Re: F&CC Gondolas

Taylor,

The car at Virginia City Montana is former F&CC 036. The F&CC built dump cars 30 - 37 in 1898 and 1899, By the end of F&CC operation they were numbered 030 - 037. Three of these cars, 033, 034, and 035 were off the F&CC roster after 1912, the remaining five were reportedly sold to the Montana Southern in 1918-1919. No. 036 is reported to reflect a rebuild by the MS, and is not in its 'as built' form. John Maxwell drew an O scale drawing of this car, along with drawings of much of the other F&CC equipment. Unfortunately, the Maxwell Collection is not currently available.

John Maxwell's drawings of the car provide both the F&CC and MS versions of these cars. Model Railroader had a scale drawing of a Union Pacific standard gauge side dump gondola of very similar design about fifteen or twenty years ago, which can probably be found in the index to their scale drawings. I believe Kalmbach sells copies of the drawings from Model Railroader.

These dump cars were a very small part of the F&CC fleet, suggesting that they were not as efficient as hoped. The majority of the F&CC gondola fleet were 100 conventional flat bottom cars built by American Car & Foundry in two batches - Nos. 300 - 349 built in 1898 were owned by the Victor Gold Mining Co, and so lettered originally, but lettered for the F&CC after 1907. Nos. 350 - 399 were built in 1901. I am not aware of any of the F&CC flat bottom gondolas surviving.

Hope this helps.

Charlie Mutschler
-30-