FVM Southern Aluminum Coal Gons hitting the shelves...

[sizemore]

I know I as well as a few others were interested in seeing these released. I had one from either Model Power or Tyco in HO when I was a kid.

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-Gondola-Cars-s/1479.htm

The stock appears to be low, but I can only estimate more will get posted eventually.

As always not affiliated, just reporting they are out in the wild.

The S.

[Mark5]

Good news for SOUTHERN modelers.  I wonder if these unit trains ran on any rails other than SOUTHERN (I never saw these on the N&W's Pokey)

[reinhardtjh]

They showed up at BLW on the update for the 27th.  http://www.blwnscale.com/fvm-hopper-silverside.htm

One of the six packs is sold out already.  I hope they sell, but it wasn't something I was interested in.

[Specter3]

What are the build dates or service dates on these?

[Missaberoad]

What are the build dates or service dates on these?

Built 1959/60, Lasted until early 2000's on NS...

[Specter3]

But the manufacturers will give them rebuilt or serviced dates that often differ from the original built date.

[Missaberoad]

True... the Paintscheme Matt is doing is the original scheme, I guess we need someone to get one to know the service date...

[bbussey]

Build date and service date are January 1960.

[Specter3]

Thanks Bryan!

[C855B]

Good news for SOUTHERN modelers.  I wonder if these unit trains ran on any rails other than SOUTHERN (I never saw these on the N&W's Pokey)

+1 - I daresay they did not venture off of home rails, at least not very far off if they did.

However, where were the mines where these would have been loaded? Other than the Rathole, I'm hard-pressed to think of where the original SOU served Appalachian coal country - that was C&O, L&N and N&W, mostly. I know of one now-closed mine here in southern Illinois exclusively on the old Southern, but it was a very small mine and unlikely to generate unit-train level traffic. I could use some memory jogs, evidently.

[Specter3]

Coal comes off the Interstate lines that Southern owned.

[High Hood]

SOU coal came mostly from the KY-VA-TN area.  Southern's Appalchia District produced coal and later the Interstate added even more to the VA tonnage output.  Southern served Middlesboro, Kentucky alongside L&N and the Clairfield Branch in Tennesee and Kentucky, also with L&N.  SOU had several other coal branches in TN as well. 

[NS-CRE]

Two of the trains that always had these cars were the Southern (and later NS) unit trains to Belmont, NC, and Catawba, NC.  These trains originated at the Westmoreland Coal transloader in Appalachia, VA, on the former Interstate.  The Interstate became part of NS's Pocahontas Division.

I have 1994 documentation from the chief dispatcher's office in Bluefield showing the following trains running regularly with Silversides:

720 loaded/721 empty - 96 Silversides for Belmont, NC (Duke Power)
722 loaded/723 empty - 96 Silversides for Catawba, NC (Duke Power)

After the transloader closed at Appalachia in the mid to late 1990's, many Belmont trains originated in the Williamson area.  They would often be routed to the Dry Fork at Iaeger, WV, and then on to Bulls Gap and Asheville.  Other Belmont trains went all the way to Roanoke, then to the Southern main at Altavista (Hurt) and south.  This is still true today, although the Asheville to Belmont routing is via the S-Line (Old Fort loops route) since the line over Saluda was closed in 2001.

Another train set on the Pokey, 762 loaded/763 empty was operating to Hyco or Mayo, NC, in 1994 with 100 Silversides.  These trains loaded at Marrowbone, WV, and would have traveled from Naugatuck, WV, through Williamson and Bluefield on the Pokey and on to Roanoke, Altavista, and to the former N&W Durham (NC) District.





   

[Mark5]

Thanks for a very informative post, interesting that these ran on the pokey some 20 years after I was around there.

[VonRyan]

I'll probably try and snag one from my preferred train-show pusher for nostalgia sake. I had 3 of the crude gons from whatever manufacture in this scheme when I was a kid, it would be nice to have a prototypical model of one.