The Pennsylvania Railroad and merger successor Penn Central built a total of 3,750 G43 / G43A / G43B / G43C gondolas at the Sam Rea Shops in Hollidaysburg PA from 1966 to 1970, the largest gondola fleet built by Sam Rea or any carbuilding shop in the 1960s. In other words, these cars are highly relevant! The G43 gondolas were a modern fleet of 100-ton mill gondolas with 52’6” interior length, with different design configurations for various customer applications. The G43 fleet was built to replace older gondolas with a rugged design suitable for mill (steel products), scrap, and aggregate services. Additionally, many were modified during the Conrail era with coil “racks” to transport uncovered steel coils. Many still serve NS and CSXT today in various services including coil service, as well as other revenue and MOW services. Some cars were sold to the secondary market and still operate today with leasing firm reporting marks. Also, check out our website for examples of these cars faraway from PRR/PC rails.

While the G43 series gondolas were not configured by PRR / PC for coil steel loading when the cars were constructed, a sizable portion of the fleet was retrofitted during the Conrail era to haul rolled steel coils, easily identified by their 6XXXXX numbers. These cars still operate today in NS/CSX service. Conrail 5XXXXX numbers were general service cars.

CR “1988 G43 Coil Svc. w/Rack – Coils NOT included” in the now-classic Conrail red paint. This series represents the former PRR-painted G43 series. Conrail retained the placards that were present on these original PRR-painted cars from 22 years before. The Conrail reporting marks, road number, Conrail can opener logo, and COTS panel are all on these three placards. The top chord of the car has a “COIL STEEL LOADING ONLY” stencil to remind customers and railroad officers that the car is equipped with coil racks. Our model has coil racks too, and we sell the steel coils for this car separately. We recommend a load of four of them if you want to replicate most prototype loading patterns – for the size of coil we created. Yes, we did the math. These Conrail cars feature details appropriate for the 1966-built car.

Features:

• Dimensional accuracy – designed from actual Sam Rea blueprints and verified with field measurements
• Highly correct “true to life” colors
• “Hyper-Accurate” lettering including exact fonts and lettering placement – compare our replicas to the prototype photos!
• Genuine Kadee® scale couplers
• “Near-scale” draft gear box with beautifully-rendered side “key” detail
• 3 specific production variations that highlight production from 1966-1970, including different bodies, interiors, with or without coil racks, different underframes, different ends. Sell off the toy trains – we do freight cars right
• “See through” brake steps
• Separate air hoses
• Lacy details – wire grab irons, coupler lift bars, and stand-off ladders and stirrup steps
• CNC-machined 36” wheels in high quality Tangent Scale Models trucks (with semi-scale replacement wheels available separately)
• Accurate 100-ton N-11 trucks with free-rolling metal wheels
• Recommended age 14 years and older