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Lenny Harlos, Jr. has been a Conrail modeler since he was a kid and is the owner of Thoroughbred RR Models, a high-quality custom-modeling service. The insulated G39A woolie ore cars are just one of many models for sale through his service. In this article, Lenny tells how he took the new Stewart Hobbies HO scale model and converted it into the model you see here.
You're looking at custom-built models of the new Stewart Hobbies 70-ton G39 ore car, known as "jennies." The Pennsylvania Railroad built the real cars in their Holidaysburg Shops in Pennsylvania. By the time Conrail inherited the fleet from Penn Central, which had inherited the cars from the Pennsylvania, most of the cars had been operating continuously for nearly 12 years.
The Pennsy originally built two basic classes of jennies, the G38 and the G39. The G39 was 18" taller than the G38 in order to haul the newly developed lower-density taconite pellets. You can see Lenny's model of a basic G38A to the right.The G39A that Lenny models has modernized trucks instead of the older cast iron ones, though not all G39's were re-fitted. If you look at the trucks, you'll see that the journal box covers found on the older friction-bearing trucks have been removed and roller-bearings have been added. Lenny models the insulated version of the G39A, nicknamed "woolies."
According to Al Buchan's article "The G39A Insulated Cars" in the August 2004 issue of The Keystone Modeler from the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society, most of the Pennsylvania Railroad's taconite iron ore pellets came from their ore docks along the Great Lakes region between April and November, when the lakes weren't frozen. They also shipped imported ore pellets from their Philadelphia, PA dock, which operated year-round. In Philadelphia, the ore came off the ships at a temperature of between 50 and 60 degrees. However, if the transit time from the Philly docks to the Pittsurgh mills during winter took more than three days, the loads would often freeze.
In the winter of 1962, US Steel, the receiver of the ore loads, began experimenting with insulated jennies and hoppers. The Pennsylvania Railroad seemed to be pleased with the results, so in 1964 they began insulating the last 110 of the 1,000 G39A's they had been building. At the time, the Sam Rea shops at Holidaysburg were cranking out 16 G39A's a day. The cars destined for insulation were then sent fully painted and stenciled 10 miles from Sam Rea to Altoona, where Landreth Industries applied the insulation in an unused grit-blast room. 64 cars received Hooker Hetrofoam, and the remaining 46 cars received PPG Mobay Selectrofoam. Using a hand-operated spray gun, employees sprayed the foam onto the freshly painted cars, avoiding sensitive parts such as air brake valves and couplers. When done, the foam added 500 pounds to each car!
In 1964, the Pennsylvania operated two 100-car iron ore trains between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 45 cars were un-insulated, whereas the other 55 were insulated G39A's. The operation was successful, cutting down unloading time because the ore in the insulated cars wouldn't freeze in transit, but the insulated G39A's began having problems--the insulation quickly began wearing off during unloading (the cars were emptied in rotary dumpers that grabbed the sides of the cars) and during the trip due to the foam's exposure to the elements. This "molting" pretty much ended the program, and the cars lost more and more foam over time, looking ragged and beaten by the time Conrail acquired the cars in 1976.
Modeling The G39A Woolies
Lennny models the cars in their ragged appearance on Conrail during the 1990's. The photo of Lenny's finished model of CR 502173 (left) has foam gone from most of the car, except along some of the ribs and corners, where it clings tenaciously. Conrail did not have an aggressive ore jenny repainting program, nor did the Penn Central for that matter, especially when it came to the insulated G39A's. As a result, the cars retained their original black PRR paint with Conrail numbers applied over it (plus logo) until Conrail fully stripped the insulation and paint from the cars, repainting them oxide red. Conrail also retained the original panels that had held in the foam and had carried the reporting marks and logos.During the 1990's, when the insulated G39A's were nearing the end of their lives, most railfans simply ignored these cars. For example, Conrail regularly operated ore unit-trains--called "Z" trains, such as ZWW--between Philadelphia and Bethlehem, PA. "I remember watching these cars get backed into the steel plant in Bethlehem, PA," Lenny says, "and it never hit me to take photos. I just thought they would be there." Like the iron plant Bethlehem, the G39A's were totally gone by 1997. Lenny says that most of the cars were chopped up for scrap, though some were used to haul dirt between Wayne and Jersey City, NJ.
Lenny began his HO model of an insulated G39A with an undecorated Stewart G39 (#10600). [Note: Bowser has purchased Stewart but are still offering Stewart's entire line of models.] The model body is made entirely of metal in order to give it more weight than plastic, making it track more reliably than a plastic version. A predecorated Conrail version of the G39 is pictured to the left. After washing the model in mild detergent to get rid of dirt and oils, Lenny used a special mix of grit and other household chemicals to get the foam look, applying the "goop" to the car and letting it dry solid. As Lenny says, unlike the real foam the Pennsylvania had applied, this model foam will never flake off!
When the foam dried, he then applied the panels for the reporting marks and logo, which can been seen in the photo of the finished model to the right. He also applied the ladders, completing the kit.Now it came time for painting, spraying the entire model with Scalecoat II's Locomotive Black. When the paint had dried, Lenny painted the foam using a mixture of orange and yellow paints. When the paint was thoroughly dry, he than applied the decals to the models, using bits from four different decal sets. Lenny has since had custom decals made for the insulated G39A's, which has saved him a great deal of time.
With the car nearly complete, Kadee #58 couplers and trucks were added. However, Lenny didn't use the trucks Stewart supplies with the car. Instead, he used convertible trucks for friction and roller bearings from MDC. Unfortunately, these trucks are currently out of production but can still be found at swap meets and some hobby shops. In the photo of CR 502173 to the upper left, you can see the MDC trucks with the converted journal boxes, which really give these cars their distinctive look. Finally, Lenny weathered the car using a mixture of various Scalecoat II colors and a flat agent.
If you're interested in modeling loaded cars instead of empty ones, Greenway Products in Ligonier, PA offers a four-pack of iron ore loads specifically for Stewart's G39/G39A cars. The loads retail for $6.50 and can be purchased directly from Greenway's website.
"I really love these models from Stewart," says Lenny, "and when I was a kid modeling Conrail I always wished they would come out. Now that I have 150 ore cars of my own, I now offer these 70-ton ore jennies ("woolies") with insulation 100% ready-to- roll. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy producing the cars. Thank you for looking!"If you would like to purchase some of these exquisitely modeled cars, you can email Lenny or visit Thoroughbred RR Models, where he has pages of ore jennie photos and will be adding more in the near future, plus his many other models that are available.
More Woolie Photos: CR 502137
Since I wrote the article above about Lenny's woolie ore jennies, he has sent me some additonal photos of other woolies that has created. These photos are featured below in album format.
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