So, with the new MTL 65' Gondola (apparently based on the ATSF GA-48 Gondola design), I became curious how many railroads had gondolas similar to this model, so this led me to the RMJ article that was triggered by the release of the Athearn HO model (RMJ Feb 2006).
As an interesting side note, the Athearn HO 65' Mill Gon model (and presumably their N scale version) are (as suggested by an article in RMJ Feb 2006 issue) based on the nearly identical design on the ATSF GA-55 65' Mill Gondolas.
(
I think there was a general discussion of this model when it was announced, but I failed in several searches to find it. 
)
It seems that this was a very good choice for a model, as in 1941 the AAR adopted the ATSF GA-55 gondola design as a "Recommended Practice Design" - as a result, many roads had gondolas based on this design.
Although N&W did not build or have built any gons based on this design, they did inherit gons based on this design from the Wabash in the 1964 merger - so I will watch for those.
(over 130 of these were on the N&W roster in 1969).
I put together this chart to help me watch for roads that I might want as they are released:
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Credit for this info goes to the author of the RMJ article (
Richard H. Hendrickson).
I might have made some errors in this chart so let me know and I will try to fix where applicable.
