So? The SP wasn't a monolith and wasn't so perceived, though there has been a strain of historian (the "robber baron" cult) which has tried to so insist. It's worth reminding readers of

Walter Clark1980 wrote: I gather this doesn't include the gondolas and stock cars in my Volume 1, nor (of course) the hoppers and tank cars from my not-quite-yet-issued Volume 5 on those car

Bob, California and the other western states also had strong "progressive" and anti-railroad viewpoints. Remember "The Octopus?" What was interesting from "The Sunset Limited" was how newspapers

the afraid Okay, since I posted the reply above I've dug out three books about SP/PFE and done some research. According to "Pacific Fruit Express" by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church and Bruce

For anyone interested, there is a book entitled "Profiting From The Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West", written by Claire Strom, an assistant professor

Remember,there is paper and then there is Newsprint. Paper products,by in large,while given care in loading ,didn't recieve as much care as Newsprint,a higher priority product.Armand Premo

NYC, MDT used a common design for both milk and express cars; there were over 400 of these cars built in various lots; the largest quantity of cars were express cars built specifically for this

joel norman wrote: Very little. If you want to know more, Ed Kaminski self-published a nice book about Gregg, with the full cooperation of the Gregg people of today--they do a respectable

Thomas Baker wrote: There is now an extensive literature on this for most of the Western railroads. The Orsi book on the SP has been mentioned. There are also writings for the GN, NP, Milwaukee

There are a couple photos of Soo Line "agricultural display" trains in North Dakota floating around, one even includes a flatcar with a display of modern chicken coops :-) I think chartering a train

OK, you got me interested, so I opened the image in Photoshop. It looks like the last reweigh was 11 - 63, based on the fact that the stencil bars are symmetrical on both the top and bottom of the

In Wisconsin where I spent my early years, the University of Wisconsin, also a land grant university, created county extensions. This is where farmers obtained information about farming. Each county

Tony, I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but just how different were the Bettendorf and Columbia Steel versions of the T-Section truck, and which model, in your opinion, most

Western during the Twenties. I noticed several references to "farmers' institutes". The CGW even had an old coach converted to an "instruction car," I believe. The purpose of the "institutes" was

Walter Clark wrote: Please keep in mind that other foundries made T-section trucks, not exactly matching the Bettendorf version. Prominent among them for SP modelers is the Columbia Steel

"Brian Leppert wrote: Can anyone post a scan of the Buckeye ad from the Car Builders Cyc? Bob Witt

Russ, I can speak about the clay. I've lived and worked in the clay business my whole life. My dad started in 1946 with (at that time) "Southern Clays" which became Freeport Kaolin. During my time

I have been looking back in company magazines from the Chicago Great Western during the Twenties. I noticed several references to "farmers' institutes". The CGW even had an old coach converted to an

The trucks I bought from Brian came with .088 wheels. Does Brian sell them w/o wheelsets? Tim O'Connor

I can't read the reweigh either, and many of Jim Sands' photos date from 1966, but I have seen several cases where Jim himself clearly misdated his scans. For one thing, he sometimes returned to an