G2 40 foot solid bottom 'mill' gondola, Vermillion

HO scale kit with trucks and magnetic couplers.

This 40’ solid bottom 'mill' gondola, GST G2, in Vermilion with side facing goat herald represents cars built in 1952, numbers 72500-72749 which were 41’ 6” inside length and of 140,000-pound capacity.  Each of the three cars we offer carries a correct car number for the type of car. This lot of cars were the first solid bottom steel gondolas purchased by Great Northern.  These cars were intended to carry steel mill shapes and pipe.

Car body is not an accurate match for any GN series due to wrong number of side ribs. Stencil B52 P59 indicates a car built in 1952 and painted in 1959 which is credible.

Great Northern strongly favored drop bottom gondolas, as compared to hopper cars, for mineral traffic, including coal. As of 1942 GN had 2,388 40-foot drop bottom, no solid bottom gondolas, and only 692 hopper cars, all under the heading ‘Coal Cars’. Pittsburg Seam coal originated from Superior, arriving there as backhaul cargo in iron ore ships. Other notable GN coal origin points were Sand Coulee and Belt, Montana, Fernie and Michel in the Crowsnest Field, and for a short period, Coalmont in the Similkameen drainage, all in southern British Columbia.

Fortunately, InterMountain makes a good model of Great Northern GS (drop bottom) gondolas, which we carry in the store.