Thanks Ben and Garth for the information. I ordered the back issue.
Fidel Goodnight

--- In STMFC@..., "Garth G. Groff" <ggg9y@...> wrote:

Ben,

Let me add that most Virginian cars were never relettered N&W (if

any at

all were). A few were still rolling with their original paint in

1982

when I first moved to Virignia. A few even lasted into the early

NS era.

Of course, that is well past our time frame. F.C. would be better

to buy

a few Athearn cars lettered for Virginian and mix them with his

N&W stock.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

benjaminfrank_hom wrote:

F. C. Goodnight asked:
"I just accquired 6 different numbers of the old Stewart, now

Bowser,

55 ton hoppers. I like them because they are short and I think

they

make the train look longer when it goes by. Are they

prototypical?"

Not exactly, but they can easily be modified to more closely

match

the N&W cars. The Stewart/Bowser fishbelly twin is a model of a
Western Maryland car, and has several detail differences from

N&W

Class HL, including grabs instead of ladders and different end
verticals. See Bob Chapman's "Modeling An N&W Coal Train, Part

Two:

HL's and H-9's" in the October 2005 issue of Mainline Modeler.

Back

issues are still available from the publisher at
http://www.hundman.com/cgi-bin/viewcatalog.cgi?
year=2005;magazine=mm&ct=1


"I know from the old Wallace and Wiley N&W book that the old

athern

[sic] blue box version is close."

Take anything from Wallace and Wiley with a grain of salt, as it

was

written for a much more forgiving era of model railroading and
contains some gaping holes in information. The cars that the

Athearn

twin most closely match were NOT originally N&W cars, but were
acquired with the takeover of the Virginian. Originally

Virginian

Class H-8, these became N&W Class H-28. The Athearn car is NOT

a

match for any of the N&W fishbelly twins.


Ben Hom