panel side gondolas

[roccotolmer97]

dear sir:

I am interested in information for the panel side gondolas 22000-22699
and 22700-23699. At present I am following the Prototype profile No. 4 By
Ted Culotta. My question comes in as to the layout of the floor panels.
some had eight and some had ten panels. I need to know how they were
placed. Teds instructions seem not quite correct. Is there anyone that
can help me?

Thanks

Mark

[Jerry Michels]

Mark, are you building a model? Sunshine or F&C? I believe there was an interior shot of the panel-side gondola in a past issue of the Eagle, but the exact issue escapes me.

Jerry Michels

[Charles Duckworth]

Here’s a list of articles on modeling the MP. Surely the panel gons are here.
http://mopac.org/modeling/67-list-of-mp-buildings-in-ho-scale

[anonymous]

RMC 5-53. That’s a right small while back.

[David Boeschen]

You want the fall 2009 issue. It has coverage of all the steel gondolas built from the first ones in 1912 until the 1962 renumbering.

As I recall this issue has good coverage of the panel side cars, but I’m not sure if there photos of the inside of these cars. I know there’s an inside shot of one of the 52’6″ gons showing the welded steel plates, which are correct in the Sunshine model.

As for the panel side cars, I’ve built some Sunshine and some F&C. I’m not entirely sure which is which, but one type of model has thicker top chord than the other, but a detailed riveted floor with raised plate over the center sill and bolsters. The other one has a more prototypical thinner top chord and no, I mean zero, interior detail.

RG7

[David Boeschen]

Now some more detailed information from the July 2009 Eagle.

First, the article begins in 1912 with the first steel frame (composite) gons, not the first all-steel ones. The honor of first all-steel is somewhat complicated, since the series of steel gondola cars that ended up on the MP was built in 1914 for I&GN, more than ten years before it became part of the Texas Lines. The first all-steel cars actually built for the MP proper were these panel-side gons, beginning in 1937.

This article actually does not shed any light on the original question, since there is neither any discussion nor an interior photo of one of these cars. However, there are quite a few good photos, many of them MP shop photos (“builder’s photos”), of their exteriors. I don’t know if this issue is still available from the MPHS company store, but if you’re going to build more MoPac gondolas, I’d recommend it.

RG7

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