I have a West India Fruit & Steamship brochure:   "Fast Movement for Perishables   Hundreds of carloads of Cuban grown pineapples, as well as other perishables are handled annually over this route.

A comment on the cost of R&D. I have consulted several major manufacturers on ATSF equipment and my payment has been a free model. In effect, that did not cost the manufacturer anything. My beef is

Tom raises an interesting thought.... how much R&D are modelers willing to pay for? I am not sure what the industry experience is on premium priced items, especially if the exact same item is

Bruce- It may be obvious to you for your approach to modeling, but it doesn't apply to the broader market where each modeler decides for themselves what equipment will go on the layout and for which

Rob Kirkham wrote: Vancouver B.C. in 1952. That's a long way for a load of bananas to come by rail, and kind of surprising to me. So I am wondering if my guesswork is out of whack or this trip

Armand, Most manufacturers use commercial paint that is not available to modelers, so providing paint matches is not possible. We may be able to move them towards providing something like a RAL

Hi, I guess I must live some where in outer space ... so here's an opinion from left field ... I don't think it's the mfgrs responsibility to spoon feed us all the info we need/want. I

Rob, I can't help about Vancouver but there is an old thread about "Houling bananas" on the SP group some time ago: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Espee/message/41165 Maybe you can source some

Thanks for this info Tony and John - I'll read up on it and see if I can pull out some more research clues for my own neck of the woods. Rob Kirkham

I will add one more technique, one I use which is quick and easy. I have a stainless steel dial caliper, modified a little by sharpening the moving anvil at an angle. I purposely did not bring the

And how about MATCHING PAINT ?Armand Premo

Ted-- It took a minute or two to visualise, but I'll give it a try. Thanks, Steve Lucas.

Rob, Here is a link to the Port of Los Angeles "Virtual History Tour" web site. This is the page regarding Berth 147 - United Fruit Company. http://www.laporthistory.org/level3/berth_147.html And,

Marty, Ideally, the manufacturer's web site for RTR cars would include the following: Built date Paint scheme date New/Reweigh date We all know that paint schemes lasted well beyond the

It's hard to provide specific dates on a "generic" model like the Atlas car . . . although I suppose they could simply "wing it." I'm not entirely sure what the term "paint" or "repaint" date refers

Here is how I have been doing it. Using the edge of the 0.005" styrene sheet as a guide, glue small bits of strip at the ends, abutting the edge of the 0.005" styrene. Place a straight metal edge

Actually, several of the flats I examined at the LHS were showing signs of the floor taking the initiative to separate itself from the frame at the ends. -Fritz Milhaupt Modeling Editor,

The one in San Francisco was built by SP and was near the commercial warehouse, the Terminal Building, owned by the railroad just south of China Basin. I don't know if the dock itself had its

Ok - thanks Tony - that's a start. So ships brought the fruit some ways up the west coast - which makes economic sense to me (as would continuing the rest of the way). Were those "banana docks" in

Rob Kirkham wrote: There were large banana docks at both Los Angeles and San Francisco in the 1950s. I don't know about Seattle. Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley,