Re: [CBQ] Scaletrains.com HO CB&Q Havelock 52' 6" Gondola

["William Hirt" <whirt@fastmail.com>]

There was a substantial discussion on the Modern Freight Car List about these cars when they were announced. There were three sets of these cars - Classes GM-6 (built 1965),  GM-6A (built 1967), and GM-6B (built 1967). As was pointed out by Jim Eager on the MFCL, the main differences are the number and location of grab irons. And a number of people on the MFCL list pointed out the lack of roofs. Since they all had three piece roofs when delivered and throughout their short CB&Q only lives, the roofs are essential for a proper model. Based on photo evidence, the roofs were not removed on even a few cars until the late 1970s in the BN era.

There were also two errors in the lettering on the car ScaleTrains had as their demo picture. One was the build date was listed as 1957, not 1967. The second was the Burlington Route herald plate was incorrectly placed on the car side (not properly lined up with the billboard Burlington lettering). ScaleTrains replied to those of us who pointed out the error and said both issues will be fixed on the production kits.

Bill Hirt

On 2/27/2021 7:59 AM, Tom Mack via groups.io wrote:

I'm surprised nothing has been said about the Scaletrains.com announcement concerning their new CB&Q Havelock Shops 52' 6" gondola in HO:

https://www.scaletrains.com/product/kit-classics-ho-scale-cbq-havelock-shops-52-6-gondola-chicago-burlington-quincy-cbq-run-1/

I think pre-orders are due by tomorrow (Feb 28). 

The cars are a simple kit with molded on details. While it would have been nice to have a higher quality car, its a lot easier to add detail to a prototypically accurate lower quality car than build from scratch. I don't think we have has a Q specific prototype car produced in some time, so it is great to see that Scaletrains.com chose a CB&Q prototype for this gondola!

BTW, this is the same series of cars that was the topic of a September 1989 RailModel Journal article by Ed De Rouin and Jim Singer on taking an MDC/Roundhouse Railgon gondola and kitbashing it to a CB&Q GBR. So if you were still looking for an MDC kit and detail parts to do the kitbash, you now have an actual model to from Scaletrains.com to superdetail or run it as is.

--
Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH

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