E&C Shops - 822 - Gondola, 65 Foot, Mill - Chicago & Illinois Western - 128073

Model Information: E&C shops originally designed this tooling. It was later acquired by LBF and then by Hubert's and as of recently by InterMountain. Cars come factory equipped with Micro-Trains® trucks/couplers and are available with a variety of different loads. Examples can be found with E&C, LBF and Hubert's branding. InterMountain (as of 4/2019) has not yet produced a release though they definitely now have possession of the molds.

Prototype History: Generally used to haul scrap metal and loose bulk materials, gondola cars vary in length and side heights. Mill Gondola cars are more commonly used for high-density commodities and have a flat bottom while regular Gondola cars are most commonly used for coal or crushed aggregates and can have a flat or tub bottom configuration.

Steel-sided 65' mill gondolas date back to at least the 1940s, however specialized rib-sided "mill" gondolas are a relatively modern design. These cars are intended for use with the steel trade, and they are used to transport just about anything that can be loaded using an overheard crane. They date from the 1970s forward.

Road Name History: The railroad of the Chicago & Illinois Western Railroad was a single-track, standard-gauge, steam, switching railroad, located in northeastern Illinois. The main line extends southwesterly from a connection with the tracks of The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company at Western Avenue in the city of Chicago, to Gary, 10.873 miles, with a branch line to Hawthorne, aggregating 12.027 miles of road. The main line formerly extended beyond Gary to Willow Springs, Ill., but on valuation date the track between these points, 1.723 miles, was temporarily removed. In addition, the carrier has trackage rights over 9.95 miles of the road of other carriers, and leases for exclusive use certain yard tracks and facilities.

First of all, don’t confuse this line with Chicago & Western Indiana of Dearborn Station fame. The Chicago & Illinois Western was a shortline with 33 miles of track serving a number of large industries in Harvester, Hawthorne and Gary in the greater Chicago area. Illinois Central took stock control of the C&IW in 1924 but the shortline remained a separate operation with their own locomotives and freight cars until it was finally merged into the Illinois Central in the run up to the IC – Gulf Mobile & Ohio merger of 1972.

Brand/Importer Information: E&C Shops made decent and inexpensive Wood Chip Cars and Coalporters (their first offerings). They were genius because they made mass produced multiple road numbers available at the same time, something that the big guys are just now embracing after years of cycles of watching for announcements and checking the ones you already have. At the time and at least 10 years beyond it was nice to grab a dozen BN coalporters with different numbers in a box and go. Kudos to Fred Becker and Hubert for trying something different and cutting edge. Their Bethgons were less expensive and more detailed than later big-name productions.

Manufacturer Information: Micro-Trains Line split off from Kadee Quality Products in 1990. Kadee Quality Products originally got involved in N-Scale by producing a scaled-down version of their successful HO Magne-Matic knuckle coupler system. This coupler was superior to the ubiquitous 'Rapido' style coupler due to two primary factors: superior realistic appearance and the ability to automatically uncouple when stopped over a magnet embedded in a section of track. The success of these couplers in N-Scale quickly translated to the production of trucks, wheels and in 1972 a release of ready-to-run box cars.

Micro-Trains Line Co. split off from Kadee in 1990 to form a completely independent company. For this reason, products from this company can appear with labels from both enterprises. Due to the nature of production idiosyncrasies and various random factors, the rolling stock from Micro-Trains can have all sorts of interesting variations in both their packaging as well as the products themselves. When acquiring an MTL product it is very important to understand these important production variations that can greatly enhance (or decrease) the value of your purchase.

Please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide