cars, That's all well and good for the WEIGHT data. However, what I was really referring to in my original message was the DIMENSIONAL data. See this photo for a typical pre 1929

Richard, Only the 44400-44999 series had composite doors. The 44025-44399 series, built later, had all steel Youngstown doors. The even later, post war plywood side box cars had a variety of doors:

Clark, Yes, they were composite using plywood like was used in the car sides. Composite Youngstown doors were used on the 44400-44749 series, composite Superior doors were used on the 44750-44999

Jim Mischke asked: "The Andrews trucks supplied with the Tichy car are accurate for this B&O hopper class. However when I substituted Kadee wheel sets for the supplied plastic wheels, the truck would

The journal bearing tool described by Carl Marsico might do the job, but it sounds like you'd have to remove a lot of material. Both Accurail and Intermountain now have excellent HO scale USRA

Carl J. Marsico wrote: Carl, While the "Tool" may ream out additional material to accommodate longer axle length, its real purpose is to get the exact 60 degree angle specified by the NMRA, thus

Some wheel set manufacturers offer different axle lengths to accomodate different trucks. I also recall seeing a tool that reams out "extra" plastic for "too long" bearings, should you want to stick

One current project I am working on is rendering a B&O class N-17 USRA ribbed twin hopper starting with a Tichy twin hopper. There is an inaccuracy with rib spacing but I am willing to overlook it

Yes Bob. It amazes me what turns up at swapmeets over here in England. The Autocar was still in kit form in the original box. I think the original buyer had done nothing more than open the box (and

Tim asked: I guess I was thinking of the Imron epoxy "paints" applied to excursion locos today, which appear to be so glossy (and retain that gloss) that any cruds landing on the surface would have a

As a reminder to folks who are new to this list or may have missed it the first time, Richard Hendrickson's article "Vintage-Dating Freight Cars With Weathering" published in the December 1995 issue

Tom Didn't Pullman cover most paint with "varnish" as a clear coat? So not only is the paint important, but perhaps the finish clear coats also changed and would that affect how frequently passenger

GN also had composite doors built by Superior. These doors shared the height dimensions with the other Superior doors, the 7 panel with a short top panel. The Youngstown composite doors shared the

I wrote that War Emergency composite doors had upper sections of T&G wood, which was true on other WE box cars that had such doors, but Bruce is, of course, correct that on the GN plywood sheathed

Jack is certainly correct that region and service assignments made a difference. Cars that largely stayed out west are seen in photos to be less grimy and more subject to faded and dusty paint than

Clark, After all the discussion here yesterday, I pulled out my Sunshine kit last night, and much to my delight, found the same thing. The kit I have models the 44xxx series cars built in 1944.

Yes. The lower section, to which the rollers and latches were attaches, was corrugated steel. The rest of the door was steel framed with T&G wood sheathing. These doors were used on a number of

Wouldn't the roughness of the painted surfaces have a lot to do with how "weathered" a car looked? Pullman, in its glory days, repainted its cars every couple of years. That tells me the glossy

It has been mentioned that all the doors on these cars were steel. I have a sunshine kit (I need to build before the IM car comes out). It has the odd looking door with the flat section at the bottom

Yes. Dennis