Quote from: trainstrainstrains on October 24, 2014, 08:33:43 PM
I use a spell check, I'm honestly blaming it for doing something only Kevin Strong could do , turning a gondola into a lagonda, and while on the subject of gondolas before I started with model trains a gondola for me was only the beautifill and pohivitivly expensive, extreamly romantic Venetian canal gondolier driven canoo that my wife and I did not ride, instead we saw Venece from the Vaporetto, the venetian canal public transport , also romantic very cheap , sounds like a chu chu train and you dont feel like you are throwing your money straight into the canal, like the few turists that go for the gondola. Why a log carring train car has the same name is beyond me. Although I suppose there is a remote resemblance.
Just to show the connection between 'vaporetto' and the 'chuff-chuff' noise you noticed - 'the word 'vaporetto' is Itlaian for 'steamer' as in a steam-propelled boat. Hence the connection. Coomon useage in English English uses the word 'steamer' to describe an old-fashioned merchant vessel that carries passengers - as in 'The Cork Steam Packet and Navigation Co.'
A log-carrying train car is not called a gondola, but either a log flat car - if it IS a flatcar - usually with stake sides 'note spelling of 'stake', not 'steak', or a skeleton car, on account that it is simply a pair of trucks connected by a stout wooden beam on whch the trucks are mounted. A single-truck, connected to another truck by a substantial wooden beam, is called a 'disconnect', on account of the fact that it is not directly connected to another truck, except by the loose-fitting rooster bar. They all have log bolsters, or bunks, in logging terms, on which the log
A gondola car is like an open-topped box, BTW, high medium or low-sided, and pretty useless for carrying anything wooden unless it's in chip-form.
I get the impression that English is not necessarily your first language, so I hope that you'll forgive me for taking what may seem to be excessive liberties by explaining like this. I had to learn it, too.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS