Back in the early 1960s I lived on the New Cumberland Army Depot, which is across the Susquehanna River from and a little south of Harrisburg. It is immediately adjacent to the PRR's four-track main

Friends, Roundhouse also used to offer a C&O-style notched heap shield, also a separate part. I believe it was meant to go on their 40' gondola, but AFAIK it was also correct for some classes of

The biggest problem is the "heap shields" used during the era twin hoppers were built were an integral part pf the end… that is, the end sheet and whatever bracing was used on the end just extended

Chet; I am glad you have been digging this stuff up! This is great info! Could you tell me, in your opinion, if any of the 8-panel 40' steel rebuilds, like the Sunshine mini-kit using the Tichy box

Westerfield sells a 'Hopper Car Detail Set' # 2190 which includes angled heap shealds.  they also sell two other radial hopper ends as detail parts which could be used as donors for

Mark; It all depends on what you model, layout-wise, as far as industries and run-through traffic. If you model an area through which traffic had loads that went to industries that needed minerals

All; The overlay method does not address several other detail differences between the std and alt std cars, notably side sill, the taper at the top corners of each side, and height differences. We

Here's another one. During the post-WW2 period, the U.S. government and critical industries, were importing, and sometimes stockpiling vital minerals and metals only found in economically viable

Stewart did offer the heap shield at one time as a separate part. I don't know if Bowser is still offering the or not. It was a add-on part to make the lone original demonstrator PRR H39 which had

Group, I went back through my notes after stating that the large flag lettering was introduced on the 91000-91514 series 40' box cars built in 1961. I made an incorrect statement. I found drawing

Folks; Can anyone tell me which set, E-1, E-2, or E-3, has the heart logo, and whether it contains different sizes? Is any lettering in any set useful for lettering a gon in the late scheme with

Another possibility is with the Holly sugar mill (perhaps under a different name in 1947) in Tracy -- or any of the several nearby sugar mills. Sugar mills use coke for purification purposes and I've

Denny, two points: (1) Grabs are far more visible on a hopper car with its open ends, than on a gondola. The 3-bay is not as bad as the Stewart hoppers, but park it next to a Kadee car and it will be

Thanks Bob and Eric for pointing out the Sylvan and F&C versions of the XM-1. So there are THREE XM-1's out there?? Any one care to take a stab at comparing the different models?? :-) Thanks! Tim

"Separately applied grabs" has become a global uncritical mantra for so many of us, the undersigned included. However, that said, and at the risk of being labeled as the anti-Christ, I also

Gentlemen, I find that the most obvious spotting feature of the AAR Alternate Standard twin offset hopper is the distinctly uneven spacing of the hat-section vertical stakes and associated single

I have done several of the Sunshine alt-std conversions and it works very well. The overlay casting is quite thin and lays done nicely after filing and scraping the original side detail off.

Thank you, Tim. --Chris Frissell Polson, MT

Possibly because F&C has one available? http://www.fandckits.com/HOFreight/6002.html Eric Eric Hansmann Chagrin Falls, Ohio Starting over in a new house: http://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/

Hi , The WAG cars were used B&M cars bought in the '50's . We did one of the versions for a convention car in O scale , seems that basic repair and paint were all they got . Sylvan did the cars for us