Winter 2010 - Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society

Model Review – Tangent Scale Models
G31B Gondola
By Jack Consoli, photos by the author unless noted
Class G31B HO injection-molded plastic model.
Let’s just cut to the chase: this is the nicest off-the-shelf,
ready-to-run, state-of-the-art PRR gondola model out there, period.
And unless you are overly concerned about a few details of
the underframe which can’t be seen in any normal model pose,
you won’t end up with a better gon starting with any brass import
or plastic or resin kit, even after you assemble, paint and letter it.
Even better news is that (the vast majority of) we modelers need
this car, badly. So let me explain why and then get to the details
of the model.
The Prototypes
Following World War II, the PRR’s freight car fleet was in
serious need of repair and replacement following the abuse of
supporting the war effort, particularly on many classes of aging
cars. The PRR thus undertook a massive building program of
new freight cars, including gondolas. The first gon type they targeted
was the 52’6” inside length general service mill gondola.
As per their historical mode of operation, they developed a new
design, their first state-of-the-art all-welded gon class in this
case, and proceeded to build the 2900 G31 (no-subclass) cars
from 1948 to 1950. These cars featured thirteen welded side
stakes in a W-N-N-N-W-N-W-N-W-N-N-N-W (W=wide,
N=Narrow section stake) pattern. Although the side sheets had a
fishbelly contour, the stakes all ended at the same height across
PRR photo of G31B B-end, showing Universal lever-style hand brake and A.S.F. trucks.
the length of the car, not extending fully down over the fishbelly
area. The cars had steel floors and drop-type 2-rib Improved
Dreadnaught style end doors. The G31 had a 3’6” inside height
and 1745 cu.ft. capacity.
The Railroad then did something very un-Pennsy-like and
farmed out the construction of all the subclasses to several of the
major commercial car builders. In the end, there were only three
types of cars: drop-end/steel floor, drop-end/wood floor and
fixed-end/wood floor. However, since the three commercial
builders opted to construct the last two types per their own respective
preferences, a total of six class designations were required
to keep similarly built cars segregated. Pullman Standard
built the 4800 welded, drop-end/wood floor G31A in three lots
from 1950 through 1952 with their proprietary PS end. This
stamped end door had two large, essentially straight horizontal
corrugations. American Car & Foundry built one lot of 2000 very
similar welded, drop-end/wood floor G31B in March through July
1951, using instead the 2-rib Improved Dreadnaught style end
doors that were used on the G31. They also constructed the 1200
G31D in 1951 and 1952, essentially just a fixed-end version of
the same car. These welded cars had 3-rib Dreadnaught ends.
General American, like AC&F, also built both drop end and
fixed-end, wood floor cars, with corrugated ends. Their 750
G31C of 1951 had 2-rib Improved Dreadnaught end doors and
The Keystone Modeler 10 No. 72, Winter 2010