--- In STMFC@..., "pierreoliver2003" <pierre.oliver@...> wrote: The kits that are showing all this > warping, which resin was being used? My experience has been: Westerfield grey has

I've seem blue as well, in more recent useage, but I can't remember seeing it on a car in our era. It was pale as well and I would suspect even in color photos it might be mistaken for white as well.

Well, Pieter, "dense" is your term, certainly not mine. However, I'd point out that the underside of floors was seldom, if ever, painted except when freight cars were built new, and that unpainted,

Barry Roth wrote: You can still buy "railroad chalk" and it's a stick, about an inch in diameter. Photos of clerks chalking cars show that this is what was used--for example in the PFE book,

Barry, The chalks that I recall seeing came from a large box clearly marked as and marketed as "railroad chalk." The pieces were about 1 inch in diameter and maybe 6 inches long. Each piece

Next time the film gets run, I'll look for the shape. Right now the projector bulb needs replacing. :( The whole point of the original email was to point out that white was not the only color used.

Maybe filched from the pool room? This brings up another question: what shape(s) were the chalks used on cars? Sticks like in classrooms (breakable), or cakes (like some surveyors' chalks)?

Posted by: "smithbf36832" DANG! That killed my pet theory, which was that the floor in the doorways had been replaced, given that that was the highest traffic area and subject to the most damage.

mike turner wrote: West Coast photos in color from the 1950s show mostly white, some yellow (Greg Martin is right that it might be hard to distinguish white from PALE yellow, even in color, on

Hi Richard; Ok, now I'm somewhat confused. In your first comment you wrote: Which suggests that the lighter wood color flooring was the oldest part of the floor, yet it is at most lightly

Richard wrote: And isn't amazing how often those facts only surface as a result of someone's plausible speculations?? :-) That's a Good Thing. Tom "'plausible' is about all I have to offer on this

Ah, yes, another pet theory shot down in flames. Isn't it disappointing how often even the most plausible seeming speculations turn out to be unsupported by the facts? Richard Hendrickson

Sorry. On the basis of the few underbody photos (typically wreck photos, of course) I've seen of cars in service, the entire underbody was dirty, though oil deposits and the grime that they

Some RR chalk was also a pale yellow, which in B&W photo would appear white. Greg Martin

Pieter remarked about the floor boards: are covered with blackish "grunge" up to the cross bearer. Beyond that,and especially between the large frame members the color is mostly natural aged

Hello Richard; So then this car is NOT displaying a typical weathering pattern with wheel spray and dirt over the trucks but the car center reasonably clean? I was hoping I could generalize at least

Garth wrote: I was getting the same screen. Then I realized that it was the overflow area. Rather than input the e-mail per the screen request, I backed up a notch to the base/home page and requested

No argument that this is a basic principle which should be honored whenever possible. In the case of railroad photography, however, collectors often acquire photos that have changed hands several

Pierre Oliver writes: The "older yellow stuff" is Alumilite. I have no idea what resin F&C uses but am sceptical that it's polycarbonate, as they claim. Al and Martin use different resins, and I think

Maybe the SRR got a bargain deal on blue chalk. Or maybe blue chalk was a confederate states cultural phenomenon like mint juleps. Seriously, though both light blue and yellow chalk were sometimes