O UP Gondola w/Crates

On its customer Web site, the Union Pacific Railroad
characterizes a gondola as an “extremely sturdy open design” for
carrying “rugged unfinished commodities”; its “large flat interior
design with side walls” is described as “more flexible than a flat
car.” These qualities make the modern gondola particularly popular with
the steel industry, for transportation of loose materials like scrap
metal, waste, coke, and slag as well as finished products like iron or
steel plate, pipe, structural steel, and rails for railroad track.
Other commodities commonly shipped in these versatile cars include
mineral ores, granite slabs, gravel, logs, lumber, railroad ties, large
crates, and even prefabricated railroad track, also known as “panel
track.”

The name for these cars actually predates railroads. In the
early 1800s, utilitarian flat-bottomed boats with low sides, used to
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 same
moniker. As more specialized cars were invented for coal service, the
gondola evolved into the general-purpose car it is today.

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