Micro-Trains - 106030 - Gondola, 50 Foot, Steel - Chicago & Eastern Illinois - 82005

Model Information: Gondola, 50 Foot, 14 Panel, Fishbelly Side, Fixed End, Low Cover,

Prototype History: In US railroad terminology, a gondola is an open-topped rail vehicle used for transporting loose bulk materials. Because of their low side walls, gondolas are also suitable for the carriage of such high-density cargoes as steel plates, steel coils, and bulky items such as prefabricated sections of rail track. For weather-sensitive loads, these gondolas are often equipped with covers.

All-steel gondolas date back to the early part of the 20th century. However, most of the early ones were shorter and used 40' designs. The ubiquitous 50' steel gondola we see modeled so often today are typical of railcars produced since the end of the second world war. In the late 1940s, steel became once again readily available and new, longer gondolas were produced to transport material for America's booming economy. Generally, these 50 foot cars have a capacity of 70 tons and were actually 52'6" long. The first models of this design were produced by the Erie Railroad and the Greenville Steel Car Co, but nearly identical cars were produced by Pullman, ACF and Bethlehem.

Road Name History: The Chicago & Eastern Illinois was formed in 1877 as a result of the reorganization of the Chicago Danville & Vincennes. By 1902 the C&EI ran south out of Chicago and split into three routes south of Danville, Illinois.

The eastern fork followed the Indiana-Illinois border (on the Indiana side) south to Evansville near the Kentucky border. At Evansville, traffic was primarily handed off to Louisville & Nashville for points in the South. This route saw the lion’s share of C&EI’s passenger business. In fact, many Chicago to Florida passenger limiteds traveled the C&EI from Chicago to Evansville. The Dixie Flagler, for instance, was routed: C&EI, Louisville & Nashville, Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis, Atlanta Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line, and Florida East Coast to get to Miami.

The center fork passed through Salem and Mount Vernon to the southern tip of Illinois, over the Thebes Bridge to Chaffee, Missouri and friendly connections with Cotton Belt, Frisco, and MoPac. This line generated considerable coal traffic in addition to through freight from Chicago to Louisiana and East Texas. Passenger service was provided by The Meadowlark. In later years this train used ACF Motorailers and later still, Budd RDC’s.

The western fork went to St. Louis. However the line from Pana, Illinois to St. Louis was actually on trackage rights with New York Central’s “Big Four” route. Passenger service on this line ended right after WWII due to unbeatable competition from GM&O, IC, and Wabash.

Total system mileage maxed out at about 950, putting C&EI between Lackawanna and Montana Rail Link in relative size. Prior to 1933, C&EI had been controlled by Frisco, then Chesapeake & Ohio (on behalf of the Van Sweringen Brothers.) That year brought another receivership but freed them from control by other lines for more than three decades.

In the 1960s, Louisville & Nashville, Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific dueled for control of the C&EI. In 1967, a compromise was reached. MoPac took control of the C&EI and sold the Evansville line and half interest in the line from Danville to Chicago to the L&N. L&N also received portions of the C&EI diesel and freight car fleets and most of the remaining passenger equipment. The sales to L&N were completed in 1969.

The remaining C&EI diesels were painted MoPac “Jenks Blue” and received buzzsaw logos with “C&EI” within. In 1976, the C&EI was merged into the Missouri Pacific.

Brand/Importer Information: Micro-Trains is the brand name used by both Kadee Quality Products and Micro-Trains Line. For a history of the relationship between the brand and the two companies, please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide.

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