Model Railroading > Another new coil car type

Couldn't find this posted previously so thought I would share as I just stumbled on it this evening.  Tangent Scale Models announced their PRR Samuel Rea Shops G41A Coil Steel Gondola in HO scale last month.  Not sure if I've run across one of these on the prototype, but they sure look different from all the Evans cars I have.  MIght have to pick up one of the CR versions, looks like the '76 repaint would fit my layout period best.  Were these confined to a specific region or service by chance, or would/do these cars roam the country?

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/prr-samuel-rea-shops-g41a-coil-steel-gondola/

Nathan

For me, the exciting new product is the 125t ASF truck. Rapido offers 125t Barber trucks. Between the two a lot of hoppers and tank car models can have replacements for the venerable Eastern Car Works trucks which were vaguely Barber models.

I haven't seen one lately, but up until the 1990's I saw them freely mixed with the Evan's cars into St Louis on Conrail. Just never remember seeing them with hoods, but then again the coils out of Granite City Steel/USX Granite City Works can run uncovered.
Michael T Kerner
Collinsville,IL

Posted from Android

Lots of pictures of the G41A class on the Conrail Historical Society website.

https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/galleries/class-g41a?page=1

Hope that helps.

Dan

I saw these cars frequently mixed with conventional gondolas equipped with coil cradles on Conrail during the 1990s but almost exclusively in large blocks or unit trains traveling from steel rolling mills to processors. I might have seen one once in a while in loose-car operation with a hood on it, but by then they were predominantly operated without the hoods. The Cleveland/Hennepin unit trains for LTV Steel are the service I most strongly remember them for, but I have no doubt they were also on trains from the mills in Gary, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or eastern Pennsylvania along with Granite City.

I do not believe these cars were interchanged much to other carriers, if at all, during the later Conrail era.

Similar cars ran in National Steel's unit trains between Detroit and New Carlisle, Ind., in light-green paint with NSAX marks, but I believe these were ex-P&LE cars and I don't know if they were identical or who made them.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/22 11:44 by toledopatch.

mkerner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't seen one lately, but up until the 1990's
> I saw them freely mixed with the Evan's cars into
> St Louis on Conrail. Just never remember seeing
> them with hoods, but then again the coils out of
> Granite City Steel/USX Granite City Works can run
> uncovered.
> Michael T Kerner
> Collinsville,IL
>
> Posted from Android

Once NS had them they were used strictly for running hot coil loads in unit trains from AK steel in Middletown, OH to Rockport, IN and empties reverse route. The only exception would be if one had to come out for home shop repair. They have all been scrapped now due to car age rules with the exception of maybe a handful that may still exist inside the AK Middletown works plant that were sold to the steel plant.