Gondola

Class GS  No. 201-205

The five (No. 201-205) Tidewater Southern Railway gondolas were built as part of an order placed by the Western Pacific Railroad with American Car & Foundry in 1957.  The order for 100 drop-bottom general service gondolas included the five Tidewater Southern gondolas, twenty for the Sacramento Northern Railway, and seventy-five for the Western Pacific Railroad itself.  The rail cars were nominally 46 feet in length, had a capacity of 2,410 cubic feet, weighted just over 56,000 pounds, and were equipped with ASF A-3 Ride Control Trucks and Westinghouse AB 1012 Air Brakes.

The T.S. number series for these railcars reused in part the same numbers used by the electric interurubans (No. 201 and 202) decades earlier.  The gondolas survived until the early 1970's.  T.S. gondola No. 202 was renumbered to W.P. No. 9796, and T.S. No.s 201, 204 and 205 were retired in 1972.

 (Photos: Top - W. C. Whittaker, Fort Smith, Arkansas, August 23, 1958.)