The Rapido Gondola Project - Part Two

This desk top photo shows four of the five gondolas completed in this project.  The two outer cars were completed in Part One; the two inner cars are the subject of this post.

 Or, How To Make Use of That Kit You Really Didn't Want to Assemble.

Commentary by Peter Mumby, with Photos by George Dutka.

In Part One of this exercise (The Rapido Gondola Project, Jan. 10, 2016) we described painting and weathering three undecorated Rapido gondolas and their loads.  We each did one CP car, plus I finished a Pacific Great Eastern gon as well.  George later got to thinking that he would enjoy adding a similar PGE car to his fleet, and I decided to keep him company by completing a car with a tie load to complement the rail load of my initial effort.  While George was contemplating the type of load he would prefer, he happened to pull out an old Westerfield hopper car kit from his inventory.  This was one of the early kits made from the resin that was practically impervious to a sanding stick or a drill bit, and George indicated that he really didn't intend to assemble it any time soon.  The suggestion was then made that the loose resin parts would make an effective scrap metal load for his car; this is what he decided to do, and I think it was a kit well sacrificed.

Why is George's Rapido car posed on a Westerfield box?  This is the donor kit that provided the car's convincing scrap metal load!

This little project was probably our swan song for the current modelling season.  According to the calendar, it is just about time for George to put away his Canopy Cement and his weathering powders, and get out his deck shoes, his sextant, and his copy of Chapman's Piloting, Seamanship,and Small Boat Handling.  Before he heads off to Lake Huron for the summer, he will remove his 1950s-era locomotives and rolling stock from the layout and put them in his storage cabinet.  He does have a small fleet of "modern" equipment which will populate the layout for the next few months, in case summertime visitors materialize.  I guess this new PGE car, with its ACI label and wheel dot, fits this modern era, and will get to spend the summer on the layout.  I'll leave it up to George to concoct the story about how this strange visitor from the Pacific coast found its way onto the White River Division!

This overhead view provides another perspective on George's "Memories of Westerfield Hopper Kit" scrap metal load.

This photo bears witness to George's seasonal transition from railway modeller to Great Lakes sailor.

The trio of PGE gondolas are on the tail end of a CP local. The CP caboose is a True Line Trains offering.

A look inside Peter's gondola which is loaded with some ties.