WalthersMainline (910-55914) | 50' Bethgon Coalporter Gondola | 3 Pack | CPOX #3305, 3315, 3342 | HO Scale

Product Description

Coal Service

Add a staple of the coal industry to your HO Scale railroad with WalthersMainline 50' Bethgon Coalporter Gondolas. Prototypes for this freight car remains a common sight, running in unit trains across the North American rail network. Built by Bethlehem Steel's Johnstown American Corporation, the Bethgon features all-aluminum construction and a unique trough-style bottom for added carrying capacity. Because there are no discharge chutes on the bottom of the car, these cars are unloaded strictly by rotary dump.

Consumers Power Company CPOX

The CPOX reporting marks belong to Consumers Power Company, a Michigan-based electric utility best known today as part of Consumers Energy. Rather than being a traditional railroad, CPOX was an industrial rail operation used to support the company’s power generation facilities, especially coal-fired power plants. The railroad handled coal movements, switching duties, and plant service operations using a small fleet of industrial locomotives and specialized rolling stock.

Like many utility-company rail operations in the Midwest, CPOX existed primarily to move massive quantities of coal from interchange railroads directly into generating stations. These operations became especially important during the postwar electric power boom when utilities relied heavily on rail-delivered coal to keep plants operating around the clock. CPOX locomotives were typically rugged switchers built by EMD, GE, and Alco, designed for slow-speed industrial service rather than mainline freight operations.

For railfans and modelers, CPOX equipment represents a unique part of North American railroading — the hidden world of industrial and utility railroads that worked behind the scenes to keep power flowing. Cars bearing the CPOX reporting marks are especially interesting because they reflect the close relationship between railroads and the electric utility industry during the height of coal transportation in the United States.

Features

• Appropriate for layouts set in the 1970s to present day
• Crisply printed graphics and legible stencils on car sides and ends
• Individually molded and applied internal bracing
• Scale 36" diameter turned metal wheels
• Proto MAX(TM) Metal Knuckle Couplers