Gon Prototype Question

[ljudice]

Someone posted a photo here a few weeks ago of a gon that was a dead ringer for the LBF 65' smooth panel mill gon - I can't find it - despite much searching. Anyone know or remember was the deal was with this model?

[GaryHinshaw]

Do you mean this one?

http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,20099.msg183867.html#msg183867

I'm not sure if you meant a model or proto photo.  The model shown in this post is the LBF gon.

[cv_acr]

The prototype photo shown is not a match to the model though. Compare the side profile (slight fishbelly on the model, straight on the prototype), line of rivets along the floor line, jacking pads etc.

[ljudice]

Thanks! Yep that's the photo...  I also see the differences too....

Hmmm...  Anything else that's close and what is that prototype?   

[GaryHinshaw]

Don't know of anything else that is close, but this one passed my "close enough" test which is purely subjective and changes with time. 

[ljudice]

Close enough for me too!!!  Good catch - how many thousands of gons did you have to go through to find it!!! 

[GaryHinshaw]

[Warning: rambling philosophical post]

My approach with car purchases is this: given a decorated model with road number, I go search for that number series in the online proto-photo archives (this is where modeling modern pays off) and see if it's a decent match according to my threshold du jour.  If it's close enough (and the model is decent quality, and I have money) I buy it.  For this BNSF gon, it only took a few minutes.  

Another example was the Athearn CSX 52' gon.  In that case, the number series Athearn used did not match the proto car, but another proto number series did match pretty well, so I bought it, despite Athearn's poor research.  If I feel ambitious, I'll renumber it, but I'll probably just lower it, weather it and call it a day.

My threshold is higher for locos and intermodel.  Still waiting for those 4000-series BNSF Dash-9s...

[ljudice]

Very sensible approach - pretty much the same here...