Elvas Tower: B&M 40' composite Gondolas c. 1926-1953 - Elvas Tower

Boston & Maine wood outside braced bottom dump
Principally used for coal between online B&M points.
loads include coal, sand, gravel, scrap, logs, lumber
Model, loads and original textures by Tim Muir
Repainted by Christopher Parker

These gondolas were on B&M's roster from 1919 - 1953. These represent the cars after 1926.
Built for coal service, the gondolas use broadened after 1929 when B&M bought new hoppers for coal shipments.
About 1/3 of New England's imported coal arrived by ship, transferred to B&M railcars in Boston's Mystic warf, Salem and Portsmouth. Much coal was used by B&M for locomotives.
The greatest concentration of coal shipment was from Boston and to Nashua, Manhester and Concord.
Like most railroads at the time, B&M's fleet going into WW1 was antiquated and obsolete. USRA assigned 1,500 of these cars to B&M, increasing the average coal load from 40 tons to 50 ton and bringing a 39% cubic fleet capacity increase with only 22% more cars.
This release uses a beautiful Tim Muir model designed to represent a CB&Q prototype. This introduces aa compromise as Tim's model depicts a composite wood end while the B&M cars had steel ends (two different kinds in fact, as much of the fleet was rebuilt in 1933 including new ends).
While hoppers supplanted these cars in 1929, they continued to be used for coal service after that date.
Wheel reports from the thirties show mostly coal loads still as well as one sand load.
Photos show a scrap load use for loading steam engine ash. Gravel seems plausible, perhaps for roadway maintenance.
Other old photos show gondolas with log and lumber loads (there were some significant sawmills on B&M, some with their own logging railroads, however many closed after the first decades of the 20th century, having logged the land bare).
By 1950 there were only 10 cars left and thereafter only two which were gone by 1953.
Thanks to the Boston & Maine Historical Society for much of this information.

I've made .dds texture for use by openrails as well as .ace files. Both are compressed and I would advise not using these as the basis for any further repaints.
I'm happy to supply my layer files to anyone who wises.