JP, I dunno about beat seeds -- sugar beets always looked kinda like giant "yams" or sweet potatoes to me. real sugar

On the subject of how to make a realistic-looking load for a sugar beet gondola, had anyone looked at ordinary beet seed, available in all garden stores in the spring season? It's quite close to the

Ben Hom wrote LNE, P&WV: Neither road were allocated these cars by the USRA. I haven't done a lot of research on USRA 55-ton twin hoppers but the USRA allocations are not the whole story with regard

The problem stems from the fact that these may be the names of the holder of the patent, and the actual hardware may have been produced by several different vendors over the years. This appears to be

Larry, I have the Champ set, All I need to do is to find a suitable model for it.   Rich Christie

Thanks for posting this. First thing I noticed was how many non-PFE initials there are... not a huge number, but enough to notice in their variety... and within that set how few SFRD cars were

The meager Blackall information in my files shows only ratchet hand brakes with a cap on the top of the shaft. "Cap" is Blackall's term, not mine. Design of the cap varied some on each of the

Dennis is correct and I was wrong. The typical Lindstrom wouldn't be confused with a Blackall. I wrote off the top of my head, a non-functioning appendage upon which my ears hang. Thank you for

Dear list, Tom Dill loaned me a Freight Conductor's Train Book to scan. The conductor was Don Titus. It covers periods of time spread from 1948 to 1952 on the SP's Coast Line Division, mostly locals

Not really. All the Lindstrom handbrakes I am familiar with had a permanently fixed handle that didn't drop; it was simply swung back against the vestibule end sheet to keep it out of the way. The

It appears that the discussion on these cars has been "slanted" by the era and road that one is modeling: as-built, as paint and lettering liveries changed, as the doors and door fixtures got

Sure. Accurail tooled it for their USRA twin a number of years ago. Then, after several years and numerous complaints that the lever was too small to handle and was easy to lose, we added the lever

This is is not THE answer to Larry Sexton's question about the color of Kingan's reefers, but rather some pretty good evidence pointing in the right direction. Three color pictures of the subject

The Hart Ballast Gondola at the Northwest Railway Museum is NP 86786: Builder: American Car and Foundry Built: August 1927 Northern Pacific Railway NP 86786 - Hart Convertible Ballast Gondola

Pacific Great Eastern had three styles of Hart convertible gondolas: wood frame with truss rods (as the model), wood frame with a fabricated truss in place of the truss rods, and steel framed. I

The Dec 1930 AMC Cleveland diagram sheet for the Pere Marquette PM 130 00-13999 series built 1919-1920 with PM 13500-13999 being along with a portion of the C&O 63XXX-63749 USRA twins built at ACF

Doug Kinder asked: "Are the CNW and MILW paint schemes usable with this car?" Doug, review my previous posts.  CNW and MILW are completely bogus.  Neither road was allocated any USRA twin

Tim O'Connor asked: "Didn't the B&O N-17's have Wine door locks?" Some of them did; however, I'm reluctant to give a universal answer due to the several different sources from which the B&O

So what is the verdict on this car ? Are the CNW and MILW paint schemes usable with this car? A personal interest of mine. K brakes and all i like Randys time frame 1947- 1953 i also would like to

Thanks for the picture Bob. That's a very good match for the handbrake on the MTH model. Has anybody else tooled this handbrake in HO scale? Does anybody else know of other prototypes that used it?