Exactrail CP MIL Gons

[Denver Road Doug]

Fantastic on these new gons - but I have one question...

Is there some new technology or business model that is allowing all of these new single road cars? It's fantastic - just wondering how this is happening - since so many people used to say it would never happen...

I understand RP - but there's got to be more to it --- since obviously dies have to be cut, etc... to make this work. Are short run cars done with aluminum tooling - lower cost, shorter life or what???

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

I don't think anything has really changed other than....now people have better access to research to reveal foobies.

Whereas before this model would have been done in 20 roadnames, now it becomes a "CP gon".

I think that when you get right down to it, the business model of model railroading manufacturers is....money talks.  I would guess that you have your big volume releases, such as specific "prototypical" items like covered hoppers and bethgons, or generic models like MDC tank cars or boxcars, Trainman, etc.  Outside of that, I bet every product created starts with somebody that has more money than I do saying "hey, I want that car in N-scale."  Yes, you'll have some stuff that gets done because of who works at X company, or some fanatic that bird dog's the research and planning and eventually gets somebody to back a project, but I suspect mostly it's who will throw down some cash.

[Denver Road Doug]

BTW, I'm excited about this announcement.  I continue to throw down that we need more gons and tank cars (and spine cars) and I will support anybody that releases a good North American prototype model of these types.

[algowest]

Hey CV_ACR-
This 65 foot mill gon gets closer to the 61 foot mill gon ACR had with the raised bulkhead ends (built by NSC in the 60's).  May be worth it to kitbash with this then trying to make a 50-52 foot gon work.
-Andy

[bbussey]

Fantastic on these new gons - but I have one question...

Is there some new technology or business model that is allowing all of these new single road cars? It's fantastic - just wondering how this is happening - since so many people used to say it would never happen...

I understand RP - but there's got to be more to it --- since obviously dies have to be cut, etc... to make this work. Are short run cars done with aluminum tooling - lower cost, shorter life or what???

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Well, it's two-fold I think.  Due to technology, it is less expensive to design/tool and therefore 100,000 pieces aren't required anymore to amortize the tooling costs.  The return-on-investment can be realized sooner - a year or two instead of five to ten - so more obscure models can be tooled AND painted/decorated in only prototypical schemes and still be viable.  Hardened steel is still the prudent choice of material over aluminum.

But second, as more manufacturers enter the industry and more widely-encompassing models are introduced, fewer are left to tool.  Rather than have two or three manufacturers produce the same model, sometimes it's safer and more lucrative to introduce a road-specific model based on a popular prototype that will generate the same return-on-investment.

[cv_acr]

That's good news.  So the model can accurately represent either prototype.

And by scratchbuilding new ends, it's also good for CP's 1965-built NSC cars. Which would be a very easy conversion because the ends are flat panels.

Very cool.

Any pics of the prototype car you're proposing?

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336708&o=cprail
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336718&o=cprail
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336743&o=cprail

Pretty much the same as the Exactrail car except for the ends.

[cv_acr]

Hey CV_ACR-
This 65 foot mill gon gets closer to the 61 foot mill gon ACR had with the raised bulkhead ends (built by NSC in the 60's).  May be worth it to kitbash with this then trying to make a 50-52 foot gon work.
-Andy

Not really, since those were built in the early 1960s, and featured riveted sides with a very slight fishbelly. The straight sides of the CP car don't lend itself to kitbashing into the AC car. Plus the side ribs would still be wrong, etc. (Too many and too close) I saw an example of one that someone did using (I think) a shortened Walthers 65' mill gon, which is also a modern welded car, but does have a fishbelly side profile.

Really it's a car that will need to be scratchbuilt to even get the profile right.

[sirenwerks]

That's good news.  So the model can accurately represent either prototype.

And by scratchbuilding new ends, it's also good for CP's 1965-built NSC cars. Which would be a very easy conversion because the ends are flat panels.

Very cool.

Any pics of the prototype car you're proposing?

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336708&o=cprail
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336718&o=cprail
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336743&o=cprail

Pretty much the same as the Exactrail car except for the ends.

Thanks Chris. Was the Pacman scheme the original scheme? Or was it the black scheme in the 3rd link?

[lock4244]

Bryan, chonologically Canadian Pacific went from block lettering (the black car Chris linked to), to the Canadian Pacific "Script", to the CP Rail Multimark (alias "Pacman"), then CP Rail sans multimark. Who cares what happened after 1989 

[sirenwerks]

Mike, are you saying those gons, with the backdating modification, could be found in the script lettering? If so, sweet!

[lock4244]

Probably, though I haven't seen one in person that I can recall. Anything delivered or repainted between 1963 and 1968 would have been during the Script era (CP's finest image IMO). I shot a pair of these in Havelock, Ontario, in the block lettering summer 2009... though I can't say either were an MIL or HS car. They were OCS lettered for tie service.

You can see a black CP covered gon in this shot, but really hard to ID it or even what length it is... though likely a 52'-6".
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kawpWTOGqPk/SY4RlBGVpCI/AAAAAAAAAek/EwDR75CmW58/s1600-h/blogqueens7.jpg

[cv_acr]

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp336743&o=cprail

This would be the "factory" paint job. This car was built in 1965 (interesting that it's block and not script, which had already been introduced) and the Multimark scheme was introduced late in 1968. (Incidentally, the video game Pac-Man was released in 1980, 11 1/2 years later). The Multimark was eliminated in 1988 and then CP repaints got kind of boring without it.

lock4244: The covered gons were 52'6" cars in steel service. Some still in script even:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp344518&o=cprail
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp344519&o=cprail

I even one one in this oddball colour scheme (for a gondola):
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp344230&o=cprail

The MIL and HST 65' cars were built in 1982 and 1979 respectively; if you saw some in block they would have been the NSC cars. They would have been the only ones originally in black. However, CP has done some interesting repaints in black with the "CP Rail" for some gons in tie service:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp417738&o=cprail

[lock4244]

Chris, I checked the shots of the ones I saw in Havelock... they are not even close to these as they both had fish bellies.

Interesting that they had cars delivered in the block long after the Script was introduced.

[cv_acr]

Bumped in honour of ExactRail's latest announcement that these cars will be available in N within a couple weeks.

[DrifterNL]

Looking at this picture of the model -> http://www.exactrail.com/skin/frontend/default/exactrail/images/media/en-51501-cp-gondola-05.jpg
Does it seem to have body mounted couplers??

[bbussey]

The pilot model in Springfield had truck-mounted couplers, although the car appeared to stand at the correct height over the rails.