Coiled Steel Load

Coiled Steel Load Coiled Steel Load...
Coiled steel is a major commodity for the rail road. It is however not the most durable thing to ship. Originally shipped in gondolas converted to carry these cylindrical shaped loads, railroad finally designed special cars dedicated to carry these.

This type of coiled steel should not be confused with coiled steel wire that is sometimes referred to as just "coiled steel".

Chessie hauled their coiled steel in both converted gondolas and the specially built coil cars.

Below are two prototype photos. The one on the left is the specially designed cars for transporting coiled steel. The one on the right is a gondola converted to carry coiled steel. Note both of these cars have covers to protect the coils from the elements, but both types of these cars also traveled without covers as well.

How to:
1. Luckily Con-Cor includes the perfect load in their covered gondola kit.
2. Paint the ends engine black.
3. Glue the coils together.
4. Dry brush the coils with dark grey.
5. Add successively lighter shades of grey, until you are using almost pure white.
6. Paint the straps that hold the coils together roof brown or black.
7. Seal the weathering with Testors Dull Coat.
8. You are done. You now have an interesting load for both coil cars and coil carrying gondolas.

Below are the pieces as they came out of the box in the Con-Cor gondola kit.

Below are the coils almost finished. The ends were painted black and then dry brushed with shades of grey.

Below are the finished coils in a coil carrying gondola. Note that the straps around the coils have been painted roof brown. The Con-Cor kit comes with six coils, but this may actually be too much weight for a real gondola. Most are loaded with just 4 coils.

Below is what a typical loaded coil car would look like without the hoods on. Some of the Chessie coil cars were modified so that they could not carry their hoods and therefore had to look like this when loaded.

Below is another shot of the same coil car, but with one hood attached. The only time a coil car would look like this was during the loading and unloading at the originating industry or destination. Cars never rode the rails with just one hood. If you had an industry on your layout that used coiled steel, spotting this car, like this, under a crane would be a great scene.