PRR 166658 GLa – George Losse collection

The Pennsylvania Railroad class GLa is a 50 ton twin open hopper car. Construction began in 1904 and continued through 1991. A total of 30,256 were built for the PRR or acquired from various coal companies that built the same design.

The April 1956 OER lists 21,840 GLa’s on the roster. Compare this to Reading’s 13015 total hopper cars, or Western Maryland’s 8006 total hopper cars and you begin to see the size of the PRR fleet of GLa’s.

The GLa was originally built with K brakes and later converted to AB. Very few GLa were updated with power brake wheels most cars retained their verticle brake staff. One exception would be the second hand cars acquired from Berwind-White, which had modern power hand brake hardware.

It’s interesting to note that the overall dimensions of the GLa are close to the USRA Standard 50-Ton Twin Hopper which was designed almost 15 years later. Inside Length is one inch shorter at 30′ 5″. Inside width 9′ 5 1/2″ is a half an inch wider then the USRA Twin. The GLa is 8″ shorter to the top of side cord at 10′ 0″ but the side height is only 5″ shorter as the bottom of the car side sits three inches lower than the USRA Twin. The GLa has a capacity only 197 cu. ft. less that the USRA Twin. These similiarities will work in our favor when it comes time to build a fleet of these cars.

BCWX 4026 GLa – George Losse collection

WMX 1404 GLa – George Losse collection

References:
Keystone Article
PRR Steel Open Hopper Cars – John Teichmoeller
January 1952 Official Railway Equipment Register
September 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register
April 1956 Official Railway Equipment Register

O Scale Models:
Chooch #674 Pullman Flat Car – Ultra Scale line of resin cars.
Wiseman Model Services appears to be producing a similar kit.

The History:
The American Association of Railroads (AAR) Committee on Car Construction established a standard for 53’ 6” flat cars based upon a 1941 Pullman-Standard Company design. The earliest users of this design were the Chicago Great Western, Monon, Soo and UP. The design established a new standard for deck height of 42” which was lower than previous car designs. This feature would permit taller loads without exceeding established clearance limits. It also had a much wider deck extending beyond the fishbelly sides. Twenty railroads built 2532 cars to this basic design.

The car spanned a long period of operation ranging from 1941 to the 1980’s. Some roads converted these cars into piggyback carriers or fitted them with bulkheads for building materials. Many of the cars ended up in maintenance of way service after a long revenue life.

Following chart from Chooch website:

Reading N1-sc 1813 in an as-built look.

Bert Pennypacker speaks about the Reading Mallets 2-8-8-2 in his Mainline Modeler article on the K1’s. They were built by Baldwin beginning with six locomotives received in 1917. Two additional orders brought the fleet up to 31 locomotives by 1919 and were classes N1-sa/b/c. They were numbered 1800-1830, with 55.5 inch drivers and 98,400 lbs of tractive force.

The mallets were distributed in different parts of the system, 11 were running between Hagerstown-Rutherford-Allentown, two were assigned to Reading as Temple Hill pushers, and the rest were were distributed through the coal regions, West Cressona, St.Clair, Tamaqua, Gordon and Shamokin. The locomotives assigned to pusher duties were given small capacity tenders, 8,000 gallons and12.8 tons of coal. While the road mallets were given larger tenders with 11,000 gallon and 18 ton capacity. Wages were cheap and pusher runs were short, no need for big tenders.

It was said of the Mallets that they could pull anything slowly. The Reading most not have been totally happy with the speed of the N1’s in road service. Beginning in 1927, locomotives #1800-1810 (11) were rebuilt into the K1 2-10-2 locomotives. They were only ten years old at the start of the project. Their boilers were reused and most of their parts in the rebuilding project.

Reading N1 drawing from Locomotive Cyclopedia

Then in 1930 the railroad began converting the mallets from compound to single expansion cylinders. They were re-classed as N1-sd. The big delivery pipes on the side of the smoke box are an indication of the converted locomotives. All the N1’s were converted by 1945. They also had their trailing trucks removed between 1940-1944.

Reading N1-sd moving a train in coal country.

In the late 1940’s ten N1-sd’s received new smoke boxes and cross-compound air pumps relocated onto the smoke box front. The locomotive that had the forward mounted air pumps were numbered; 1811, 1812, 1817, 1820, 1822, 1823, 1826, 1828, 1829 and 1830.

Reading N1-sd sporting air pumps on the smoke box

Reading 1814 N1-sd on the move.

Nice to have both sides of Reading1814 here at Tamaqua, PA.

References:
Mainline Modeler, May/June 1981 – “Reading 2-10-2 It should have been a Texas” by Bert Pennypacker
Reading Steam Pictorial

Photograph’s from George Losse Collection scanned from prints and/or original negatives.

Reading OE-9 #102 Tamaqua, PA 9/23/1961

The Reading received their first 1000 HP. switcher form EMD in the form of an NW2 #90, on September 5, 1940. This missed out being the first 1000 HP. switcher on the Reading by three weeks to #80 a Baldwind VO-1000.

NW2’s numbered #91-92 arrived in early October of 1941. After World War 2 was over the Reading added five more NW2’s to the roster numbers #100-104.The second series of NW2’s differed slightly from the first three by having louvers in the engine compartment doors.

The First three were originally assigned to the Shamokin Division. Eventually, they migrated to other parts of the railroad.

All the locomotives were delievered in the Pullman Green scheme. None were repainted into the green and Yellow scheme. One locomotive #104 was repainted into the last solid green scheme. Not all switcher received the rain gutters, #91 was photographed in 1963 without gutters.

Reading OE-9 #92 Reading, PA 10-16-75

References:
Diesel Era – 1996 March/April – Reading’s Repowered Switchers.
Diesel Era – 1998 March/April – Reading’s First-Generation Diesels by by Paul K. Withers
Reading Diesels Volume 1 The First Generation – by Dale Woodland
Photograph’s from George Losse Collection scaned from negatives.