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Gondola Construction Project
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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.
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Here's is an AutoCAD
assembly drawing for this gondola project.
Special thanks
to Dr. Ryan Brown, I.S.U. Department of Technology Graphics Instructor
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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. |
