Too long ago to think about I had some stamped brass freight car ladders from Kemtron, and still have a couple pair on old cabooses. They're not as bulky as you might expect, but obviously etching

I donno, Andy, I'm sitting here at my desk looking at a set Pullman - Standard took in 1976. The difference is, these aren't free off the web, one actually has to pay money for them. P-S took

Bill, Accurail's website shows the FGE car with a NEW -52 date and WFE with a JAX -60 reweigh date, both in the Optic style letters. -- Frank Greene Memphis, TN

Another reason why I think the IMWX model had great impact was that it coincided w/Rail Model Journal's articles about the 1937 boxcar both on the real thing with the photo resources of the Messers.

Hi Bill; I think you will find this history of Pacific Rail Shops on the S Scale Sig site interesting, as it connects PRS, IMWX and Front Range with specific products and

Andy, Check out the latest SCL Modeler on the ACL & SAL Historical Scoeity web site. I did an article on the SAL B-8/B-9 cars and used the Kadee trucks with Reboxx semi-scale wheelsets and the

I bought one when it was first released and all the rage, still under the Gould label. I never built it because I really didn't know what to do with it - back then I just tended to buy anything I

Must have missed that. I was looking around the web site but didn't look under wheel sets. Rip Van Harman

I first became interested in accurate freight car modeling in the early 1980s. I had a friend who was a college student and he couldn't afford to build locomotives, so he built freight cars - a fair

This is fun to try and test my memory without looking it up... my normal source is old MR ads and what not, but those are all in storage while I fix up my basement. I remember the Gould tank car and

Ray.... Thanks for the history lesson. It,s amazing what turns up in those old PR films. Thanks again... David

The advantage to THICK .025 wire is it won't bend easily,I've had craftsmen kits with .008 brass wire for truss rods.I use .011 because thats the size of the first string on my guitar,its spring

I bought an RBM kit around 1977. I think it was a tank car. I ebayed it some years ago unbuilt. I don't think that was their first kit though. Did that predate the Intermountain Canadian

I was a younger Prototype modeler in 1987 when I met a gracious influential gentleman at the Eugene, OR. NMRA convention. The Westrail kits he developed and marketed were real eye-openers for me.

I'm always interested in better ladders (at any price). Please keep me in the loop on this. Bill Pardie [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Bill, Epoxy was the material Bill Clouser used for his castings, even to the end of his casting career. When I first saw his O scale Dreadnaught end castings, I was convinced that Bill must have

Speaking of RPI and NEB&W, John Nehrich's Shop Talks had a big influence on me. Does anyone have a copy of the first issue or alternatively an early issue from which they could scan the cover and a

Tom: I am sure the Gould/Tichy kits were first. While their die work was/is at a very level, I would argue that the IMWX model kit had greater impact because they were available with accurate paint

All Clouser's models were aluminum filled "tooling" epoxy. Dennis

Don't forget the Central Valley one-piece plastic under bodies to upgrade all the blue box Atheran and Roundhouse boxcars. I must have purchased a dozen to upgrade plastic boxcars and they came in