Trains by Gingerloop Court: Intermodal Freight Car Addition Detail

Catalog Detail: GC-202

Name: Intermodal Freight Car Addition
Model: GC-202
Designed by: Devin Holmes
Design date: April 2001
Release date: May 2001

Design

The GC-202 was designed to be an addition to the GC-201 which is an all around purpose freight car for any 9V Train. The pieces have been carefully selected to ensure a model that will last you the life of your train and give you hours of enjoyment.

The design of the GC-201 is based upon the freight cars that you find on the railroad today. Many refer to it as a “spline” or “refeer” car. Inspiration for the design of the GC-201 is based upon a model built by David Harris (for information and pictures on his model you can go to: http://www.baylug.org/zonker/fcc/). Dave has a number of pictures about how he built his car and many have used his design as well. There may be other versions of this type of car out there but the GC-201 was built using Dave’s version.

The fun part about building the GC-201 is that when you connect more than one together you don’t have to use as many wheels. With the purchase of a GC-201 it comes with 2 End Trucks. If you purchase an additional Freight Car, like the GC-202, you will get another Freight Car and a single Truck to be used in the middle. When connecting the GC-201 and GC-202 you would connect them as follows with the End Truck, Freight Car, Middle Truck, Freight Car, and an End Truck. The two Freight Cars share the Middle Truck, thus eliminating 2 Train Wheels. Less wheels, less cost.

The overall length of the GC-201 from truck to truck is 39 studs, width is 7 studs, and height is 12 studs. The freight area of the GC-201 will allow you to place cargo that is 16 studs long and 4 studs wide. However you could place items in it that are 6 studs wide as long as the width is base of 4 studs.

Buffers have been included for each of the End Trucks to allow it to connect to your existing 9V Train.

Testing

The GC-202 was tested to ensure that the design, parts, and instructions all flowed together. The GC-202 was put through a number of strenuous tests to ensure that the trucks held up under constant and heavy use. Many different parts were used in the initial design of the Trucks before the final design was formulated. After the final design was reached the GC-202 went through additional testing to ensure that it would perform well without human intervention. The instructions have even been tested to ensure that an 11 year old can use them without difficulty.

Cost

The GC-202 was built with keeping the cost to a minimum in mind. While at first glance there does not appear to be a lot of detail you will find that it does have enough to render it more than just a plain car. It was decided not to include any freight boxes in order to keep the costs to a minimum. Instead you can use your own imagination to build any type of freight that you choose. For example regular boxes, plates stacked to simulate lumber, connected cylinders for propane tanks, and more.

Pictures

The following are pictures of the GC-202 model:

View of a middle truck and left side of the model.

View of the middle truck connecting the GC-201 & GC-202 (GC-201 is sold separately).

View of the middle truck design.

View of the middle truck and the freight car.

View of the GC-202 connected with a GC-201 (GC-201 is sold separately).

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