Hello all, Does anyone have drawings of Virginian's Battleship Gons? I believe there was an article in MR back in the 70's, but any information would be really helpful! Thanks!!
You can probably order the right drawing from the Norfolk and Western Historical Society's archive. Here's a link the the archives http://nwhs.org/archivesdb/ you can find lots of great stuff their!
Is this what you're thinking about? Only it was N&W maybe? Norfolk & Western coal Battleship gondolas by Odegard, Gordon from Model Railroader January 1988 p. 88 Nothing else showed up in the index search for 'Virginian' in MR except the 2-10-10-2's.
The N&W inherited the Virginian's battleship gons in the 1959 merger. I'm not sure how long they remained in service, but I can't imagine it would be anything else. I'll take a look! Thanks again for the help!
N&W had their own classes of six-axle gons... built before VGNs no less. The N&WHS is your best bet... they have drawings for all the VGN and N&W 6-axle gons
PiperguyUMD, There have been two plans published. A very good plan was published in the June 2006 edition of Mainline Modeler on pages 40 and 41. This plan shows the as built condition with fishbelly floor panels and fishbelly side sheets. It also show the original vertical brake staff. These cars had two further rebuilds the first of which changed from fishbelly side sheets to straight. A Virginian Railway diagram was also published in "The Virginian Railway Handbook" on page 34. This book was authored by Aubrey Wiley and Conley Wallace in 1985. This diagram shows the car in rebuilt condition with straight side sheets and later type geared brake wheel. There is no scale on this plan but it has dimensions. I recently found one in mint condition out here in Australia. Nice book! Gary