1103 N&W G-12 Gondola

Era 1965 to Present

Starting in June 1965, Norfolk & Western built 1000 class G-12 53’ gondolas in its Roanoke, VA shops. The design was heavily based on the B&O O-70/90 gondolas built the previous year by Bethlehem. Changes from the B&O design included end-of-car cushioning, Tu-Way lading anchors on the top chord, and wood floors. The first 500 cars (NW 98000-98499) were equipped with Freightmaster end-of-car cushioning, while the remaining 500 (NW 98500-98999) were equipped with A.O. Smith cushioning. The latter proved heavy and unreliable, so many of that group were gradually converted to non-cushioned draft gear. In 1966, 100 cars were selected at random and returned to Roanoke to receive covers and interior bulkheads for bar/sheet steel service. These were reclassed G-12A and renumbered NW 198000-198099. Then in 1967-1969, 26 more randomly-selected cars received covers and troughs for coil steel service. These were reclassed G-12B (soon changed to CS-4) and renumbered NW 70610-70629 & 72140-72145. There were other variations on the G-12 theme: for example, two cars became class G-12D as NW 70450-70451 in 1974, receiving various modifications and racks for Libby-Owens automotive glass service. Look for these interesting glass cars as a future release! The G-12 class served well into the 2000s, and some can still be seen today in maintenance of way service for Norfolk Southern (including some cars which had gone to Conrail, and then returned to the NS roster with the Conrail split.)

We offer three different covers as add-ons to this kit, allowing you to easily model the G-12A and G-12B/CS-4 cars.
G-12a roofs were short, and they were built with running boards. We offer them both with and (later) without running boards. We also offer the taller G-12b/CS-4 roofs, including the 1970 addition of extra W-shaped lifting hooks.
Click HERE to purchase covers!

The G-12 cars as-built were painted in the N&W’s black/white “hamburger” paint scheme. Around summer 1975, there appears to have been a concerted effort to repaint many of the cars into the less flashy NW block lettering paint scheme. Of course, many escaped the paint shop and continued in original paint for years to come. The cars under the NS banner tended to be simple patch restencilling jobs and not full repaints.

For these gondolas, we offer the N&W class T120 100 ton ASF A-3 roller bearing truck, our PN 4116-01.

Items are currently out of stock pending a restock of Photo Etching. Etchings are ordered and should arrive within 30 days. We will leave ordering open and items will be shipped ASAP. Please be aware though that there will be a short delay on shipping of the item.