We've had this conversation here before <G> and in general, the consensus is that few doors were ever left open in the steam era. The most common place would be, as Tim says, a loading or clean out

Look for photos of freight trains and yards. I think open doors were a small percentage of cars on freight trains, but some yard photos will show a whole string of cars with open doors -- The cars are

I'll probably try them -- certainly I'm happy to see them entering this market -- but the rivet patterns they chose seem a bit odd/unusual to

Fran Giacoma wrote: Dennis Storzek's answer was good. Based on looking at a lot of photos from my era in California, I have personally concluded that in my model year of 1953, few empty cars had

Not very common. The rules said they were supposed to be closed before movement... but of course we all know that rules are often broken. In addition, most the door hardware used since 1900 or so

Modeling the B&O Shenandoah SD, late 1956. Many of my industries have outbound empty boxcars. How common (or not) was it for the doors to be left open when released as an empty? I figure some of you

Dave Schroedle asked: "Group, looking for any info for the NH XM-2 Rebuilds with Dreadnaught ends, drawings, photos, number series." See Chris Barkan and John Nehrich's articles in the July 1988 and

Group, looking for any info for the NH XM-2 Rebuilds with Dreadnaught ends, drawings, photos, number series, Thanks Dave Schroedle

Seems that these cars are about two oz. shy of the NMRA recommended weight(and it shows on our layout). I have 12 of these that came RTR. What wouldbe the best way too add weight? It doesn't seem

Just received the MIcroscale Newsletter in my email and they are announcing 1/87 scale

Actually for my (mumble) era there were more of the NKP 3-bay offset side cars in service than the 2-bay, and there's no model that currently exists of that car either. The old MDC and/or the

The minikit came with decals for both C&O and Montour, those may be worth more than the resin parts alone. Andy

I will try to provide a bit of an update on that sweatingconcern. Looking atrecords of XM's constructed on the NP Ry in the later fifties, (beyond mymodeling timeframe) there are products

A parcel of goodies arrived today from Speedwitch including new sets of Fruit Growers and Western Fruit decals to do older cars, meaning those built to the 1922 and 1926 FGE designs as well as some

---In STMFC@..., <timboconnor@...> wrote : Interesting point Dennis -- Do you know whether "XF" box cars had wood lining above the load as well? I never heard of the sweating problem before but

To be purely prototypical, freight cars have sill steps, not stirrup steps. This is like the recent discussion about running boards and roof walks. Ed Mims Jacksonville, FL

Ben Hom wrote: “Do not depend on the kit instructions regarding brakelayout” I didn’t Ben. I noticed the difference fromthe photos in the Cyc. ClarkPropst Mason City Iowa

Hi Andy, Yeah, with the Intermountain release those mini-kits are probably worth their weight in resin. I recently completed the NYC USRA offset side conversion. The castings weren't too bad. I

Thanks Tim, I do read messages form the website. Bill Welch

weird, unless you're reading emails on the web page .. yahoo never edits my email. alanhoutz at att.net