--- In STMFC@..., "Norm" <ndrez@...> wrote:

I grew up on Ambroid models where the first instruction in the kit

was "Assemble Car", but at least the drawings were totally

unambiguous. Nevertheless, I'm having a devil of a time with one

part in the F&C CN 8 Hatch Reefer Kit.

There's a part called a "Charcoal Heater" which is not identified by

any drawing or sketch, but I think I've figured out that it

has to be the almost -- but not quite -- rectangular lump with what

looks like a grate in the front sticking out.

My real problem is that I can't figure out from either the drawings

nor the photographs what orientation this thing is to be

mounted in. Any and all hints, guesses, conjectures, and links to

other pictures are greatly appreciated.

Norm

Norm:Charcoal heaters normally were placed inside the ice bunkers,
down through the hatches, and used only in winter, when temperatures
were too cold for the shipment: i.e., you don't want oranges or apples
freezing, so you use heaters to ship them in winter. My suspicion is
that this items would not normally be visible on or in the car....is
would be placed somewhere trackside at an icing facility. Can you
send a pic, and some visual measurement reference for size? (like,
sitting next to the car or a hatch?)
Joe Berger, Great Northern Cascade Division

I, too, am pessimistic about the future of our hobby in spite of the
continuous array of new and improved products. (Do we need still more
F7s?) But someone is buying all of that stuff.

I open our piddly little RR museum often. We have a play table with
Thomas stuff - tracks, buildings, cars and locomotives - which is very
popular with the "kindergarten" crowd. Parents have trouble getting
the little ones turn around and look at our 151 year old locomotive.

On a regular basis, but not daily, parents bring in sons in the 10 to
12 age group that are really seriously interested in "trains." They
typically have a train set. A member or two of almost every school
class that comes through shows some serious interest in railroads.

There may be a future for our hobby but what will it be? Stay tuned.
We will all find out together.

Gene Green
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso

Somewhere, I just know some modeler who has a prototype-freelance railroad named the "Central Illinois" is smiling . . . perhaps he's an employee of a certain model railroad manufacturer????

Marty

Actually...
from the description on the Rapido site;
this was more SNAFU (production error)...
than Foobie (intentional FUBAR)...

Richard

Fred--

For the record, the manufacturer, Rapido Trains, admitted the FUBAR
and will replace every "Central Illinois" baggage car with a car
having the correct "Illinois Central" lettering in exchange for just
the UPC's from the box ends. The modeller can keep the car, and do
whatever they want with it.

Here's the announcement from Rapido--scroll about halfway down...

http://www.rapidotrains.com/telegraph12.html

Steve Lucas.

- In STMFC@..., Frederick Freitas <prrinvt@...> wrote:

Bruce,
 
         Wait for it,  the cluster can't be far behind now that

Central Illinois passenger cars have hit the stores!  One good thing
is this list; it keeps the real modelers from falling into the traps
of want vs correct models. Keep he proto info comming.

 
Fred Freitas

Ted,

i will take the B-59-15.
Paul

I have made a lot of decisions regarding fleet, layout, etc., and
have some Sunshine kits that I don't need. Here they are. Please
contact me OFF LIST!!!!!!

3.3 - ACL USRA double sheathed steel rebuilt box car for express/head
end service with Cape Line Allied trucks - $45
26.1 - PRR X29 flat ends, Youngstown doors, patch panels - $30
29.2 - Birmingham Southern War Emergency box car - $35
29.4 - Central of Georgia War Emergency box car - $35
29.10 - Alton War Emergency box car - $35
29.16 - Northern Pacific War Emergency box car - $35
38.11R - SP B-50-15 - wood side, Viking roof, end door - $35
64.21 - PRR X26C - Superior door, Murphy rect panel roof
67.32 - CNW 8 post steel gon

Paypal preferred, M.O. and checks tolerated. Shipping quotes will be
provided once you email me expressing your interest. First come,
first served. tculotta at speedwitch dot com.

Regards,
Ted Culotta

Tim, Get a table at a train show (like ours or Springfield), put them out with a decent price, and I'll bet a lot of them will sell.
Norm Larkin

Elden,
That one I can answer. I build resin kits. Lots and lots of resin
kits. Both for myself and my customers. (Custom Builder)
I've built at least 300 in the last 4 years. On occasion I put aside
work for my customers just so I can build something for myself for
the sheer joy of it.
There is a shift away from building your own stuff, but there is also
a large number of model train enthusiats who are afraid to challenge
themselves by trying something new.
I, like I'm sure many of the best modelers, am not afraid to risk
messing up an expensive model by delving into a skill set new to me.
I know that I have an inate ability to build stuff. It's what I do,
and there are people out there who can't use a hammer to save their
lives. The RTR world allows them to enjoy the better looking stuff
without risking failure.
Pierre Oliver
http://www.elgincarshops.com/

That brings up another question. Someone told me that no one

builds resin

kits. Is this true?

Elden Gatwood


Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
<mailto:thompson%40signaturepress.com>
Publishers of books on railroad history

Tony;

The vast majority of us that model are now "older" (at least than we
care to think), and part of a group growing smaller by the day. . .

C'mon, Elden, this view point has been around forever and it's
still not true. There was an editorial in Model Railroader in the 1950s
about how the average age of modelers was increasing by one year per
year and the hobby was doomed.

You get me wrong. I am not saying the hobby is doomed, it actually seems to
be just fine. What I am saying is there are fewer people building things.
One of the joys I get from this hobby is seeing the stupendous stuff other
people build. It motivates me to do better (as do photos and the real
thing). I don't have much top talk about with someone that bought a Kadee
box car, unless they know how to weather....

Tim is right; it is not in the interest of those under 40.

This too is not new. Plenty of people under 40 have pressing
family and career obligations. Yes, the modeling hobby has always been
dominated by somewhat older people (the immense majority of them men),
and it still is.I think that those of us who enjoy building things are wired
that way. Most people are not. That's always been true and is pretty
likely to continue. Of course, video game and other computer
entertainment is gigantic among young people today, but I'd bet that
most of them are not wired to build freight cars anyway.
The RTR revolution has certainly changed what is on hobby
shops shelves. But I wonder if those who are wired to build things have
actually changed much. My opinion is that those buying RTR are, in
large numbers, those who used to buy kits and wish they were built so
they'd have complete cars. Now they don't have to put all those kits in
the closet so as to avoid building them.



That brings up another question. Someone told me that no one builds resin
kits. Is this true?

Elden Gatwood


Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
<mailto:thompson%40signaturepress.com>
Publishers of books on railroad history

John Stokes wrote:

So all the kits produced and model railroad items of all types that Walthers wholesales and also sells retail through its own shop are not as important or more so to its bottom line? Your statement does not make sense, I must be missing something so some expansion on your comment might be illuminating.

John, I'd guess Jerry meant important to HIM.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

So all the kits produced and model railroad items of all types that Walthers wholesales and also sells retail through its own shop are not as important or more so to its bottom line? Your statement does not make sense, I must be missing something so some expansion on your comment might be illuminating.

John Stokes
Bellevue, WA



To: STMFC@...: timboconnor@...: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:14:37 +0000Subject: Re: [STMFC] Kits and modelers and the future

I always thought the Walthers catalog IS their most important
product .. so in that sense yes, the catalog is a preview of the
vaporware future... :-)

How about spending a couple of hours putting some of those obsolete
kits together while watching television, adding an obsolete Athearn
engine, track, power pack ...... and making a train set for some poor
kid at Christmas?

Just make sure everything is included and works.

I gave a friend a bunch of Carline cars (remember those? custom decaled
Athearn) and the couplers kept on breaking apart.

Ed

--- In STMFC@..., "Steve Lucas" <stevelucas3@...> wrote:

This car would have had a board roof right until it was scrapped. CN
did not use car cement on boxcar rooves. No need to, as with
the "Fowler"/"Dominion" cars, these cars had an "inside metal roof". I
can't vouch for what the Rutland did on their one car (Rutland 7999?)
that they bought from the CGR.

Photos show that it was rebuilt with the same outside metal roof that
the Rutland used on their double sheathed cars.

Thanks for the compliment :-)

Dennis

--- In STMFC@..., asychis@... wrote:

Tim,

How about giving all those kits to a local orphanage, school, cub

scout

pack, etc. and spread the model railroad virus to some of them?

Great idea, Jerry. I sent a few boxes of old stuff to a G.I. in Iraq
last year, and if I knew of a charitable place to send my old Athearn
blue box and other outdated freight car (and other) kits, I'd do it in
a heartbeat. Otherwise, it's only a short walk to the dumpster . . .

Walt Lankenau

Gatwood, Elden wrote:

The vast majority of us that model are now "older" (at least than we care to think), and part of a group growing smaller by the day. . .

C'mon, Elden, this view point has been around forever and it's still not true. There was an editorial in Model Railroader in the 1950s about how the average age of modelers was increasing by one year per year and the hobby was doomed.

Tim is right; it is not in the interest of those under 40.

This too is not new. Plenty of people under 40 have pressing family and career obligations. Yes, the modeling hobby has always been dominated by somewhat older people (the immense majority of them men), and it still is.
I think that those of us who enjoy building things are wired that way. Most people are not. That's always been true and is pretty likely to continue. Of course, video game and other computer entertainment is gigantic among young people today, but I'd bet that most of them are not wired to build freight cars anyway.
The RTR revolution has certainly changed what is on hobby shops shelves. But I wonder if those who are wired to build things have actually changed much. My opinion is that those buying RTR are, in large numbers, those who used to buy kits and wish they were built so they'd have complete cars. Now they don't have to put all those kits in the closet so as to avoid building them.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Al Brown wrote:

Okay, I give. What is this "foobie"? Sounds like something on a vestie's watch chain.

Probably you know the term "fubar," and the shortened version is "foobie" -- and yeah, I'd guess the vesties own far more of them than the rest of us. It refers to entirely imaginary paint schemes for a particular car body.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Tim,
 
        Hold 'em till the Springfield show, then sell them. I've seen dealers buy up lots of them before the public even gets in the gate. Just a thought. If you can't get a spot at the show, there must be a dealer who will work with you.
 
Fred Freitas

Bruce,
 
         Wait for it,  the cluster can't be far behind now that Central Illinois passenger cars have hit the stores!  One good thing is this list; it keeps the real modelers from falling into the traps of want vs correct models. Keep he proto info comming.
 
Fred Freitas