Monthly Archives: August 2010

PRR Class GLa Open Hopper

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PRR 166658 GLa

PRR 166658 GLa – George Losse collection

The Pennsylvania Railroad class GLa is a 50 ton twin open hopper car. Construction began in 1904 and continued through 1991. A total of 30,256 were built for the PRR or acquired from various coal companies that built the same design.

The April 1956 OER lists 21,840 GLa’s on the roster. Compare this to Reading’s 13015 total hopper cars, or Western Maryland’s 8006 total hopper cars and you begin to see the size of the PRR fleet of GLa’s.

The GLa was originally built with K brakes and later converted to AB. Very few GLa were updated with power brake wheels most cars retained their verticle brake staff. One exception would be the second hand cars acquired from Berwind-White, which had modern power hand brake hardware.

It’s interesting to note that the overall dimensions of the GLa are close to the USRA Standard 50-Ton Twin Hopper which was designed almost 15 years later. Inside Length is one inch shorter at 30′ 5″. Inside width 9′ 5 1/2″ is a half an inch wider then the USRA Twin. The GLa is 8″ shorter to the top of side cord at 10′ 0″ but the side height is only 5″ shorter as the bottom of the car side sits three inches lower than the USRA Twin. The GLa has a capacity only 197 cu. ft. less that the USRA Twin. These similiarities will work in our favor when it comes time to build a fleet of these cars.

BCWX 4026 GLa

BCWX 4026 GLa – George Losse collection

WMX 1404 GLa

WMX 1404 GLa – George Losse collection

References:
Keystone Article
PRR Steel Open Hopper Cars – John Teichmoeller
January 1952 Official Railway Equipment Register
September 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register
April 1956 Official Railway Equipment Register

Modeling Reading Company Cabooses – Plastic Options

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The three options – MTH, Weaver and Lionel

Three Ends – MTH, Weaver, Lionel

I’ve made a lot of posts about the locomotives on the front end of the train, at some point in time you have to think about the caboose at the other end.

One of the attractive things about modeling the Reading in O scale is that there are multiple options available for modeling Reading cabooses in both plastic and brass. We have been blessed with three plastic versions of the standard Reading NorthEastern Caboose. We have also had Brass versions built by Overland, Sunset, and International.

One thing that we should talk about first is that there is not really a Standard Reading North Eastern Caboose. There were a total of 285 Cabooses built from 1924-1948 in twelve different classes. Here is a chart of the different classes built and some of the detail differences.

Class Numbers Built Qty Length UF Draft Gear Trucks RB CW Sheathing Toolbox
NMd 90730-90739 1924 10 31′ 4″ RS Miner Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMe 90710-90719 1926 20 31′ 4″ RS Miner Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMf 90720-90729 1927 10 31′ 4″ RS Miner Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMg 90700-90709 1930 10 31′ 4″ RS Miner Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMg 92800-92809 1930 10 31′ 4″ RS Miner Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMh 92810-92829 1931-32 20 31′ 4″ CS Gould Taylor W W Steel Yes
NMj 92830-92854 1936 25 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Andrews Flush Integral Steel Yes
NMk 92855-92879 1937 25 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Taylor Flush Integral Steel No
NMl 92880-92929 1941 50 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Birdsboro Flush Flush Steel No
NMn 92930-92979 1942 50 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Birdsboro W Integral Wood No
NMo 94000-94049 1943 50 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Birdsboro Grating Grating Steel No
NMp 94050-94074 1948 25 32′ 8″ WS Duryea Taylor Grating Grating Steel No

Let’s look at the plastic options.

Weaver Northeastern Caboose

First and oldest of the plastic options is the Weaver Northeastern Caboose. It was originally released in the 1990’s and it shows it’s age. It has a wooden roofwalk which makes it correct for the early classes NMd, MNe, MNf, NMg and NMh. It also has the toolbox under the center of the caboose that these early caboose had.

Negatives:

  • They have molded on grab irons
  • Not that many different parts.
  • The factory supplied trucks are wrong for 1952, they should have Leaf Springs in the trucks instead of the freight trucks supplied by Weaver.
  • Factory Paint job is wrong Red/Black combination, it is a Red/Brown combination
  • Cross members on the underbody should tapper to flush with the car body at the edge.

Positives:

  • They can often be found very cheap at train shows and on eBay.
  • Dispite their age they are accurate models

MTH Northeastern Caboose

Next up is the MTH Northeastern Caboose. Of the three plastic models this is the only one with a true prototype problem. The windows on the side of the caboose are set too far apart.

Negatives:

  • Windows not correctly spaced.
  • The factory supplied trucks are three rail, no two rail version available.
  • Trucks are wrong for a car with a wooden roofwalk, should be Taylor Caboose trucks
  • Modern Roof vents for the lavatory inside date the model to a later version then my modeling period.
  • Tool box should be under the cars with the wooden roof walks.
  • Strange cyclops light on the end of the car.
  • Also has MTH type of end casting that fills in under the roof line of the car.

Positives:

  • Factory paint job is close Red/Brown combination. Trucks should be brown also.
  • Separately applied grab irons but they are a little heavy and should still be replaced.

Lionel Reading Northeastern Caboose

The Lionel Reading Northeastern Caboose #6-17682 is the most recent addition to the plastic options. It was first produced in 2007. As built, it is a model of the last two classes of cabooses NMo and NMp with a open grid roofwalk.

Negatives:

  • Most expensive of the three plastic options.
  • Oversized working smoke stack.
  • Marker Lights are attached to one end.
  • Only Three rail versions available from the factory.
  • Grab Irons are oversized and should be replaced.
  • No rivet detail on the roof.
  • Lettered for a NMj, detailed for a NMo or NMp.
  • The roofwalk has Lionel’s normal pins for holding down the roofwalk.

Positives:

  • Factory paint job is a good start point.
  • Great start point to build the modern classes of Reading Cabooses.
  • Captured the slope of the end of the roof line over the steps (if viewed from the side)

These detail photos show the lack of rivets on the roof. This can be corrected with Archer rivets.

Reading K1 Progress

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The trailing truck parts from CLW

I haven’t posted anything on the K1 project in a while. It has been sort of almost on hold.

I found the above parts for the trailing trucks. But it wasn’t a complete truck, and I wasn’t sure who made it. I sent emails out to a number of folks asking if they knew who made the parts and if anybody had any more.

Joe Foehrkolb identified the parts as Central Locomotive Works’ parts. After a couple of emails with Lou the parts were ordered. Jim Mucka was a big help also in giving me copies of the parts lists for CLW. It was very easy to talk to Lou with the correct part numbers. I wouldn’t have blamed Lou if he didn’t want to talk to me without the part numbers, I can’t imagine trying to describe these parts in an email. Well that was the begining of May, the parts are still a few weeks out. But they are coming, that’s the most important thing.

I also ran into a bit of a problem with tender trucks. I ordered a pair of their 584 on their website which lined up perfectly on the plan. When I went back to get more, they were out of stock and they were not sure if they would be re-run. I have since brought my truck total up to four. I still need one more set.

This is all part of the fun of building in O scale.

Baldwin VO-1000 #79

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Reading OE-10 #79 at Gordon

One of the switchers I’ve chosen to model is Reading class OE-10 #79. It was a Baldwin VO-1000 switcher assigned to Gordon, PA during my modeling time-period.

I’m going to use a Car Works VO-1000 model as the starting point. Car Works imported the VO series back in the early 90’s. They imported three versions, “VO-1000 1942-1944 #Curved Walks,” “VO-1000 1945-1947 Straight Walks” and a “DS4-4-1000 with FLat Grill.” They have a Weaver chain drive with Pittman motor. Out of the box they run fine. I may explore using a different drive set-up.

Looking at the fireman’s side there are shutters in two of the engine compartment doors, they will need to be added. The exhaust stack needs to be extended. I will need to add a cover for the radiator. Since my model has broken solder joints on one of the foot-boards at each end I think all four need to come off, be cleaned up and re-soldered back on.

Fireman's side of the Car Works VO-1000

Fireman’s side of the Car Works VO-1000

Looking at the engineer’s side of the locomotive. There does not appear to be many changes needed. I’ll have to add a number board to the lower part of the radiator screen. This view shows the radiator cover removed in 1956, so maybe I don’t need to add it. The Reading rain gutters will need to be added to the cab roof.

Reading #79 at Shamokin, PA 1956

Engineer's Side of the Car Works VO-1000

Engineer’s Side of the Car Works VO-1000