Model Railroading > Help finding 65' gondola (CSX) in N

Hi there,
Being relatively new to N-scale, I was wondering if anyone could point me towards any 65' CSX gondolas that are/were available. I'd prefer one in CSX, and it looks like the old E&C shops car would be my best bet, though I'm not sure if they produced it in CSX colors. If not, I have no issues painting them myself.

I'm looking to build one of these cars:
http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/BICB_13Feb13/IAIS110034_RockIslandIL_13Feb2013

The design is a bit off, but the Exactrail CP gon could do the job as well.

Thoughts? Thanks a lot,
Jeff Carlson



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/13 20:53 by bnsfsd70.

Jeff, just FYI, I'm not 100% sure we can assume that the new IAIS cars are ex-CSX. Their previous reporting mark was "MQRX" (MacQuarie Rail, Inc.), and I don't see any evidence of CSX cars in that 110000-series on rrpicturearchives, Fallen Flags, or railcarphotos.com . Then again, I don't see the MQRX cars in that series there either, but I've seen photos of them before they were restenciled to IAIS, so at least I can vouch for that much. :-)

I could very well be wrong, but I just wanted to mention it so you know to compare numbers if you do happen to locate 65' CSX gons in N scale. They may not be a match for the new IAIS cars.

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

Joe - Those are definitely ex-CSX gons, 3564 cuft, built by Gunderson. I photographed the one below and several others on 9/5/09, looking pretty fresh. You can see that all the small lettering, and even the placement of the conspicuity markings, matches up. You can also see that the car has been renumbered due to the black patches under the car number, just like over the former location of the large CSX logo (although the font and color matches CSX's lettering - maybe CSX renumbered the cars for the subsequent owner). Unfortunately there is no model of these cars in HO or N that I'm aware of, probably because they're so new.

I've seen this before, but I'm always surprised when CSX buys new cars, and then they disappear almost immediately from the roster. I've heard that this is sometimes part of a lease agreement - CSX acquires the cars to fill a temporary surge in traffic and then sells them off - but it seems kind of wasteful to me. I'll have to keep an eye out for these to see if any of them are still in CSX service.

Dave

---

Thanks Dave! Good to know. They do look really new. I just don't recognize my old IAIS these days. :-)

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

Thanks for the info guys! It looks like I may have been able to get a hold of one of the Exactrail Thrall 3564 cf gons, that'll suit the bill pretty well.

Thanks again,
Jeff Carlson