Gondola Construction Project

This section deals with the construction and assembly of the current gondola project Lee's working on. Lee recently completed building 5 of these units. Detailed engineering plans for this exact car can be purchased on the Products page.

Here's is an AutoCAD assembly drawing for this gondola project.

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Special thanks to Dr. Ryan Brown, I.S.U. Department of Technology Graphics Instructor


Construction Pictures

Click on thumbnails to see a larger picture.

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This is the gondola's center beam clamped together and ready to be welded together.
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Here's the bottom panel with the center beam laying in position.
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The bottom has been marked for support rib locations.
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The support ribs are installed and ready to be welded to the center beam.
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A quick test assembly to insure we're still on track before the side rib installation and welding begins.
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The car ends are ready to be welded together.
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Each car side has 13 ribs. They are hand riveted in place.
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Here's the completed assembly ready to be detailed and painted.
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Another end view of the gondola.
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Detail end view of the completed gondola ready to be painted.
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And finally, here's the finished gondola painted, detailed and ready for service. Decals provided by Miracle Railroad Products.
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A close-up view of the end of the completed gon.
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The first run of Lee's two RailGons together at the Western Illinois Railroad. The heat index was 111 degrees at the meet that day - what dedicated railroad fans!
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Here are two of the new gons ready for their very first run at the Western Illinois Railroad. These two gons are owned by Mike Folkenroth. Mike helped with their assembly and did the painting and decals. This was also the first service of the new hydraulic lift at WIRR.

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Here's the GP-40 ready to pull four of the five gons Lee built. This was the inagural run for the last three gons on the train.
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Another view of the inagural train from the rear.
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There was a grand total of 9 gons visiting the Western Illinois Railroad this day.