In regard to Andy's post regarding Devcon, I have a friend in Ft. Wayne Indiana who makes his own masters and casts all of his PRR rolling stock from Devcon. Bill Faith, whom some of those on this list may remember, had been the original owner of Custom Railway Supply. At that time he was selling engravings of tower signs, railroad crossing signs, engine and tender badge plates, in addition to also making trust plates for passenger cars, cabin (cabooses to most of you) cars and freight cars (proper references for this list).

Bill has always cast his own parts from his own molds and masters, or from molds he made of commercially made parts. Over the last several years he has turned to Devcon to cast his own kits and parts which assembles into passenger cars and freight cars which would not otherwise be available, or available only as a brass model. His standards are so high that he absolutely refuses to buy a lot of what is on the market, either in brass, plastic or urethane.

He says that the Devcon as a casting material, even for large objects such as freight and passenger car sides, is an excellent medium to use and has had very few problems with it. I have seen the results of his work. He has cast PRR H30 Covered Hoppers where the only commercial parts that he has used were the grab irons, dimensional brass wire, couplers and wheel sets. They are exquisite! The interesting thing is that the Devcon he is using, when set up and hardened, is a dark gray. I imagine from Andy's description of the WHITE 2-Ton epoxy, that there must be several versions of this casting material on the market.

Tom Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware,19711-7479
(302) 738-4292
tmolsen@udel.edu
Andy Carlson wrote: