O Ghost Trap Gondola w/Flickering Ghosts #2024

On its customer Web site, the Union Pacific Railroadcharacterizes a gondola as an “extremely sturdy opendesign” for carrying “rugged unfinishedcommodities”; its “large flat interior design withside walls” is described as “more flexible than aflat car.” These qualities make the modern gondolaparticularly popular with the steel industry, for transportation ofloose materials like scrap metal, waste, coke, and slag as well asfinished products like iron or steel plate, pipe, structural steel, andrails for railroad track. Other commodities commonly shipped in theseversatile cars include mineral ores, granite slabs, gravel, logs,lumber, railroad ties, and even prefabricated railroad track, alsoknown as “panel track.”

Until the advent of specialized coil cars in the 1960s, another popularload for gondolas was coiled sheet metal, usually steel, on its wayfrom mills to manufacturers of stamped metal items from car parts toappliances. As depicted on this model, specialized covers —similar to the covers later used on dedicated coil cars —protected the raw metal from the elements during transit. Brackets onthe covers provided a lifting point for an overhead crane and alsoallowed the covers to be stacked on top of each other when not in use.

The name “gondola” actually predates railroads. Inthe early 1800s, utilitarian flat-bottomed boats with low sides, usedto transport coal down the Potomac River to the Washington D.C. area,were called gondolas as a spoof on the much fancier Venetian gondolas.Similarly shaped coal-carrying cars on early railroads earned the samemoniker. As more specialized cars were invented for coal service, thegondola evolved into the general-purpose car it is today.

High quality, traditionally sized RailKing Freight Cars providedetailed bodies and colorful paint schemes for the O Gauge railroader.MTH makes an enormous variety of RailKing Freight Cars, including manydifferent car types and roadnames. No matter what era or part of thecountry you are modeling, RailKing is sure to have something for you.