Railworks America

This model is a McKeesport Connecting Railroad repaint of Michael Stephan’s 52ft Gondola by Harry R. Adkins. I painted it for use on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie route. The MKC is a very short switching railroad that connects with the Union RR and the P&LE.

Any idea what the umbrella symbol means?
Hard to image it means "fragile", since gondolas are about the roughest treated rail cars in service.

The umbrella is chalk-art graffitti. I've seen it on freight cars here in South Carolina. It probably has some meaning but I just added it for fun.

harryadkins wrote:The umbrella is chalk-art graffitti. I've seen it on freight cars here in South Carolina. It probably has some meaning but I just added it for fun.

Thanks.

I got my parcels symbols mixed up: umbrella symbol like that usually mean "keep dry", a glass indicates "fragile".
Could it be this mill service gondola has some kind of cover, tarpaulin or otherwise, to protect rolled steel coils from the elements?
Then again, I doubt these were general interchange cars and would be out on the road long.
So your explanation is better.

There is one more shortline that ran over this route: Pittsburgh, Chartiers and Youghiogheny Railroad:


I remember also having seen a GP7 lettered Youghiogheny, but cannot find the photo.

Here are my two sole reconnaisance scenarios for this huge route:
Some of the trains you'll meet should be powered by your repaints.

I've converted P&LE to ScaleRail. Drop me a PM and I'll send the file over.