Good load for my new MILW gon

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I don't think most of you guys are getting what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking for theoretical "what could a gon carry" type loads, I'm looking for "what did this series of gon carry".

All these pictures of them with hoods, well, I wish I had seen those before I got the thing! I probably would've chosen something else...

[Missaberoad]

Leave the cover off and coil steel...

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/milw/milw92191ase.jpg

pic is another series of MILW Thrall gon, Very common load in the Soo/CP era 1985+

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Leave the cover off and coil steel...

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/milw/milw92191ase.jpg

pic is another series of MILW Thrall gon, Very common load in the Soo/CP era 1985+

I dig it. I've got just the coils for it floating around.

[nkalanaga]

OldEastRR:  Not old ties.  They left them in place.  For years after the Pacific Extension was abandoned one could see piles of old ties, where people had scavenged and were selling them.  In many places, they even left the remains of the overhead.  When the electrics were retired, they salvaged the copper trolley wire, but the galvanized steel messenger wire and hangers were left on the poles.  After abandonment, many of the poles were cut for firewood, as most were never creosoted.

Between Martinsdale and Ringling there was at least one pair of block signals still standing in 2011, along the highway, with no sign anyone had tried to take them.

[cjm413]

Here's the cover I tried to make.



It's still on my list of thing to do, just not very high right now.

Jason

If not MTL, would the Exactrail overhanging diagonal panel roof work as a better starting point for a partially scratchbuilt cover?

https://exactrail.com/products/details-n-roof-diagonal-overhanging-n-scale

[wcfn100]

Exactrail overhanging diagonal panel roof as starting point?

2 actually because the gons are longer.  I bought a couple extra roofs right after I wasn't satisfied with the above effort.

Ultimately, I believe my main issue was the oversized lip of the cover.  It really makes it look toy like.  The two solutions I can up with were to either sand down the top lip of the gondola or make the lip part of the cover (by painting it the same) and make something that just sets in gondola.

I'm very much open to getting this going again if people are interested.

Jason

[transitionalman]

Crushed brown glass going back to the breweries to be made into more beer bottles?

[Blazeman]

Crushed brown glass going back to the breweries to be made into more beer bottles?

Would be in covered hoppers, shipped as "cullet."

Gondolas were/are free runners, that is, not required to be routed back to home road.

[Dave Schneider]

Would be in covered hoppers, shipped as "cullet."

The cullet from the Schlitz brewery in Milwaukee was shipped in two bay open hoppers, typically from the series rebuilt from offset side cars. Like this one below.
Just an FYI factoid.
Best wishes, Dave

 

[soo]

Ed,
     Could be parts for large mining shovels or drag lines. Bucyrus Erie had a manufacturing plant in south Milwaukee. Now current day it is a Caterpillar plant because cat bought B.E.
     The gon could be bringing new or replacement parts.
     For you east coast dudes...Mikwaukee is just not known for beer.
C-ya,
Wyatt

[Cajonpassfan]

The cullet from the Schlitz brewery in Milwaukee was shipped in two bay open hoppers, typically from the series rebuilt from offset side cars. Like this one below.
Just an FYI factoid.
Best wishes, Dave

Nice weathering job
Otto K.

[Cajonpassfan]

Didn't specialty cars, like this gon, generally go out off the home road rails loaded with whatever they were designed for, say steel coils, I beams, or specialty castings, and  come back to the home road empty, or preferably with whatever load could be found to be shipped in the home road direction, like scrap metal for the furnaces for instance. At least that's the way I run my railroad...
Otto K.

[nkalanaga]

If the car has coil cradles it probably went back empty, to avoid damaging the cradles.  Many such cars were stenciled for "Coil Loading Only".  If the cradles have been removed, it was probably a free-runner, as Blazeman said.  Assigned cars should have instructions, of some kind, stenciled on them, either loading or routing, or sometimes both.

[jmarley76]

Here's this gon in the same series as your car, still cruising the rails with it's funky cover in 2012: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3098246

[Philip H]

Here's this gon in the same series as your car, still cruising the rails with it's funky cover in 2012: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3098246

looks like you can't go wrong with steel service of some kind