We may Isn't it always the last weekend in October, no matter what day of the week Halloween falls on? Can't imagine 2008 would be any different. Mike Skibbe

Hiya Smith's Model Engines Rail Books on eBay has some interesting books at interesting prices, providing you are prepared to pay transatlantic postage. Cheers Barry Bennett

freight Terry Metcalfe's book "Union Pacific Freight Cars: 1936-51" has this information for the U.P. roster as of October 1951. I can send you an Excel file version, if you want it. Larry

<snip> for SAL and ACL both had freight-car classes, though Seaboard was a tad casual about them. Some cars didn't have classes (e.g. the GF&A boxcars); most of the boxcars re-built to stock cars

Ed Mines queried: What do you guys use as debris in your models? Scrap stripwood, simulating blocking, and some fine sand from the street outside. Glued in with diluted white glue. As yet, the

ED, I have put debris in most of my gons. Dirt, weeds, rust scraps, a few ferns, left over wood blocking. Almost anything could be in there, Standard scenery techniques were used. CJ Riley

That looks like the upgrade on my 25 year old Campbell Hausfeld. It still works good. Just ask my steam era freight cars. Rob Manley

In reality the floors of gons were seldom visible. By the time it had been through about 10 cycles of loading and unloading scrap with a magnet the bottom would be covered with dirt. Since the scrap

Of course, if it's got great interior detail like http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/image/86893373 why bother covering it up with a load? BTW that was from the just completed Western Prototype Modeler

Were Caswell GS gondolas utilized by the Sante Fe for raw sulphur traffic? See mention of another ATSF class (Ga-13 and Ga-19) cars designated as "sulphur gondolas". What is a "sulphur gondola"? If

destron@... writes: PRR see Rob Schoenberg's site for this information http://prr.railfan.net/freight/ Rich Orr ************************************** See what's new at

destron@... writes: The B&O Historical Society has some of these mostly hoppers and Boxcars. Rich Orr ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

Ed Mines wrote: The heck they wouldn't!! But nearly every gondola interior photo I can think of shows paint. It protects the steel. Of course the paint job wasn't too great after some service.

Ed In today world of railroading, gons are NOT cleaned out from load to load, not that I see anyhow. I have seen the insides of steel gons with all sorts of debris in them. This ranges from wood

Were gondola interiors ever cleaned? I think debris would accumulate for many years before it was discarded. For many high side, fixed end gons you would have to throw debris over a side almost as

Is there a list somewhere that gives the class designations for freight cars for each series of running numbers of the ATSF, UP and the B&O? I'd most specifically be interested in the cars of the

Neither white nor yellow carpenters glue are waterproof, nor are they sealants. However, they are quite water-resistant, and in this regard are totally satisfactory for our modeling purposes unless

Ed, Happened to build one of the Seaboard gons some years ago. Think I used an old MDC/Roundhouse kit. The sides had large slits cut into them between the "stakes" at floor level and they

Denny Anspach wrote: Paper is a time honored model railroad construction material, the most common type being Strathmore, the brand of a type of Bristol board, a high, or even pure, rag content paper

Thanks Tim! Tim O'Connor <timboconnor@...> wrote: They appear to be body color in a black & white builder photo and also may appear that way in a color photo in the RI 'Color Guide'. But