"Battleship" gons

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Fri Aug 7 11:50:08 EDT 2009


So that means "battleship gon" is the wrong term for both Vgn and N&W heavy
gons. Anyway, neither existed in 1909, so "battleship" was a reference to
something else. All my life I have been thinking they were "battleship
gons," and recently I have learned that the railroaders did not use that
term. Live and learn! Jim Nichols

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:24 AM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: RE: "Battleship" gons

Pocahontas crews referred to the N&W 120-ton gons as "Titanics" and the
trainmen I've talked with were unaware of the term "Battleship" regarding
any coal cars.

Grant Carpenter


> The Hinton News (?) newspaper in 1905 or 1906 referred to a string of the

> C&O's new 50-ton steel hopper cars coming into the yard as "Battleships"

> and that they had to be segregated from their wooden cars to avoid

> destroying their wooden FB and HB gondola cars.

>

> Al Kresse

>

> > Bluefield Daily Telegraph

> > December 19, 1909

> >

> > IN CITY AND COALFIELD

> > ------

> > Three Cars Overturned

> > Three battleship*(1) coal cars were overturned yesterday afternoon

at Ruth*(2) and Train No. 10 had to take the high grade*(3) at that point
in order to make Bluefield on time. The wreck was cleared away by night.




More information about the NW-Mailing-List mailing list