Model Railroading > A chipper morning...

Weighing the chips from the mill at Elliott, WA on Tim Dickinson's 1976 BN layout (Don DeLay photos).

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More chips!   Excellent work.  Who makes that GN 174045?

Hmm, wondering if the GN truss side car is one of the one produced by a guy here in Eastern Washington from wood that he cuts himself. He sells them at the local train shows and they are popular, but not cheap. He makes several styles, and I have a couple of the truss style cars.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Top one is an AL&W by Bruce Barney, the bottom one is a brassie, but not sure of the make.

I am the layout owner as well as the builder and owner of the rolling stock in these images.

The GN 174045 chipgon was put out by the SP&S Historical Society several years ago. They produced kits for UP, SP&S and BN cars as well as two GN versions. The prototype cars are of composite construction that were built by Gunderson Bros. in Portland, OR during the mid 1960's. The model is a true craftsman style kit comprised of laser cut acrylic parts, Evergreen styrene strips, laser kit styrene parts, laser cut wood sides, some detail parts and a decal sheet, less trucks and couplers. I improved on some of the provided parts by having photo etched gusset plates created which replaced the laser cut styrene gusset plates which were too thick. I also created new decals on my Alps printer (I'm fussy with the lettering). One major flaw I had to deal with was the fact that the kit was designed to use 70 ton trucks, meaning 33' wheels. The prototype cars used 100 ton trucks with 36" wheels. Seems like a simple problem to overcome. Actually, it was much more complicated than that. I had to re-engineer the frame bolster to accept the 100 trucks because as designed, the use of 36" wheels prevented the trucks from being able to turn due to being obstructed by the end of the car. As you can see, I was able to work past the problem and ended up using Athearn Genesis 100 ton trucks. With a little tweaking, these kits build up into great looking models.

The NP 119672 chipgon was done from an Overland Models brass import of a Thrall built car from series NP 119500-119699 built in 1966. I changed the OMI trucks and added Athearn Genesis 100 ton trucks. Decals are a combination of old Walthers and my own Alps print.

Tim Dickinson
SP/UP Locomotive Engineer (retired)
La Verne, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/20 20:19 by alcoc636.

Thanks for the reply...I believe some of those SP wood chippers became these Fordyce & Princeton cars.   Do you think that I can still find kits of these?   I would be very interested in purchasing some...

alcoc636 Wrote:
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> I am the layout owner as well as the builder and
> owner of the rolling stock in these images.
>
> The GN 174045 chipgon was put out by the SP&S
> Historical Society several years ago. They
> produced kits for UP, SP&S and BN cars as well as
> two GN versions. The prototype cars are of
> composite construction that were built by
> Gunderson Bros. in Portland, OR during the mid
> 1960's. The model is a true craftsman style kit
> comprised of laser cut acrylic parts, Evergreen
> styrene strips, laser kit styrene parts, laser cut
> wood sides, some detail parts and a decal sheet,
> less trucks and couplers. I improved on some of
> the provided parts by having photo etched gusset
> plates created which replaced the laser cut
> styrene gusset plates which were too thick. I also
> created new decals on my Alps printer (I'm fussy
> with the lettering). One major flaw I had to deal
> with was the fact that the kit was designed to use
> 70 ton trucks, meaning 33' wheels. The prototype
> cars used 100 ton trucks with 36" wheels. Seems
> like a simple problem to overcome. Actually, it
> was much more complicated than that. I had to
> re-engineer the frame bolster to accept the 100
> trucks because as designed, the use of 36" wheels
> prevented the trucks from being able to turn due
> to being obstructed by the end of the car. As you
> can see, I was able to work past the problem and
> ended up using Athearn Genesis 100 ton trucks.
> With a little tweaking, these kits build up into
> great looking models.
>
> The NP 119672 chipgon was done from an Overland
> Models brass import of a Thrall built car from
> series NP 119500-119699 built in 1966. I changed
> the OMI trucks and added Athearn Genesis 100 ton
> trucks. Decals are a combination of old Walthers
> and my own Alps print.
>
> Tim Dickinson
> SP/UP Locomotive Engineer (retired)
> La Verne, CA

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Not quite the same car, although it appears to be a Gunderson car. Look closely at the rod or bar running the length of the car just below the bottom sill. This may be a drop bottom car. Not sure? My models and the kits from the society are all solid bottom cars with a hinged end door and lack that bottom rod and operating mechanism.

Tim Dickinson



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/20 10:05 by alcoc636.

I believe Bruce Barney (AL&W Kits) is also producing those former SP 1959 General American cars. And for the adventurous types, Ambroid offered a box of sticks kit to do the SP cars many moons ago....
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/20 20:04 by trackplanner.