I was right, everything has a name. Thank you Dennis and Brian! Bill

In structural engineering we commonly use a "Drift Pin" when alligning connections. I am not sure if the term translated to other fields. From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...]

If they are driving it through one of the holes, it's a tapered pin called a "drift pin". Dennis

I have a photo of a diagonal panel roof being assembled. To align the rivet holes the assembly crew is using a tool. There must be a name for such a tool. Does anyone know? Could it be a simple as

It would hard for me to find another series of cars on the C&O that had racheted lever hand brakes (maybe flat cars or drop end-door gons) . . . the C&O standard was vertical shaft with horizontal 16"

A mixture of sizes of any seed could be achieved by purchasing different varieties of the same type, or seeds from a different source, and mixing them. Rick Aylsworth

Al Kresse wrote: Not for things like hand brakes, draft gear, etc., which could be chosen without regard to USRA approval. But the USRA in some cases produced cars before they had been

Gene, There is a comment in PM Freight Car book that the PM 13000-13999 USRA cars might have had Perfection brand hand brakes.  The PM cars were originally listed as GET 36517-37027 and

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