HIGH SIDE GONDOLA D&RGW 1400
History
Gondolas, second only to boxcars as the most common railcars for hauling general freight, are symbolic in representing historic Colorado narrow-gauge railroading. Their roles in supporting the mining, railroad, agricultural, and construction industries contributed to the development of southwest Colorado. D&RG had about 3,111 gondolas of 22 different Classes or types.
D&RG(W) hauled more coal than any other material, so the car now called gondolas were originally called coal cars. As the needs changed, flat cars and boxcars were converted to gondolas and gondolas were converted to flat cars. The first D&RG coal cars began as construction flat cars that were used in the early stage of building the railroad. The construction flat cars were 17-feet long on two axles with a 10-foot wheelbase, weighed 2 tons, and hauled 5 tons. They were converted to stone cars by adding single boards on the sides and to coal cars by adding higher sides.
D&RGW 1400 is one of 250 gondolas in Class 14 built by American Car and Foundry in July 1902, numbered 1250–1499. At the same time 250 Class 13 gondolas were also built by American Car and Foundry, numbered 1000–1249. Cars in both classes were 32-ft long and hauled 25 tons. The differences were that Class 13 had a 24-ft 3-in wheel base compared to 21-ft 7-in for Class 14, and Class 13 had a solid floor, whereas Class 14 were dump cars with doors in the floor between the middle five of the nine side stakes.
In 1923 both Class 13 and 14 were rebuilt and converted into high side gondolas by adding another board on the sides, and Class 14 cars lost their dump doors. The wheelbase for both became 22 ft 2 in. The classes were merged into one.
Cars of this type hauled freight that did not require the enclosed protection of a boxcar, e.g., machinery, lumber, and bulk materials such as coal, ore, and scrap iron.
For more details see A Century + Ten of the D&RGW Narrow Gauge Freight Cars 1871 to 1981, 2nd Edition, by Robert E. Sloan. Historic photo courtesy Colorado Railroad Museum.
High Side Gondola 1400 Before Restoration
Photos in July 2008 at D&S Tacoma siding by George Niederauer.
Side View. Obviously the top sideboard will be replaced. Others will be restored if found to be structurally sound.
End boards may be reusable except bottom one. End beam will be replaced.
Close-up of opposite end. End sill is split and will be replaced. Hardware looks good.
High Side Gondola 1400 Restoration
The only work performed on the 1400 in 2010 was taking photos and measurements of its existing condition and acquiring information about this type, including engineering drawings, courtesy of members of the Friends of the C&TS.
On March 12, 2011 we began to disassemble the gondola. We plan to begin restoration work this summer.
March 19, 2011. The ‘A’ end hardware and end boards were removed on the high side gondola to provide easier access during the disassembly process. These boards are rotted and need to be replaced.
April 30, 2011. Dennis D’Alessandro (standing) punches out a bolt so he and Tom Artzberger (on gondola floor) can remove the bottom board. Nearly every bolt had to be cut or torched off. Even if they came off with a wrench the shank was badly rusted because of moisture held in place by the wood. All bolts will be replaced.
May 5, 2011. Three sides are now off. Removing each side is a tedious process because each rusted nut has to be burned off with a torch – about 154 per long side!
June 4, 2011. Cleaned debris off tops of sills and removed nails (or pounded down remaining stubs). Took detailed photos and measurements of components on outer sill. Note how center and end sills drop from cars being banged together. The sill drop starts at the rear of the draft gear frame.