Bill asks

In 100 words or less, what is your single favorite Steam Era Freight Car,
and WHY? Principal contributors Ted Culotta and Ben Hom are required to
respond.

Dangerous ground here Bill. "Favorite" implies emotional and not logical
reasoning, and thus a favorite car could be the antithesis of a logical car
<G>. After all, what stands out in the mind is often the oddball, or
unusual, so for favorites, I would have to vote for two, one-of-a-kind cars:

1) PRR X30 70' steel boxcar. A special purpose boxcar with end doors
designed for loading aerial ladder trucks for American LaFrance in Elmira
New York. A 70' boxcar in a fleet of 40'ers...too cool...AND the Elmira
branch is one of my favorite PRR branches...AND it combines a fascination
of trains and fire engines...Hopefully, Rail Classics will release this car
in HO shortly.

2) PRR FD2/FW1 flat car. Two cars really as there was a depressed center
body and a well hole body that carried different numbers. With 16 axles, 4
ex-tender trucks and its humongous size, it is a train all by itself (and
often had to handled as such!)

Happy Rails
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith V.M.D., Ph.D.
Scott-Ritchey Research Center
334-844-5587, 334-844-5850 (fax)
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin
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