Zenith Model Works
Pressed Steel 37' Hopper Bottom Gondola, RGW, DRG, DRGW, PLE, PMcKY
Pressed Steel 37' Hopper Bottom Gondola, RGW, DRG, DRGW, PLE, PMcKY
3D Printed Kit
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One of the first successful steel gondolas, this was a catalogue offering from the Pressed Steel Car Company introduced in 1901. 100 were delivered to the Rio Grande Western, 500 to the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, and 500 to the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny. They survived multiple mergers and were retired in the late 1940s on the Denver and Rio Grande Western. On the New York Central family roads, they lasted until about 1925. A small number may have been in use as late as 1929. We offer 11 versions of this car, with or without safety appliances. Inspect the diagrams closely before making a decision. Detail parts are slightly oversized in the renderings to make them easier to see. Details in this kit are standard parts supplied by Tichy Train Group. This kit features a one-piece Westinghouse Split-K brake system as a part of the body to keep costs low and decrease build time. This brake system can be easily removed and replaced by the user if he or she desires more detail.
Trucks and couplers are available as optional add-ons.
If you would like to see all the variations laid out next to each other, be sure to check the last couple of pages in the Instructions available below.
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I am very impressed by the fine details and lack of lines usually associated with 3D printing, but I am non-plussed by the lack of instructions, or even photos to locate the decals.
Back around the first week in March, I acquired 4 kits of the 3DP TRAIN 37’ hopper bottom gons created by Zenith Model Works. To date I have completed two of the cars and a third is about 3/4 done. None are painted as yet. I found them very interesting in that the material used in casting was very soft and easy to work with. Grab iron locations were either marked or cored and the installation of the pre-formed wire was relatively easy.
One oddity I noticed was even though Zenith mentioned in their ad that the kits came with instructions, none of the four kits had and instructions or information sheets. Having been a modeler for many years as well as having a copy of the 1906 Car Builders Dictionary at hand this was not a problem. The other item missing from the kits were the brake wheels. I made up 4 sets of these, one for each kit with brass wire and brass Cal Scale wheels. I prefer this method as I’ve found the plastic wheels too delicate over a period of time. I also changed out some of the details such as the pin lifters and brackets with photo etch parts from Athabasca out of Canada. I love the Pressed Steel Car trucks with the metal ribbed back cast iron metal wheels that came with the kits. The cars do not come with couplers and if you plan to use these in operation you will have your work cut out for you. Possibly to the extent of even using dummies. I even thought about using MKD-4’s after milling out the box on the underframe. The new Kadee’s with the whiskers did not work at all and I actually found the EZ-Mate's worked the best in this situation. How you do it, of course is up to you.
I have yet to try the decals of course, but they appear to be in good register and I do not expect any issues. I went to Zenith’s web site and was able to grab scans of the car drawings for the decal locations. Kits purchased were 6000-A thru 6000-D. I plan of air brushing these all with red primer / boxcar red. If I can acquired the 5th kit with the Herald, that one will be in black as the last of these cars were in use until 1945. Not sure if any received the Flying Rio Grande though over half the fleet of cars were still in service through 1940 though only 45 were left by December 1941. Also bear in mind all these models have the two sets of dump doors cast as part of the one-piece body. These doors and hoppers were removed in 1928/1929 when the cars were converted to flat-bottom gons at the Salt Lake City Shops. I have to say I enjoyed building these kits.. The last one I have, I plan on adding all the brake rigging and piping. Not for the beginner (especially if no instructions included) but a modeler who has had some resin / 3D printing experience should not any
have any major problems.
John T.