts per car, including: side sheets, floor, end stiffener plates, retaining valve bracket, air reservoir brackets, ABD valve bracket, brake pulley brackets and pulley mounts, brake step and inferior and superior cross-member gussets.
• Brass side sheets on our gondola! Finally, deform and weather without the nonsense of wielding a soldering iron and melting plastic!
• Accurate, separately applied cross sections for I-beam and C-channel cross members
• Code 88 ‘Fine-Scale’ CNC machined metal wheelsets and metal axles.
• Brass formed mounting brackets for the Air Reservoir, ABD Valve, Brake Cylinder, and guide pulleys. These brackets dimensionally match the mounting brackets of the prototype, which are press-broke and cut from sheet steel. 
• Full top chord detail, including: Wine Drop Lok #1613 tie downs, and properly spaced and appropriately dimensioned fastener holes.
• 5-piece Klasing 1500 hand brake, with separate brake housing, mounting plate, brake wheel, release lever and chain.
• ‘Scale’ draft box and details, including: key, shank and full bolt detail. Accurately shaped and located air hose bracket, and outboard brake levers.
•  Kadee #156 Whisker Couplers

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