Schuyler,

I don't want to tout the obvious, but the PFM label on the caboose (the bottom, I assume) identifies it as a PFM product, and it definitely has the appearance of a D&RGW narrow gauge caboose with 4 wheel trucks.I'm not sufficiently conversant with Rio Grande ng cabooses to be able to suggest a number or series, but there are photos on Google that show several of these short cabooses with numbers in the 0500 series.

Todd Sullivan

I am going to be painting the attached caboose model for a friend.  I have three questions:

1. Can anyone identify this model?  Original date of manufacture?  Importer? Maker?  The box shown with the caboose is evidently the original box, based on the “packing” being the same or very similar to the packing I’ve seen in Max Gray models I’ve bought in original packaging.  There are no markings on the model or on or in the box, other than the pencil notation on the end of the cover.  It’s a very nice model, very well built and seems to be accurate.
2. The owner of the model has requested I paint it using P-B-L “Rio Grande Freight Car Color.”  If I am not mistaken, that is an acrylic paint, and I am very much disinclined to use an acrylic paint (N.B.: don’t bother to try to tell me that they are easy to use, just as good, clearly the right color or any of that.  Maybe they are in the right hands, but based on my experiences, my hands are not the right hands.  I stick to lacquers, period.)  So are there recommendations among all the experts on this list for a good color in a lacquer paint?  Preferably Scalecoat?
3. Decals?

TIA

Schuyler

As Ben indicated, the six New England states plus NY comprised the marketing territory assigned to SOCONY after the 1911 breakup.

Which is not to say that other "baby standards" weren't present in New England, they were.  Specifically, Indiana (Amoco), New Jersey (Esso), and Atlantic (the PA and DE territory)

Likewise, SOCONY, under various guises (Mobilgas, Lubrite, Magnolia, others), was able to market in areas initially assigned to other baby standards.

This crossing of territorial boundaries was most often accomplished by buying up smaller local/regional refineries.
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

As Ben indicated, the six New England states plus NY comprised the marketing territory assigned to SOCONY after the 1911 breakup.

Which is not to say that other "baby standards" weren't present in New England, they were.  Specifically, Indiana (Amoco), New Jersey (Esso), and Atlantic (the PA and DE territory)

Likewise, SOCONY, under various guises (Mobilgas, Lubrite, Magnolia, others), was able to market in areas initially assigned to other baby standards.

This crossing of territorial boundaries was most often accomplished by buying up smaller local/regional refineries.
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

I was reading the two part series on the X29B from the 11-12/92 issues of Mainline Modeler. There are a couple of discrepancies between the two articles. In the first Greg Martin went the extra mile to model the car with a Murphy roof while the plans in Martin Lofton's follow up show diagonal panel. I would think that given the 1948-50 build period that the roof changed halfway through, do we know the numbers? Second, Greg Martin's model was built with four heavy crossbearers, while the plans show just two (the two that Greg installed at the edges of the door weren't there). Which is correct? 

Mike Clements
Wakefield, MA
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