Mike Brock wrote

Un for tu nate ly I can re call the "dis cus sions" here re gard ing "so lid",
"plain", and "fric tion" jour nal bear ings. Rich ard led the charge to use the
more "pro per" term "plain" or "sol id" bear ing due to use in the pro to type
rail road me dia of our per i od.

Mikebrock,Iwasexperimentingwithseparationbetweensyllablesofeverywordasapossible
solutiontothisterminologicalconundrumbutthenIrealizedweprobablywouldnotallbeable
toagreeonwheretoputthesyllableboundaries.Yoursinparsinghell,TimO'Connor

On Jun 20, 2011, at 11:02 AM, John Golden wrote:

Gentlemen,

I've noticed that Intermountain is using what appears to be an
upgraded, much
finer Andrews truck on their recent HO scale models. Does anyone
know if these
trucks are Intermountain or some other brand, and would you know
where I could
obtain additional copies? Thanks.

John, the USRA Andrews trucks on my IM Santa Fe Caswell gondolas
appear to be made by or for them. They're similar but not the same
as Accurail's Andrews trucks. Both are very good; they have well
formed and detailed, and prototypically slender, side frames but the
brake shoes don't line up with the wheels and there is no brake
rigging. I happen to know that Brian Leppert at Tahoe Model Works is
making dies for a USRA Andrews truck even as I write, and though I
don't know when those trucks will be for sale, you might want to wait
for them, as they will be (as usual) superior to everyone else's
trucks of that type.

Richard Hendrickson

On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:36:35 -0500 (CDT), Joel Holmes wrote

No Quite,
I am horrified by some of the comments made about judging and contests.

Why?
Andy

Armand,

A complete listing of the first release schemes is on our web site at
http://www.rapidotrains.com/reefer2.html, and yes, it does include both URTX
and GARX plain schemes.

Bill

Dear Group...

While looking through the November, 1939 issue of Railroad
Magazine, I found this item under their Model Railroading section. I
thought that this Group would like to see just how far we've come
from the "Good Old Days" of painting:


Painting Your Cars

A ten-cent can of four-hour-drying enamel is splendid for passenger
equipment. Having used it, however, you must be careful to remove the
unwanted gloss by rubbing it over ever so slightly with Dutch
Cleanser or some similar powder. Thus you obtain a final effect which
is more like a waxed finish than anything else.

You don't want an enamel finish for two good and final reasons:
Grown-up railroad trains are not enameled, in this country anyhow;
and to enamel models is to make them into toy trains. But on
passenger equipment of the better class grown-up railroads, there is
a certain polish, a certain satiny sheen, which we do well to imitate.

The painting of rolling stock happens to be one of our favorite
pastimes. Pure green is the color we buy; and we mix it with black.
Somehow, the black seems to have more solid body to it, it works off
the brush and spreads more smoothly than the green. That's an
advantage. Our reason for using the black, however, is purely for the
color effect.

We begin with two small saucers of the pure green. To one of them we
add enough black to produce a definitely dark green; but the green in
the other saucer we make over into a greenish black. This is for the
roof, the dark green for the sides and ends.

Even so, we look over the car-roof carefully and find all the places
where soot would gather, and these we daub with pure black. And the
places that are washed clean with rain we daub with pure green. Then
after waiting fifteen minutes or so, we paint the roof with the
aforementioned mixture of greenish black. The daubs mix with it
slightly, making it greener along the top, blacker in among the
ventilators.

A good rule is to mix your colors by eye, and to mix them fresh for
each car. Thus you achieve a life-like variety of tones---some
looking fresh out of the shops, others weather-beaten, soot-covered;
but most of them at various stages in between. And thus, too, you
further avoid giving to your equipment the deadly prettiness of toy
trains.


Like they used to say,..."You've come a long way, baby"

Your Fellow Group Member
Steve Vallee