New Batch of Dented Gons from Bluford.

[basementcalling]

That AOK looks AOK.

Best road choice for the western modelers from this batch of road names.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

All those dents from coal? Gons get dented from metal at scrap yards.

Regardless of how it happens or in spite of my ignorance of how, coal hoppers have gotten pretty dented up/banged up/tore up over the decades since their invention.  Open cars in general all have "kick me" pinned on their backs.

[robertjohndavis]

All those dents from coal? Gons get dented from metal at scrap yards.

Indeed, from coal. Note I said “lightly.” 

Some candidates from dear old CR:




Wavy gravy RDG repaint.

[Mark5]

The P&WV gons are from the road numbers 7300-7399. My 1/1/1969 N&W roster shows 98 of the 100 still in service (as 187300-187399, N&W class G70). I am trying to rationalize one in PWV paint for 1975  , but not a lot of photos of these online.

The only one I've found so far is this one of 7346 from June 1970: https://www.boxcars.us/Boxcars_M_Z/P/pages/image040.html

Here is a nice builders photo of P&WV 7353: https://www.pullman-museum.org/pshs/pshsFullRecord.php?collection=pshs&pointer=15908

In N&W paint, the only photo I have found of this class in NW 187359 from 1990: https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=123651

Mark

[Bluford Craig]

In N&W paint, the only photo I have found of this class in NW 187359 from 1990: https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=123651

Mark

Good find Mark. I want to do this NW scheme as well. Regarding the dented hoppers, we have looked into this. The CR 8-Panel photo that was shared is one of the more extreme cases I've seen. The Conrail offset side hopper is more common but the magnitude of the dents is so slight, they would just disappear in N. In either case, it would require much more complicated tooling than the gondola needs due to the slope sheets and end braces.

Craig
Bluford Shops

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Jeff nailed it. We did do the 2-box con-stencils on the first run of Conrail gons and we will revisit that era again down the road. Also thanks to Jeff for providing photos of the B&LE cars.
Craig
Bluford Shops

Oh, I never doubted the accuracy of the scheme for a moment!

In fact, I use your site heavily to fact check my own understanding of such things.
(One of the most accessed pages on my phone: https://www.bluford-shops.com/bluford_93_025.htm)

It's just that those four box stencils are the bane of my existence. Since they were only used for a year of repaints (and sadly, a couple years after my current modeling years), they're very rare compared to the two and three boxes. I want to grab all six cars, but realistically, I'd only expect to see one in my car mix.

I mean, I'm probably just gonna grab em all and slap some new stencils over them anyway because the cars are so sexy, but I figured I'd take my shot at saving myself some time.

[Bluford Craig]

Oh, I never doubted the accuracy of the scheme for a moment!

In fact, I use your site heavily to fact check my own understanding of such things.
(One of the most accessed pages on my phone: https://www.bluford-shops.com/bluford_93_025.htm)

It's just that those four box stencils are the bane of my existence. Since they were only used for a year of repaints (and sadly, a couple years after my current modeling years), they're very rare compared to the two and three boxes. I want to grab all six cars, but realistically, I'd only expect to see one in my car mix.

I mean, I'm probably just gonna grab em all and slap some new stencils over them anyway because the cars are so sexy, but I figured I'd take my shot at saving myself some time.

Fair enough Ed. I suspect CR was laying out the road numbers and data as seen in this run prior to the adoption of the new con-stencil but I couldn't prove it. By the way, I do the same thing you do, placing 2-box con-stencils over the top of the later ones to backdate cars since I model 1978.
Craig
Bluford Shops

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Fair enough Ed. I suspect CR was laying out the road numbers and data as seen in this run prior to the adoption of the new con-stencil but I couldn't prove it. By the way, I do the same thing you do, placing 2-box con-stencils over the top of the later ones to backdate cars since I model 1978.
Craig
Bluford Shops

Oh I'm almost certainly sure of it.

I'm glad I'm not alone in doing that. It's usually pretty easy, but the Trainworx gons tested me. lol.

Who's COTS decals do you use? I THINK my big stash is from CMR Products.

[Bluford Craig]

Oh I'm almost certainly sure of it.

I'm glad I'm not alone in doing that. It's usually pretty easy, but the Trainworx gons tested me. lol.

Who's COTS decals do you use? I THINK my big stash is from CMR Products.

I have an old supply of Micro-Scale Con-stencils.
Craig

[nkalanaga]

If you want the two-panel stencils, latter half of the 1970s, Highball Products makes a sheet of them.  60 plates, 30 cars, to a sheet.  There's only one style, the most common vertically stacked pair for boxcars etc.

If you want a set with almost any variation ever used, K4 Decals set K4-COTS-160-01 probably has it.  I've only used a few of them, because most of my cars could use the Highball/Microscale/Walthers decals.  Yes, I still have some of the Walthers sets from the 1970s - when the prototype stencils were new.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

If you want a set with almost any variation ever used, K4 Decals set K4-COTS-160-01 probably has it.  I've only used a few of them, because most of my cars could use the Highball/Microscale/Walthers decals.  Yes, I still have some of the Walthers sets from the 1970s - when the prototype stencils were new.

Cool. I think mine are the K4 ones. They're about 2/3 used up so I was curious what others were using. I'll probably grab another when they're dead.