Well I will try to continue this thread since it was my idea, I finally got to the train room and took some new pictures. I plan to post them over the next few days as it turns out I have a LOT of gondola's (more than I ever realized).
When we first started Arnold posted his first gondola from 1954, an early Lionel PW version. Well perhaps you didn't know but in 1945 the FIRST car that Lionel produced with a body molded in plastic (Bakelite they called it) was a gondola the #2452 PRR gondola produced 1945-1947 with type 1 metal trucks and coil couplers. This car was a real sensation in the industry and led to many others that followed.
The success of the molded gondola, quickly led to the # 2456 LV molded Hopper car in 1948.
Much later, and candidly much less realistic than the original 2452 was a succession of simple molded gondolas that populated many sets along the entire line. This Lionel 6142 is from 1961-1963
But I could not leave out the Lionel - Ives 9 1/2" lithographed car from the 1933 to 1940. In other posts you have now seen the lithographed box car, caboose, and now gondola. This was the entire line of these cars, although some under went some color changes.
Well folks, hope you keep posting your gondolas and hoppers. Best wishes
Don
