As others are leveling I will too. I have four Westerfield R7 FGE reefers w/3 different roofs and two styles of ladders; 2 FGE and one WFE truss rod reefers; a very worked over and modified Ribside MILW 40-ft. auto car; two L&N USRA 40-ft gons, (IM)-one original and one copy; one NC&StL USRA 2-bay hopper (Tichy); 2 Clinchfield F-5's painted & decaled awaiting application of glazing and other details; 2 CRR GP-7's as above; SRR F-3 high fans as above; NC&StL F-3 chicken wire as above; 2 NC&StL cabooses.

I have promised myself not to start anymore kits until I clear this backlog. Charles ask for recommendations which is hard but I will say I have not encountered any assembly or fit problems with most of these.

The exception are the R7's. The 2 Hutchins roofs on the Westerfield R7's required shaving off the ribs on each panel and sanding to get a clean look. On one of the two early roof versions, I had to split the roof and add fill material in the center (hidden by the running boards, which I also scratch built) to achieve the proper width and overhang. I am also substituting Red Caboose ladders for Al's and I am using some brass castings I scored made for Terry Wegman's 30-18 kit for the sill steps. The underframes required much fiddling to sit at the proper depth in the body, using a Dremel to remove material around the perimeter of the back side to achieve the proper look. There are also some sort of castings under the doors that I duplicated by cutting apart some Grandt Line reefer hinges and attaching the narrow part. I am dreading painting these as the are some pesky castings, beautifully rendered, along the bottom sill that are going to make masking very tedious. Having said all of this, I am so happy to have models of this prototype. There are so many little detail differences that all four are different. A feast for fiddlers.

I am also working on master patterns for the Virginian's little Bx-10 SS boxcar, building up the side pattern board by board.

Bill Welch