ESM G26 65' Mill Gons - I likes!!!!!

[Mark5]

I posted this on the a-forum, but I figure a few ppl here probably don't go there anymore.

I bought one of the ESM PRR G26 Gons, and I likes!



They come in:

PRR (Circle Keystone 1930s - 1950s scheme)
PRR (Shadow Keystone mid 50s and later)
PC (1968 and later)
CONRAIL (1976+)

PRR dates sourced from here:

http://kc.pennsyrr.com/freightops/schemes.php

You can find nice color pix of all the schemes on the ESM site.

Other roads owned similar gons, N&W in particular.

PRR's G26, with a fleet of 1,600, these potentially could be seen anywhere from the east coast (northeast) to the mid west. This last point convinced me that I "needed" one!

Here's some more pix alongside Athearn's 65' mill gon:



These are very well detailed models - note the side detail and the rivets even on the inside of the gon (compare to Athearns). The only sparse detail is on the underside, but if you're like me you probably don't spend much time looking at the bottom of your freight cars. These come with body mounted MT couplers and MT "national" trucks (which are correct for these I think). They ride on MT low pros. MT lowpro flanges are a little smaller than I like, I may try the Atlas wheelsets (made for MT trucks) as they have slightly larger flanges. I suspect that MT pizza cutters would have clearance issues on these cars as they ride at a much more prototypical level than most gons that have been offered.



Interestingly the Athearn gon is much narrower.



Anyway, I always thought these were cool gons, and it's great that in recent years N scale finally got some (first from Athearn, now ESM)

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I've seen these, and I have two on order from the Conrail Shoppe, the only complaint I have is that they only did one number per road.

[bbussey]

Ed,

Not too many of the G26 (no suffix) survived to CR and were repainted CR ... but we'll make more if the demand is there.    Only one new roadname is in the second release, which we would have done with this batch if I had known about it.  It will be out before Christmas.  The official announcement is tomorrow ... but it's initials are ... L ... V ...  

bb

[ljudice]

Brian - the Airslides you did several years ago are some of my favorite models - any chance you would do some more of them at some point.

It's sad that that tooling seems to be just sitting with Bowser and underused...

Lou

[pfs]

Perhaps a run of undec and then the PC/CR hounds can make any road number they prefer.

?

[Frank Amato]

It will be out before Christmas.  The official announcement is tomorrow ... but it's initials are ... L ... V ...  

Oh you tease!  Bring it on.

  Frank

[bbussey]

Brian - the Airslides you did several years ago are some of my favorite models - any chance you would do some more of them at some point.

It's sad that that tooling seems to be just sitting with Bowser and underused...

It is sad that Bowser is not using the model.  But ESM is committed to moving forward with it's own injection-molded models, so it's unlikely at this point that we would revisit offering limited run items utilizing other manufacturers' plastic unfortunately.  Ironically, the four 50' airslides we released did only so-so as a group.  After all these years, we still have stock of the Amaizo and Cargill.  The ADM sold out, and the blue GATX was a very short run so there was no doubt it would sell out.

Conversely, the five releases on the 40' Atlas model did very well - which is odd since the DVFC model had finer relief and was the better model.

[bbussey]

Perhaps a run of undec and then the PC/CR hounds can make any road number they prefer.

Can't sell enough undecs to justify a run, unfortunately.  The next G26 release should please some folks ... and we will reissue any of the first four schemes with new road numbers if the demand is there.  I hope there will be, as there are additional variations on the CK in particular that I would like to do regarding the trucks.

[bbussey]

Oh you tease!  Bring it on.

Only a few hours away. 

[bobcat]

I got a Conrail in my last Chuckpak and liked it so much, I ordered the PC. ;D

[lock4244]

I picked up a CR gon and was quite pleased with it and know it'll look at home on CPBU/BUCP. If they run PC again or if I find one locally I'll grab one... figuring a few PC must have made it to the late 1980's.

[wcfn100]

Oh you tease!  Bring it on.

Only a few hours away. 

Good on ya' for a new prototype. Doesn't appear I will need any (I need to sell or strip my four State of Maine cars as it is).  Is there a roadname list for the isulated box?


Jason

[bbussey]

Good on ya' for a new prototype. Doesn't appear I will need any (I need to sell or strip my four State of Maine cars as it is).  Is there a roadname list for the isulated box?

Ah, you can always use at least one! 

BAR, NH, PC, CR.  At least eight schemes on the BAR over three+ decades, including at least four SoM schemes.  Two NH schemes.  The standard PC scheme but with numerous lettering placement variations.  CR is deepwater-green ex-PC restencils, haven't turned up any evidence that the cars were fully repainted into CR-brown.  Body variations are with or without roofwalk, and with or without charcoal heater.  Ladders never were lowered regardless of roofwalk status.  It's around the height of the Atlas ARA 1932 boxcar and the USRA Rebuilts, so it doesn't look oversized the way the MTL and Atlas 40 plug door foobie SoM cars do.  First time this prototype is replicated in plastic, in any scale.  It's a "must" car in the SoM scheme for the northeast quadrant of the U.S. in the 1950s-1970s, and at home anywhere else. As with the G26, the XIH traveled over the entire continent and was one of the first colorfully-painted boxcars.  There will be at least one BAR SoM version for each time period: early 1950s, late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

I just found out the the G26 is one of the product reviews in the current issue of MR. 

[wcfn100]

Good on ya' for a new prototype. Doesn't appear I will need any (I need to sell or strip my four State of Maine cars as it is).  Is there a roadname list for the isulated box?

Ah, you can always use at least one! 

Ah, sadly with over 6000 car movements logged, the only BAR cars were 50' paper cars and the only NH cars were generic 40' boxes.

It might be the time of year that I'm reasearching though, I'll have to keep looking.



Jason

[bbussey]

Ah, sadly with over 6000 car movements logged, the only BAR cars were 50' paper cars and the only NH cars were generic 40' boxes.

It might be the time of year that I'm reasearching though, I'll have to keep looking.

Could be.  They moved potatoes in the winter and paper products in the summer through most of their service lives, and flour in the later years, if that helps.  If you're post early-1960s, that would explain the 50' cars in paper service being dominant.