Two 1930s/1940s SR Short Gondolas Available FREE in Va.

Tim Andrews · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:04 am **Posts:** 90

They might not have been free but the first of two Eastern Shore gondolas have arrived in Chattanooga taking almost five months from the original posting. It appears all six have been saved. This was the first one to leave

Tim Andrews
TVRM
Chattanooga

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msm57095 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:02 am

One of the Cape Charles gondolas arrived in Bonsal yesterday. We **think** it is SOU958060. We'll know more as we look closer at the paint and what remains of the car number. Will make a great cosmetic restoration in the short term; needs quite a bit of mechanical work before it can be used in a train.

Mike MacLean
New Hope Valley Railway

TrainDetainer · **Joined:** Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:05 pm **Posts:** 271

Mike M - Congrats on your acquisition. There shouldn't be any doubt about the identity of the two blue cars unless you have some reason to presume someone ground off and switched tags on the cars for some reason - yours appears to be the 958060. I read the ACI tags directly from the pics posted by ADM, so if yours has this tag -

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it's the 060. This one is the 173 -

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Good luck. Post a pic for us when you've got it cosmo'd.

msm57095 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:59 pm

Hello Train D., thank you for the reply and for the close ups of the ACI tags. Based on the picture of our car being unloaded below which clearly shows the ACI tag, our car would be the 958060.

We'd be happy to show a pic of the car once its painted. We will likely sandblast and paint the gon at the same time we sandblast and apply apexior to the inside of 17's boiler later this fall.

Kind regards,
Mike

airforcerail · **Posted:** Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:17 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

The party in question, a former Bay Coast employee, said they acquired it from the Bay Coast for storage of commercial assets; when the RR shut down he made arrangements to have it shipped out to his new home a couple states away.

How Bay Coast/ESHR got it is another question.

The boxcar was converted and used as a tool/supply car for a CN ballast undercutter. There was also some CN 50ft flats converted for concrete tie use, with a straddle rig that ran on rails on the edges of the cars. Those and the undercutter had been Plasser owned, (they have a plant in Chesapeake) and were cut up in I think 2008 or 2009. The boxcar we used as a reach car for loading and unloading the car float.

The boxcar is safely on my shortline in Badin, NC. I have been using it as a parts storage/temp shop space. It had bottle racks, a work bench, shelves, and a loft built in when used for the undercutter.

I'm really happy to see the gons saved. I rode them in all kinds of weather night and day loading and unloading the barge.

airforcerail · **Posted:** Thu Aug 22, 2019 6:19 pm

Some people say fate is a joke, that there is no plan and it is all random coincidence. I beg to differ.

I normally work at Shaw AFB, SC as a government railroader. I just happen to be up assisting Fort Eustis, VA with a large rail loadout of military equipment. We needed to go to Williamsburg to a NAPA for a part for his military jeep he is restoring. We both do a double take and he pulls a U turn when he sees this- the yellow ex-spray car from the Eastern Shore. The truck was sitting on the side of the road, at the Busch Gardens exit. We snapped some pics and I asked the driver where he was headed... I got an I'm on an important phone call and finally- Chattanooga.

This car is the reason I was able to become a professional railroader. I was Active Duty Navy, and had bought a house in Norfolk that abutted the ESHR tracks. They were out spraying one day, and the pump quit right behind my house. I had the tools and the skills so I got it going again easy enough. They offered me a job on the spot.

The number of things that had to connect for me to see that car leave the area, are way too much for coincidences.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2295

Bent the he&* out of the handbrake wheel. Is that some sort of pack track it is riding on?

airforcerail · **Posted:** Fri Aug 23, 2019 1:35 pm

PMC wrote:

Bent the he&* out of the handbrake wheel. Is that some sort of pack track it is riding on?

I seem to recall the handwheel always being that way...

It was a ramp track, built so they could load rail equipment just like the gon, from the drop neck and back up over the rear wheels. I have seen many tampers and the like hauled that way.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:12 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Whereas there may or may not be any progress on the ex-SR gondolas at Cape Charles, there exists another possibility:

There were at least two MORE of these cars on the SOUTH end of the carfloat operation. These cars have been spotted in a siding near Little Creek, Va.

Unlike the ones in Cape Charles, there is no (known) impetus to get these cars off the property ASAP, but unless other preservationists have spoken for them, there's no good reason for them to stay, either.

More importantly, these are next to live and active track, with plenty of places to load up a truck or flatcar.

Briefly visible here:
https://www.facebook.com/stevecolprit/v ... ater&ifg=1

IF you have managed to talk yourself into wanting to preserve a "shorty gon" but couldn't deal with the problems of transporting them off the Delmarva Peninsula, here exists another (POSSIBLE) option.

I have no contact info for these, but the railroad is currently being contracted by the Buckingham Branch RR, who could probably put you on the right track to preserving one or both of these cars. I currently have a message waiting for a party that supposedly purchased a different car out of the yard (a British Columbia Railway boxcar, of all things).

I am now being told these Little Creek gondolas are in jeopardy of scrapping.

Is there anyone still interested in one or both of these cars? If so, check with the Buckingham Branch RR or say something to me back-channel and I'll round up a contact. Or maybe Mr. McDowell can be of assistance in inquiry?

BIG plus: Easy to load onto a flatcar and ship out from this location, if so desired.

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Thu Jul 01, 2021 11:02 pm

You can use "baby rail," made from lengths of 2"x 4" bar stock with a flangeway milled in. It buys you several inches of overhead clearance versus any size of T-rail. It also saves weight.

Phil Mulligan

judd.brown · **Joined:** Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:51 am **Posts:** 2

I have a possible home for one if they are still available.

Judd Brown

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2295

judd.brown wrote:

I have a possible home for one if they are still available.

Judd Brown

Are you willing and able to pay to have one moved to a new home? That is the major hangup for everyone else.

Thomas Cornillie · **Joined:** Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:19 pm **Posts:** 267

Here is a link to websites with some builder's photos of cars from the series:

http://www.srha.net/public/photos/photo_detail.asp?ID=2106

https://prototopics.blogspot.com/2018/10/southern-railway-low-side-gondola.html

These would be useful cars for storing frogs, switch stands, fasteners, and other track material out of sight from would be scrap thieves - the low sides making for a easier pick with small crane.

judd.brown · **Joined:** Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:51 am **Posts:** 2

PMC wrote:

judd.brown wrote:

I have a possible home for one if they are still available.

Judd Brown

Are you willing and able to pay to have one moved to a new home? That is the major hangup for everyone else.

This would actually be on of the easier moves I have been involved with.

Two 1930s/1940s SR Short Gondolas Available FREE in Va.

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