Gene, You are right on regarding the finished scale thickness. This is why lately I have been hand bending all my "hand holds" out of .010 CMA wire and even doing some models with the preformed BMA

The United States Safety Appliances booklet for 1950 requires "hand holds" (not called grab irons) to be a minimum of 5/8" in diameter. 87.1 times .008 equals 0.6968. That's pretty darn close to

No, it's actually better to have an oversize hole because a little wiggle room helps to level the rod. The CA fills in the space by capillary action.

Tim, thanks. These are definitely some interesting options that you supplied. Ed Sutorik

Thanks Tim, I thought maybe you were using something smaller than a #80 drill bit. Paul Lyons Laguna Niguel, CA

I have an F&C kit of this car. The instruction sheet has some history. The revenue car numbers were 137xx according to the decals. Doug Brown

Paul Just drill them in my drill press with a #80 bit. Not really hard at all. I bought the PS-1 sprues from Intermountain for 75 cents each...

Tim O'Connor said: Intermountain PS-1 bracket grabs and clip off the bar, and core them for .008 wire. Tim, How do you core them? Paul Lyons Laguna? NIguel, CA

Following up on the QRL&P thing, a PCC car on a flat would be reasonable special move even in the 50's. I have a photo of a Dallas car being delivered to the MBTA facility in Everett that I took in

The original IMWX brackets (bought by Red Caboose) were clunky. Red Caboose redid them and sold them separately. The Tichy bracket grabs... urf. The Branchline grabs are very good. I like to take

Tim O'Connor wrote: Actually the rules were not changed formally. Even in 1938, there were a few lessees who understood the rules, and had (legal) product slogans on the cars. That's what

Howard I thought acrylic was quite brittle. I would not expect it to mold all that well to uneven surfaces. Have you had any problems?

I've come across an article by Chuck Yungkurth on an "LV Short Steel Gondola" that appeared in the 6/80 RMC. Chuck writes that he suspects this was a home-built car for MW service. Has anything come

Let's note, one more time, that the "TW class" portion of the subject line is WRONG. The original writer may have thought it stood for "Tank, Welded," but in fact it refers to wooden containers, such

Many of us the print the ALPS decals use Future Floor Finish as a protective cover. This is an acrylic and not a wax base product. Howard Garner

Does anyone on this list know the origin and colors for the "double-cheverons" painted on the sides of the C&O 70-ton, 56 ft and 125-ton regular and deep-well flat cars? My images show 6 total or

On re-reading the files, I see that Tony is correct; my apologies to Bruce. The RC "Fruit Industries" tank car was based on another Will Whittaker photo taken in 1-41 of a CDLX tank car built in

Tim, Yesterday I searched the Library of Congress photo site and found no Texaco refinery or tank car pictures. Delano took a lot of shots of Mid-Continent refineries, and DX tank cars are plentiful.

Tim O'Connor wrote: There are several different shots like this, Tim (two are in the T&NO book), and they are at Lake Charles, Louisiana, not Texas. They ARE terrific shots. Tony Thompson

But in the 1950's Chateau Martin had huge billboard ads on their wine cars. So how soon after 1938 were the rules relaxed?