Hi John, Thought I would give you a little reminder about checking?on the spiral bound SCL Modeler magazines we talked about in Cocco Beach. Thanks, Paul Lyons?

The La Mesa Club uses a simple 100 scale foot piece of flex track mounted to a piece of 1/4" or 1/8" material (doesn't matter what type) and then 12" scale blocks to set the grade under one end. The

According to a book on Chronology of Weld County at the Colo RR Museum Library Heinz operated a "pickle receiving station" at Windson CO from 1948 to 1972. Could not find any reference to a C&S

Tony, both methods are sensible. However, just try out Kato trucks on the roll tester, and then under a car. Although the Kato trucks will perform very well without a load, they perform much worse

Gene The track is laid on aspen "craft wood" along the back of my work bench. One end is not nailed down at the end, so I can shim it upwards 1/2" to 3/4" easily to make a grade about 3 feet in

Very many NP AAR steel boxcars that had been delivered with normal tab sidesills got rebuilt in company shops with bolster-to-bolster sidesill rinforcements. This seemed to have happened late 50s

Changing trucks on these Atlas cars won't be easy. Atlas's trucks are attached to "bolster posts" with shouldered screws that probably have metric threads. The shoulders measure about .094" diameter

I not your Really free rolling trucks will be sure to find any less than perfectly level track. I experienced the coupling difficulty back when I used a transistor throttle. Gene Green

Spen Kellogg Spen, I, too, use alcohol to clean track but I wasn't aware that cleaning the track improved the rolling qualities of freight car trucks. That's a nice bonus. My son uses those little

Oops! The Ulrich gon is what I had in mind. Gene Green

I have a simple incline track that I use to test cars and locomotives that can be set to different grades. It can be set between .1 and 8%. I recommend that your cars roll down inclines of 1% while

Gene,             I have both, and the box car comes very close to an SP prototype. I'm still undecided on the stock car, and I'm a PRR modeler.   Fred Freitas

Like a Stimp Meter: http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_STIMPMETER Rob Simpson inclined track for my cars. As Denny Anspach has said, the roll tester is a very good indicator for determining how

Gene Green wrote: I can't speak for Tim, but I use both the roll tester and an inclined track for my cars. As Denny Anspach has said, the roll tester is a very good indicator for determining how

Gene Green wrote: Ulrich had a metal drop bottom GS gon. Did MDC/Roundhouse have a drop bottom gon as well?? Tom Madden

Sorta close from about 6 feet. If you want exact buy a Westerfield <VBG>! Jon Miller AT&SF For me time has stopped in 1941 Digitrax, Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI user NMRA Life member #2623 Member

Gene, There was also a model of a Panel side boxcar that was close or an exact model of of a Santa Fe Bx-3/6. Rick Dietrichson Wilmington, NC

If I remember correctly, the stock car is based loosely on the Pennsy K7 stock car. Frank Brua

Gene Green wrote: I think these two truss castings are the same. I always used to think it was the ARA box car, but haven't really checked details or dimensions. Tony Thompson Editor,

Back in the day MDC made a number of freight car kits using metal castings. Except for the drop-bottom gondola I don't recall anyone ever identifying prototypes for any of the MDC metal cars. I