I've reached the conclusion that I'll never live long enough to build all the cars in the kit bunker so it's time to clean house. I have listed all cars for sale on an Excel spread sheet with three

Come one Come all to the GSMTS this weekend and see a pre-production model of the Fox Valley Models M-53 Wagontop Boxcar. That's right, come get all your questions answered as to "Is this car really

Tom, You are mistaken about the paint dates. The Georgia RR rebuilt USRA boxcars have been discussed a number of times over the years on this list. The general consensus is that they were

Dennis Storzek wrote: Not from all railroads. The SP had been building box cars of 9' 0" or more inside height (with Z-bar bracing) before the USRA cars came along, and after the war (when they

Um, yes. Tichy #9132.

Good luck! Rich Meyer was working on a set, HC-53, when he passed away and the set was never released AFAIK. If you can find them, Champ HH-281 was special 10" heralds for hoppers, HH-171/HH-271 were

Jim, I scanned through the Herald King Decal offerings and I didn't find a set of hopper decals but there might be something in their gondola decals that would work. Might check with

Speaking to the USRA in particular, I believe the use of pressed shapes was driven by the cost and demand for rolled shapes during the war. Once the stamping dies were set up for volume production,

But then again, the ARA reverted to standard mill shapes for the stakes in MOST of the ARA standard twin, triple, and quad hoppers. There was a reasonable amount of resistance to the 9'-0" IH of the

It would seem that some 1920's cars were built with the USRA type pressed frame members, but many were not. PRR added reinforcing "boots" on the ends of the framing on many X26 USRA designed cars, and

Ben-- Thanks for the info. Steve Lucas.

Does anyone know of a source for white Georgia RR decals for the Tichy steel outside braced boxcar? As I understand it the silver paint scheme was not instituted until the late 1950's so not

and description of composite about were similar pressed - or design that was --- In STMFC@..., "soolinehistory" Dennis Storzek replied: first steel frame boxcars used stock mill shapes,

That is part of what I was wondering about Dennis. I don't know where to slot these cars (or the USRA cars) as of 1920/21. Regarding the steel used for framing the sides, CP had over 20000 fowler

Where are you saying these fit in the evolutionary chain, Rob? The first steel frame boxcars used stock mill shapes, either Z, C, or L section, while some of the last single sheathed composite cars

Guys, Does anyone know of a good source for Lehigh Valley decals? I've got a Stewart fish-belly side hopper that I'd like to paint for Lehigh Valley. Thanks. Jim Hunter

The distinctive fishbelly underbelly underfrmes were used for a caboose rebuilding program starting in the late 40's and into the 50's resulting in what became the de facto standard steel caboose of

This is one of a large number of single-sheathed cars which were upgraded to all-steel by MoPac at the DeSoto (MO) shop in the early 1950s. The original ends remained. Some cars had the Murphy as

The Missouri Pacific boxcar photos are up. They can be seen here.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/photos/album/619899423/pic/list

Rob Kirkham wrote: I don't know the answer to your question, Rob, but SP and several other railroads which had received USRA single-sheathed cars did not duplicate them in subsequent years but