Richard Townsend asked:
"I have come into possession of a pair of Taylor trucks. My
understanding is that Taylors were used exclusively (or almost so) by
the Reading. My question is this: what series of cars, if any, would
have had Taylor trucks in 1958?"

Page 68 of the Morning Sun Reading Color Guide shows RDG 102123 from
RDG 101000-102999, Class XMu, 1910 cars remaining in January 1959.
This car has Taylor trucks; photo taken at Shamokin, PA, October 14,
1962. Here's an earlier photo from Ted Culotta's website:
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/rdg102751main.html


"I'm looking for a good modeling candidate, which in my case is a car
that I can model with an available kit."

Oy. From a modeling standpoint, Reading's pre-WWII boxcars are a pain
in the ass. With the exception of their USRA SS boxcars, almost all
classes are tantalizingly close to available kits, but have one or
more significant differences that make building an accurate model
difficult. At first glance, Class XMu looks like an X29 copy.
However, even though this car has flat ends, it has 8-panel sides, a
Hutchins roof, and an IH of 9 ft 3 in, 8 inches taller than the X29.
The height difference is what makes this kitbash difficult -
otherwise, you could use the ends from a Red Caboose kit, the sides
from the Westerfield USRA-design steel boxcar (from the earlier flat
kits), and a Hutchins roof cut from an Accurail SS boxcar. To get the
correct height, you'll need to splice sides and ends.

Red Caboose did offer the X29 as a Reading Class XMt boxcar, which was
a 8 ft 7 in IH car with flat ends; however, it has 10 panel sides vs
the 8 panel sides of the protoype, and I have not seen a photo of
these cars with Taylor trucks (my Reading resources are admittedly
thin). The bottom line - it depends on what compromises that you can
live with.


Ben Hom