To get back to the actual topic, does anyone know how to zoom or enlarge this photo? The car looks like a pre-tank-anchor German-American product, and a larger version would be nice. David Thompson

Andy Carlson wrote: "B&O #17000. A mostly steel box car." Eric Hansmann asked: "Would this early boxcar have steel or iron sheathing?" Iron. From the B&O Railroad Museum

Don't forget that brasstrains.com sells boxes with foam inserts! Bill Jolitz

In 1912 Western Union began a program of reconstructing their lines that lasted until the 1930s. This could be one of the first of the "line forces" that did the work. John C. La Rue, Jr. Bonita

Two more places you might have seen diamond plate hatches. ART used them. Photos in The Eagle from the MPHS, Winter 2003. See page 9. Also Intermoutain provided them as an option in ART reefers

Would this early boxcar have steel or iron sheathing? Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN

Group, This series of gondolas were built by Thrall in 1952. They were of composite construction because the Monon was still hauling cut and milled limestone throughout the country. This product

Group, I am finishing up a build of a SC&F #2001 2 dome tank car (GATX 1638). On the only prototype photo supplied by SC&F, is difficult to make out the lettering on the car and there are no end

Hi Bruce, You don't drink beer till noon? What kind of brewmaster are you, anyway? (I like Bob's pictures too, and I too like that they're searchable. I don't understand what the objection

Another shot of those class LG gons http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/monon/mon3639awb.jpg Rich Christie

Oooh! - look at those Milwaukee Road (CMStP&P) double-deck stock cars with roof hatches no less. Explanation of the roof hatches? Anything put through them couldn't get down to the lower deck. Tom

 Hi List Members, I'll say that Bob does a seriously AWESOME job of separating the diamonds out from what would otherwise be a major haystack (mixed metaphor, yeah, I know...) He finds stuff I

Hi List Members, Those interested in stock cars and their associated stock yards may want to have a look at this site... https://alchetron.com/Union-Stock-Yards Good images of the stock yards,

Bill You are right, the builder photo is on page 173 of the 1953 Car Builder's Cyclopedia, in a Thrall advertisement. Some of these cars remained as built for a long

I think TAHOE x06 Buckeye ARA is the closest, except for the spring plank. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

These cars were built as gons by Thrall in 1952 and, except for the covers and wood sides replaced by steel, looked pretty much as you see it in the photo. IIRC, there is a builders photo in the '53

There are literally hundreds of thousands of freight car photos on Flickr - mostly poorly organized without good annotations to say what we're looking at - now THERE is a

Some of these rebuilt flat cars were classified as LO (!!) at some point and carried a load of 11 bulk material bins. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

Pullman Standard 1892 cuft covered hopper built 1957 (lot 8056) series 14001-14075 -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

ERIE 7220 may be special for some reason - it seems to be in a number group with specialty flat cars. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts