I'm not surprised Central Valley had only one injection molded freight car kit. The parts are very nice but getting them together is a lot of work. The plastic is hard to cut/sand. Plastruct

Asked my friend today what the percentages of box cars to cover hopperswere. His answer was “When?” When he started as a car sealer in 52 it was almostall box cars. This gradually changes to

---In STMFC@..., <smithbf@...> wrote : Are shaker brackets a common feature of covered hoppers used for cement? ================ They have been for a long time, but a look through the 1940 CBC shows

I just spent some time paging through the 1946 CBC looking at gondola floors... this question came to mind when I was doing the steel floor for the Accurail 40' gon. None of the general arrangement

Thanks. - Bob Witt

Hi Bob, The D&RGW6500 flat cars are narrow gauge cars. They were used until the end of the narrow gauge traffic in 1968 and some of them are still in use for the tourist operations Cumbres and

I purchased the '38 UP guide from an outfit called Rails Unlimited out of Elgin, Illinois. Mostly midwest roads, but reasonably priced. Allen On Tuesday, March 1, 2016 7:53 AM, "Ray Breyer

Group: I search the archives but found no information about the D&RW 6500 flat car illustrated in this drawing currently on eBay. The notes on the drawing cite 26" wheels and both "Bettendorf" and

Bruce; They sure are on cars in my era (fifties/sixties). The classes on PRR included H30A (as-built '52 or 53?); H33 (two-styles; as-built 1953); H34 (and sub-classes; 1954 on), all on the hoppers;

Tim; I have read some correspondence on this. Gons with wood or nailable steel floors theoretically had gaps sufficient to let water leak out, but sufficiently tight to hold even fine sand with

Thanks to everyone who replied. I was going to use a ribbed side car, sand down sides and just add a new roof. Since there is no 60' DP roof available, the Atlas car conversion seems the way to

Tony's question about cement in gondolas made me think... about RAIN. It turns out that the WEIGHT of 1" of water in a 40 foot gondola is close to ONE TON. If it were really pouring, say 3" of water,

Schuyler Larrabee wrote: Yes, I know about those. But bulk cement otherwise uncontained in a gondola, which was implied by the fact that none of the gondolas Jeff listed were from the roads you

Perhaps it's my lack of imagination, but gondolas of cement are kind of hard to picture. Tony Thompson Not at all, Tony. They carried pneumatically emptied tanks. LV, ERIE, D&H, DL&W all

Ed, I just checked my BT Yard Master AAR 1937 box car kits and they all have diagonal bracing from the bolsters to the end sills. There is a single stringer between the body bolsters and as I recall

Schuyler writes:

??? Sugar beets were grown in central Washington, much of Oregon (for seeds), and southern Idaho. An acre of sugar beets can yield nearly 50 tons of beets, which refines down to 5 tons of sugar. Tim

Sugar beets are grown in many areas. As corn and soybeans came into crop rotations, beets were moved to dryer lands as they don’t need the same amounts of water. While places like Iowa and Minnesota

Sugar beets were grown in Oregon since before 1900. The Oregon beets were a very major crop during World War II. That said, I have no information on how they were transported. Bob Chaparro Hemet,

Hi Steve, Sugar beets were not a PacNW crop, at least around Portland, OR, sow I never saw any in that kind of service. There were 5 series of composite GS gons in 1940, according to the Leach 1940