In some of my last correspondence with Bill Welch, he sent a very nice photo of a Tennessee Central open hopper (twin) with the admonition that he did not have permission to have it used in any general shared form. I’d like to try to run down Bill’s source for this photo to possibly gain permission so it can be shared with the group as part of the project he was working on. The photo is of car number 9001 built in 1926. It has a reweigh date of 10-38 and it’s file name is “EldonNeff-TennCentral-hopper-9001-01-Springfield-OH.jpg.” If any of you can help me with this, please contact me off list (kensoroos”at”charter”dot”net). If not, does anyone have a good photo of a TC hopper from this series that you’d be willing to share with me and the group. Thanks!

Ken Soroos

Thank you all for your suggestions. I must confess that I am the world’s second worst online researcher. Just can not accept that i might be the worst. 🥴

Aha!  I found the book and the Moloco truck is what you want.  TR-6110 has normal wheels and TR 6088 has semi scale wheelsets.  Both are sold out at Moloco.  I've never seen them.  I think these were first offered only recently.

Brian Leppert

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See if the 70-ton Barber S-2A truck offered by Moloco matches. I can't find Hendrickson's book right now to see for myself.

Brian Leppert
Tahoe Model Works
Carson City, NV

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I pulled a Tichy model of a ATSF GA-61 "War Emergency" gondola off the shelf to complete. According to SANTA FE OPEN-TOP CARS by Richard Hendrickson these cars were equipped with 70-ton Barber Stabilized S-2A trucks. To my 74+year old eyes the side frames furnished with the kit do not look correct. Is there a recommended source for the 70-ton Barber Stabilized S-2A truth in HO scale?

Thanks & Cheers,
Bill Keene
Irvine, CA

I’m going back to the brass ‘manuta’ gon model picture.

The brass model is more like the ACL phosphate car that Ambroid made a model of in their one-in-5000 kit line in the late 1950’s-early 1960’s:

This is a picture of a real car used on a private railroad for cattle feeding, it resembles the model.
Picture from an old 1953 Railroad Magazine
Ron Christensen

Northern Pacific RR Potential HO Models Survey

I'm just passing this on for those of you who model the Northern Pacific Railroad.

This survey is from the Northern Pacific Railroad Historical Association.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

++++

NP Modelers,
The NPRHA Modeling Committee has developed a survey to gauge preferences for HO models to be developed in the conjunction with manufacturers. Your input will influence which models could be released over the next several years.
No guarantees of course, but we have plans to get VERY serious about developing NP specific models, following the lead of other RR historical societies.
The process to take the survey is pretty straight forward, but does involve two elements - "pictures of the 12 options" in a PDF file, and the actual survey on the SurveyMonkey site. Responding should take less than 10 minutes. The survey will close at the end of December.
Your responses should indicate your preference from the 12 offered, you get three votes in 1-2-3 priority.
Steps to take the survey:
1. Open this reference PDF file:

http://www.nprha.org/2020_Survey/Freight_Car_Survey.pdf

2. Now open the survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N6C9CZD

3. Answer all applicable questions in the survey, using the PDF file to view data and pictures for the options, clicking Done to save your responses when you're done.
Some details:
* Dollar costs are rough projections to help in contrasting options. Don't get too hung up on the dollar amounts.
* You might want to review the full PDF listing before starting to cast selections.
* There is one required response - your last name.
THANK YOU!
NPRHA Modeling Committee

Calling Western Steam Era modelers....

Not sure if this is a need in other scales, but a set of 7" Santa Fe Roman with an Ampersand white / waterslide doesn't exist in N scale, so I've been working towards designing one and have a manufacturing willing to add such to his product line.

My driver of this project has been the excellent N scale resin kits for Santa Fe prototype by Dirk Jan Blikkendaal of the Tk-G to Tk-J class https://atsfnscalemodels.com/projects/tankcars%20class%20tk-g%2C%20h%2C%20i%2C%20j.html

Microscales does produce a set for Santa Fe tank cars (87- & 60-128), but the Reporting Marks are without an ampersand (painted till 1938 and still commonly seen on tank cars into the early 50's.) and are oversized (at least in N) even for the 9" lettering of the later steam era.  The 9" with ampersands are common as they were used on Box cars and Stock cars of the line, but, as Hendrickson details in "Santa Fe Railway Painting and Lettering Guide" Tank cars and Flat cars used a smaller lettering... my theory on why is the 9" lettering simply didn't fit well on 8" & 10" flat cars side sills, and early Santa Fe tank cars (little more at times than a tank on a flat car) retained side sills as the proper location for reporting marks.  Typically this small oversize doesn't bother me much, and looks OK when place on the tank side as in later era cars.  But the available decals just don't sit right on the side frames as was prototypical in some early cars of the era.  

So consider this a call for suggestions to those seeking Santa Fe tank car and flat car steam era decal elements (branch line lettering, etc) as I'm working to fill the sheet with extra stuff.  Given the limited interest in this topic, if willing to assist, private message me.

Still discussing with manufacture if the final product offering will be a single 7" white w/ Ampersand sheet, or one sheet for use on both flat cars as well as tank cars.  Either way, hope to include optionality of use to model pre and post 1926 ARA lettering standardization.  

Cheers,

Jake



Anyone know the dimensions of the small route card on a SFRD reefer?  Am replacing the one on the Intermountain kit. 

thanks!
--
Charlie Duckworth 
Omaha, Ne.

On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 12:50 PM, Matt Smith wrote:

https://kewanee-history.com/photo-galleries/gallery-4/

It would be an interesting industrial plant to model.  The building is still there, you can take a look at it on google street view.