CGW stenciled their hide service cars, painted them black and noted them as hide sevice in the April 1960 ORER. There is no such notation in the 1953 ORER. Sorry, but I don't have any intermediate

Thanks Armand. That's about what I thought, but thought I'd ask. Clark Propst

The roads with which I am most familiar simply stenciled the cars,"For Hide Service Only" or similar wording.They did not distinguish them in any way in OERs.They continued to be listed with the rest

I read all the notes for 1950 for MP listings (I know they had some) and did not find any reference to the fact. Others may come up with a way. Jerry Glow

Not having really given the phosphor bronze wire a fair trial yet, I will now. Thanks for the advice, Steve Lucas.

Do any of the ORER experts know if there's a way to find cars that were in hide service? Too bad the pages aren't scratch and sniff. Clark Propst Mason City Iowa

Jerry Glow2 wrote: Well said, Jerry. I was thinking along the same lines: "Someone doesn't need to be invited back." <g> Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA 2906

Try the phosphor bronze before missing with the stainless. Trust me, it is much easier to work with and holds up much better than brass. If you need something stronger, you or someone is mishandeling

The most common trucks in the 1950s were plain journal ASF A-3 Ride Control and Barber Stabilized S-2. There were numerous others, but those two were by far the most widely used until the

Xuron makes several hard wire cutters e.g. 410HS/691/2193/2193F. I have used them effectively w/ stainless steel wire and piano wire without damage to the cutters. But I'm only cutting stuff

Wonder if someone might know what the most common freight car trucks were in use during the 1950s (and into the '60s) - type, wheelbase, manufacturers? Thanks much, Brian Brian Chapman Evansdale,

Guys - Are any of these prototype ATSF reefers still in existence that still have the ORIGINAL fishbelly CENTERSILL under them? I have seen more that 40 of them between Lubbock and Amarillo, and a

Thanks to everyone for the good suggestions and advice. I have some CMA phosphor bronze wire, but have yet to use it for grabirons and brake rigging. Seems to me that some commercial grabs already

Calling Mont! What a great photo. I would have to guess that the reefer is destined for use as a shed somewhere. How would the reefer have been attached to the tractor? The rear wheels of the

But in a different way... http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=172381&nseq=3836 Steve Lucas.

Jim, As you have heard before, I will be looking forward to the M-53 box car, finally a model of the car in affordable plastic. You will not hear from me immediately in June because I will be taking

I'm starting the HO and S scale patterns for the B&O "wagontop" M53 boxcar late next week. The HO version will be offered thru Wright Trak Models with a target release date of late June. The S

Guys, what you're talking about sounds more or less like guitar string, although perhaps that was what was meant by the term music wire. Often called nickel steel by the makers it's available in

Commercial wire cutters or Dremel cut-off disk

Xuron does make a hard wire cutter, though I've not tried it on stainless: http://www.micromark.com/XURON-HARD-WIRE-CUTTER,7624.html -Clark Cooper