Years ago, I got a pair of gondola ends from Temple Neiter, reproduction castings of a “Graceline” part, which I used to make my first gondola (using cut down American Flyer sides). That car may be seen here; it is one I still run often, and a project that others might want to try, as it really did come out nicely. I think often of making another, in fact.

But the story today is not about that model, it is about the mold used to make those end castings. Back at the Morlok auction (2010) I was able to buy the Nieter molds, or what remained of them.** These were made by H. Temple Nieter for purposes of making reproduction parts to help out other OO gaugers (an overall look at the molds may be found here).

Many of the parts are reproductions of standard parts, but others are a bit more exotic – Sn3 parts, oddball models, etc. This gondola end is a great example, because while Graceline did make a gondola, they did not make a cast gondola end! They produced a stamped cardboard (“comprestic”) end, to which other parts were applied. (An example of the successor model by Transportation Models may be seen here).

What either Nieter or another “OOldtimer” did was mount the cardboard end on probably a wood piece, and to that mount a Graceline end sill. Likely he sealed it well, and then made the mold. With a knife he would cut in the funnel for the metal, and then used gravity to make his castings using cast off linotype slugs.

Note the date on the mold: 1973! This mold is 50 years old this year! As with most of these molds, this mold is slightly out of shape and needs wood blocks and lots of rubber bands to keep it sealed up. But it is usable, likely helped by him keeping a final casting in the mold as it was stored. And at this point I’ve had the mold almost as long as Temple did, as he passed in 1984. (An overview of Temple Nieter may be found here)

I like to imagine Temple in his shop on some cold winters day long ago, making parts in this mold.

My new end castings I make with Cerrobend. It is a nice, low temperature melting point alloy that I think is gentle on the old molds. And I use it also for bending tubing working on musical instruments; it is easy to find either this or an equivalent formula of material for castings. My overall success ratio is more than half the castings came out well, which is pretty good for the age and condition of the mold.

I’m sure hoping to get more good use from the Nieter molds, and for any reader out there looking for a few “exotic” American OO parts (non-Lionel), do feel free to be in touch.

**For sure there were at least a few more molds made that I do not own now. I have for example a number of copies of Famoco boxcar ends made by Nieter, but no original mold for the part. And, speaking generally, the smallest and the largest of his molds are not very usable now. I store them all indoors to hopefully get the most use of them that I can.