Reinforcing side stakes for 40 foot solid bottom gondolas, GN 72500-72749

Reinforcing side stakes applied to GN 72500-72749 gondolas. In 1952, the Great Northern Railway purchased 250 nominal forty-foot long ‘mill gondolas’, from American Car and Foundry, cars 72500 to 72749. These were GN’s first solid bottom gondola cars, as opposed to the approximately 2,700 nominal forty-foot long drop bottom gondolas on the roster in 1952. As delivered these cars were painted mineral red. They would prove to be the only forty-foot long ‘mill gons’ the Great Northern ever owned. The NPRHA is offering resin model kit of these cars, which were Northern Pacific 59000 to 59499 purchased from ACF in 1952-53. The kit includes the full body casting, appropriate small parts, and a pair of Tahoe TWM 70 ton ASF A-3 ride control trucks. Couplers and decals are not included. Reinforcing side stakes were added to cars 72500 to 72749 beginning in September of 1957 to strengthen the sides of the cars. Four larger and longer reinforcing side stakes that extended below the sides were add