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The G24 were 41'-6" gondolas designed by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) and plans provided to the PRR in April 1919. They were composite cars with wood in the sides, end and floor. They featured straight sides with drop doors in the floor and rode on USRA 2D-F3 trucks. They had Carmer cut levers.
Starting in 1929, the Pennsy replaced the composite sides with drop bottoms to steel sides with solid bottoms. Some cars received steel ends. Though most cars were converted in this manner, the program was halted in 1930.
In later years it appears the Pennsy may have replaced many with 2D-F8 trucks.
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The G22 was a 46'-0" 70-ton gondola built with fixed ends and bottom doors. The cars featured extended sills which projected out over the couplers and 70-ton trucks. Rebuilds with a solid floor occured from 1920-1940. Some of the cars were used in LCL container service, configured to hold HB (hopper bottom) containers; and some others with coke racks.
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The G35 was essentially a revised version of the G31. It shared car-body dimensions and ends (52'6" internal length). It differed in that there was a dip in the cross-bearers to allow passage of a continuous length stringer for more durability. Also, the top cord was constructed of two chanels welded flange to flange to form a box vs. the "Z"-angle found on the G31.
The G35 entered service in April 1952.
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The G34 were of riveted construction at a time when most cars were welded. The 46'-0" interior length cars had a 70-ton capacity, straight sides, a flat bottom and fixed ends. The sides featured 11 pressed side stakes and a straight center sill. The G34 were built and leased from Bethlehem Steel starting in October 1950.
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With the advent of the war in Europe, the Pennsylvania Railroad found it needed to augment its already vast fleet of gondolas, even though it owned more this equipment than any other road. It did this by producing 2000 cars of a new design. The new design, designated the G29, included all steel construction with welded underframe, tight Dreadnaught ends, solid bottom and wood floors. The standard for gons had recently changed from 40' to 46' inside length and the Pennsy followed suit. The cars used National Type B-1 trucks. These were 70 cars, considerable capacity for these size cars.
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In 1936, the Pennsylvania Railroad led in the U.S. railroads in extending the length of gondolas by the introduction of its 52'6" interior length G27 all steel mill gondola. From 1936 to 1939, the PRR built 4500 of this innovative design. The PRR was the largest steel hauler in the U.S. and the purchase of these new gons reflected that fact.
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In 1949, the all steel GS class was the largest block of gondolas on the Pennsy and the fourth largest group of any gondola class of freight cars on the road. In that year, there were 14,485 of the original 32,700 cars in revenue service -- declining to 300 cars in 1955. The total number of GS gons was greater than the entire fleet of roads such as Pere Marquette, Western Maryland, New Haven, Delaware & Hudson and CNJ/CRP.
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In 1945, the Pennsylvania created a lightweight 50' boxcar unique in appearance, all welded and with slightly excess height, the X41 series. The use of sheet steel only .07" thick welded to vertical posts every 2' yeilded a car side with a mass of wrinkles. The interior height of 10'8" added to the massive appearance. The X41's were the PRR's last major home design.
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I first met Ron Hoess years ago, I believe at the Malvern RPM. Between that and the PRRT&HS annual meetings, I've had the pleasure to sit in on a number of his clinics and have awed at the amount of detail he puts into his modeling.
Ron models the Pennsy's Chestnut Hill, Stifftown, and Midvale branches in the late 1950s. These locations connected with the PRR main line just soutch of North Philadelphia, in the Philadelphia Terminal Division. Noteworthy customers from the 1945 CT1000 Listing of Stations and Sidings included Linde Air Products, Erie Steel Co., Pittsburgh Plate Glass, General Motors, and the Budd Company.
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Many years ago, at a Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society annual meeting in Ohio, I procured a packet of documentation pertaining to MO tower at Cresson, Pa. The notes started in the early 19-teens and extended through the end of Pennsy.
One section included a study conducted during the middle of World War II to determine the feasibility of installing bi-directional signalling between SO (South Fork) and MO (Cresson) on the west slope. In a form dated April 7, 1942, Pittsburgh Division management requested authorization for the expenditure of $149,883 for "Reverse signals on number three track -- "MO" to "SO" and changes to crossovers at interlockings". The justification was as follows: