I found it interesting that a number of
major railroads had not yet, in 1917, purchased any steel gons. Maybe they were
waiting for this comparison!
An issue that I haven’t seen commented on was why the Burlington bought both all steel and
composite gons in 1903/4. An order of 1000 steel gons was as large as any
previous order for gons (1000 smaller 36’ truss rod GB-6 and GB-7 purchased
in 1902), so the company must have been satisfied with the concept of all steel
cars, presumably from the reports of other roads. But why also order 1000
composites at the same time? If they were conducting a comparative trial, then
smaller quantities would have sufficed. Did management intend different uses
for the different cars? I haven’t seen any earlier CB&Q reports on
the differences between the two types but evidently they were happy with the
steel cars as they ordered a further 3000 in 1906/7 and about 16,500 more prior
to 1919 when they received the USRA composite hoppers.
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ