Folks; Dan, the Man, had the definitive answer! See below. PRR liked Universal brake gear. Elden Gatwood

The caption on the side of the first container in the first gondola picture could be “Pontoon Gear” Gary Laakso Northwest of Mike Brock

I have a couple of recent blog posts of some interesting freight cars photos on the New Haven. There will be more over the next few weeks. Transformer

Those prices include postage, by the way. Richard Townsend Lincoln City, OR

That's a Carson City NV address on the flyer... pre-2004! How time flies when you're having fun! ------------------- Richard Brennan - San Leandro CA --------------------

I am looking for one of these cars made about 10 years ago by MDC. Road name is not important. What IS important is I need the single steel door version. If you have one you can part with contact me

I agree, Michael. Still hoping for Collinsville. I would have gone to Cocoa Beach if they had it. At least I’m getting a lot of basement time and having sessions with the boys. Bill

There is a Stanley Borden photo on page 171 in Kent Stephens' 1977 book on the Diamond Match Co., Matched, Flumes, and Rails, of Roma Wine Co.'s ex-PFE reefer CDLX 297. Diamond Match Co. bought eight

Richard; You bet. My prob with “hard” gussets was that they don’t nestle down. I had best luck with very thin embossed sheet, or decals with the black edges and rivets/bolts

I know from personal experience that those banding clamps are almost strong enough to exceed the tensile strength of the bands. This is one reason out of a Veritable Plethora™ of reasons that for

Thanks! Speaking of doorway gussets, I wonder if those would make a good etched part, if their design was reasonably consistent over time and/or between roads. Richard Townsend Lincoln City, OR

the straps are "crimped" together, usually the fastner will.have 2 or 4 "toothmarks" where the fastner has been "crimped" by the "crimper" (the tool) ;-)

Actually, for other loads I have seen the strapping brought through the stake pocket and up again to the strapping above the pocket with some sort of fastener connecting the two. I'd probably do this

Guys; I can’t find the correspondence on whose, but they are definitely some kind of rectangular grid. Link:

Nice work, Bill, and hope to see you again—one fine day—at a face-to-face meet. Michael Gross Pasadena, CA P.S. Reading your post made me miss Ron Sebastian at Des Plaines, all the more. :0(

I have several of the RC models of these cars. Three that came to hand were: CDLX 294 and 298 for Roma, and a Fruit Industries car No. 313. I have others, also, probably from a years-ago swap meet

-- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

Photos appear to show APEX (grid) running boards, although the photos are not definitive. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

FYI - the DSS&A cars continued to have black ends AND roofs. Jerry Glow made a variety of decals for the DSS&A cars including their interesting slogans. These cars all ended up

Hunter Hughson www.theniagarabranch.wordpress.com www.ontarioinhoscale.wordpress.com