I know we talked a little in the past about reefers used on my A&D.
But what type of reefers would have been inservice in the 1950's on
rail lines in VA. I'm assuming ART cars would have been used? Was all
cars made out of steel by the 50's? If wood reefers are still around
were they in large numbers?
Thanks
Fred Mullins

Folks,
Would have woodsided gons still be in interchange use in the 50's?
If so would they be in great numbers or were the railroads scraping
them or rebuilding them by this time? Trying to decide if I need any
for my mid 50's A&D railroad. Also did any of the southeastern
railroads have woodsided gon's?
Thanks for any help!
Fred Mullins

Pity; That¹s one area in Laramie I visit very summer when I go to my
cousin¹s dude ranch in Jelm.
--
Thanks!

Brian Ehni



From: laramielarry <ostresh@...>
Reply-To: <STMFC@...>
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:56:43 -0000
To: <STMFC@...>
Subject: [STMFC] Cars about to face cutting torch





Hi

There are two (possibly three) cars about to face the cutting torch
in my home town.
1. Rock Island wide vision caboose 17017 - excellent condition:
Sink, toilet, all windows intact, batteries and fuses in place, most
lettering legible, needs paint.
2. Bunk car used as an office by Wyoming/Colorado RR. Painted pink,
no lettering, otherwise in good condition, still on its trucks. I
believe this is one of the A-50-12 automobile cars built for the
Union Pacific in 1929 by Ralston Steel Car Co, road #s 152001-
152500: It has outside-braced steel sides with Dreadnaught ends.
3. We think the following will be spared, but are not certain:
Single track wedge snow plow UP 900015, good condition.

I've taken a bunch of photos of this equipment, but - on the
assumption it will disappear in the next week or so - I'm writing to
ask if there are particular things on any of these cars that I
should measure or photograph before it is too late?

There is also an F7B (Wyoming/Colorado 1511)that they have been busy
cutting up for the past week - is there anything special on it that
I should photograph?

Thanks
Larry







.





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Larry,
Any idea if the caboose is road-worthy?
Brad

Elden,


Most cenrainly a compiment. When one person's modeling effort can bring VIVID memories to life; so much so, that retirees were getting physically ill simply by recalling these cars to mind. Car repairmen, no doubt, would a more caustic recollection.
That piece of modeling raised the bar at being able to accurately depict one of the railroad's most offensive shipments. Just thinking of "chunks" in that residue makes me a little queasy! Given the subject, your work was outstanding. Listers who have not seen the model will have a better understanding once you find the time to post them. Thanks.....

Fred Freitas / Pres
New England Chapter / PRRT&HS

"Gatwood, Elden J SAD " <Elden.J.Gatwood@...> wrote:
Thanks for the compliment, Fred! I think! To say my modeling stinks could
be taken another way.

I will find that model a get some photos to you guys.

Elden

________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
Frederick Freitas
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 8:31 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: gondola's

List,

Elden did such a great job on this car that retirees said they could "smell"
it; and several had to step out for air, as it was so realistic. PRRT&HS meet
attendee.

Fred Freitas

"Gatwood, Elden J SAD " <Elden.J.Gatwood@...
<mailto:Elden.J.Gatwood%40sad01.usace.army.mil> > wrote:
All;

I modeled and presented an offal gon, based on extensive notes on the subject
from Al Buchan and others, using an F&C PRR GS, in an early issue of TKM. I
will try to dig that info and photos up.

Elden Gatwood

________________________________

From: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of
Louis
C. Whiteley
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:26 PM
To: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [STMFC] Re: gondola's

--- In STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> , "Bruce F.
Smith" <smithbf@...> wrote:

Tom,

Thanks for the great clarification!

Bruce

In regard to Bruce's tale of the car loads of horse manure on the
Octoraro Branch, he is correct in his description of how the

stuff was

transported, although hopper cars were also used.

When I was qualifying as a block operator to work at Lamokin

Tower on

the Pennsy Main Line Philadelphia to Landover, I rode MD-47/MD-48

from

Thurlow Yard at Trainer, Pa. to Oxford, Pa. on Christmas Day

1965. It

was the only time that I ever had the opportunity to ride the

Chester

Creek Secondary Track and the Octoraro Branch. I had to make the

trip

on my own time as the assignment clerk did not want to pay to send
anyone out riding freight trains. Legally, I could not have done

it "on

the clock" as this was almost always a 12 to 16 hour trip coming

and

going depending on how much switching had to be done. Operators

were

limited to 12 Hrs and 59 minutes on duty (in any position where

there

was one trick and no relief) and anything more would result in a

Federal

hours of service violation.

The crew signed up at 6:30 AM and we left Thurlow at 7:00 AM and

we had

several loads of manure in the consist that had to be set out at
Oxford. Fortunately, it was a nice cold, sunny day. We finally

made it

back to Thurlow at about 8 PM that evening. The first thing that

came

to my mind when I saw those loaded cars in the train was train
dispatcher Henry Welsh's story of riding the cupola of the cabin

car on

a hot day in the summer when he was qualifying as a dispatcher.

He said

that the cabin was right behind 8 cars loaded with manure and you
haven't lived until you were trying to eat your lunch while riding
behind them. Thank goodness for the cold weather and the fact

that they

were placed up in the body of the train.

The cars came up from Potomac Yard on TP-2 and set off at Thurlow

North

Yard for the MD-47 to take south the next day. The manure was

mixed

with straw which came from the racing stables and horse farms in

the

south. Once set off on the local public delivery tracks and

unloaded,

the manure was taken to the mushroom farms by truck in the

Avondale,

Kelton, Kennett Square, Toughkenamon and Oxford Pa. areas where

it was

"cooked" before being spread on the beds in the mushroom houses.

They

used steam to kill off any organisms that were contained in the

manure.

MD-48 would return the empties to Thurlow to be sent south to be
reloaded. These cars had been moving to and from the Branch for

many,

many years prior to my ride that Christmas morning.

Tom Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
PH: (302) 738-4292
E-Mail: tmolsen@...
"Bruce F. Smith" wrote:

Doug asks...

To shift from our "discussion" of cement, I want to throw out

another

"rural legend". I have heard a story about meat packing plants

shipping

offal(?) (packing plant remains) from one plant to another in

open gons.

The story speaks of an Armour Plant in Kansas City shipping to

the

Decker's Plant (Armour) in Mason City, Ia. According to the

story, low

sided gons where used. But no further information. I believe

this took

place in the 40's or 50's.

Does anyone know about such shipments? And what kind of

cars/gons were

used. The Decker's plant was served by the M&StL. More

important what

models would work for the late 40's, and what would one use to

duplicate

the load?

On the Octararo branch of the PRR, there were a great number of

mushroom

houses (as Kennett Square PA is the self proclaimed "Mushroom

Capitol of

the World"). Now, the raw material for growing mushroom is

composted horse

manure, and a significant pool of this raw material existed in

the race

tracks and horse farms of the mid-atlantic region. On a

regular basis, the

PRR hauled gons of horse manure. These were GR or GRA

composite gons, that

by that time were nearing the ends of their lives. The gons

were

restricted from any other cargo. The cargo was finally

embargoed by the

PRR after the local fire departments refused to come out and

extinguish any

more burning gons, ignited by the heat of decomposing manure!

Obviously,

train placement of these cars was critical as they needed to be

as far from

either the loco or the cabin as possible...

As for offal, the gon might need to be "tight" as there is a

lot of liquid

(or they may not have cared if it leaked all over the place),

the car would

certainly be one in its final years of use, and it would likely

be in

captive service. If you need pictures of fresh offal, I can

always wander

down to the necropsy room, shoot a few and post them to the

files section,

or you can find several in a Google Images search <VBG>. To

model offal

you would need a thin walled tubing of a faily small diameter.

Bovine

intestine is up to ~2" diameter, and the color is anywhere from

a whitish

to purple, depending on circumstance. If the entire "pluck" is

to be

included, you might consider modeling clay for lungs (again

whitish), liver

(liver colored <G>) and heart (reddish to purple). You could

even make a

master and repetitively cast these parts in resin! Modeling

such a load

would definitely be a challenge...might I suggest a tarp

covered gon?

Happy Rails
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith V.M.D., Ph.D.
Scott-Ritchey Research Center
334-844-5587, 334-844-5850 (fax)
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/>
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/> >

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benjamin

Franklin
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Along the route of MD47/MD48 on the Chester Creek Branch was
American Rendering Co., which some summers could be smelled from
Ridley Park. I imagine offal might have come from the
Philadelphia Abattoir Co. on the Washington Ave. Branch. I have
never seen any first-hand accounts of shipments of this other
fragant commodity, though.

Lou Whiteley
Lawrenceville, NJ

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> >

Bruce F. Smith V.M.D., Ph.D.
Scott-Ritchey Research Center
334-844-5587, 334-844-5850 (fax)
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/>
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/> >

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benjamin Franklin

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laramielarry wrote:

2. Bunk car used as an office by Wyoming/Colorado RR. Painted pink,
no lettering, otherwise in good condition, still on its trucks. I
believe this is one of the A-50-12 automobile cars built for the
Union Pacific in 1929 by Ralston Steel Car Co, road #s 152001-
152500: It has outside-braced steel sides with Dreadnaught ends.

A suggestion: If this car can be moved on a flat you might wqant to drop a
note to president@..., which is the Feather River Rail Musuem in
Portola CA. They have an extensive collection of older freight equipment
and this one might be of interest to them.

Dave Nelson

Ted,

You should also know that the cars are sold out at Red Caboose. I received a FAX from Bob yesterday telling me that my order would be shorted as the Chinese have shorted his original order for the SP cars only. If anyone wants these and have not reserved them with their dealer, you will be the only source as it now stands.

Rich Orr

Hi

There are two (possibly three) cars about to face the cutting torch
in my home town.
1. Rock Island wide vision caboose 17017 - excellent condition:
Sink, toilet, all windows intact, batteries and fuses in place, most
lettering legible, needs paint.
2. Bunk car used as an office by Wyoming/Colorado RR. Painted pink,
no lettering, otherwise in good condition, still on its trucks. I
believe this is one of the A-50-12 automobile cars built for the
Union Pacific in 1929 by Ralston Steel Car Co, road #s 152001-
152500: It has outside-braced steel sides with Dreadnaught ends.
3. We think the following will be spared, but are not certain:
Single track wedge snow plow UP 900015, good condition.

I've taken a bunch of photos of this equipment, but - on the
assumption it will disappear in the next week or so - I'm writing to
ask if there are particular things on any of these cars that I
should measure or photograph before it is too late?

There is also an F7B (Wyoming/Colorado 1511)that they have been busy
cutting up for the past week - is there anything special on it that
I should photograph?

Thanks
Larry

We have just released a new edition of the Proto48 Modeler website. You will find a number of great models featured by some very talented modelers such as:
Jim Hickey
Jim Zwernemann
Robert Leners
and others
Warner Clarks' NKP Proto48 layout is featured in this issue.
http://www.proto48.org

Thanks,
Gene Deimling
editor

Hi,

Does anyone have information on a company called United States Car &
Foundry or U.S. Car & Foundry? I have information that they built some
double sheathed boxcars back in 1923. Did they merge into someone else?

Thanks,

Richard Wilkens

_ostresh@... (mailto:ostresh@...) writes:

There is also an F7B (Wyoming/Colorado 1511)that they have been busy
cutting up for the past week - is there anything special on it that
I should photograph?

Hi Larry,

If the skirts have been pulled off around the fuel tank and battery boxes,
(which I suspect happened years ago <G>) it might be nice to have some
detail shots of what's "in there". Usually, that area is in the shadows.

I'm sure there are photos of this area, floating around here and there, but
I haven't
seen them. <GG>

Just a thought, and thanks for asking!!!

Regards,
John








John Hitzeman
President
American Model Builders, Inc. - Since 1983
LASERKit (TM) - Since 1992
_www.rgspemkt.com_ (http://www.rgspemkt.com/)
_www.laserkit.com_ (http://www.laserkit.com/)
_www.ambstlouis.net_ (http://www.ambstlouis.net/)

Hopefully this was not already covered... but I did a little digging
on the Net, and the Winona Railroad was out of business in 1952,
though they applied for abandonment in late '49 or '50.

--- "Justin Kahn" <harumd@...> wrote:

Bill has noted the two primary sources for Winona information...

the Winona and a small photo of WRLX 810 with no date. Ghost

Railroads of Indiana...

Bill Darnaby

Thanks for the compliment, Fred! I think! To say my modeling stinks could
be taken another way.



I will find that model a get some photos to you guys.



Elden





________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
Frederick Freitas
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 8:31 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: gondola's



List,

Elden did such a great job on this car that retirees said they could "smell"
it; and several had to step out for air, as it was so realistic. PRRT&HS meet
attendee.

Fred Freitas

"Gatwood, Elden J SAD " <Elden.J.Gatwood@...
<mailto:Elden.J.Gatwood%40sad01.usace.army.mil> > wrote:
All;

I modeled and presented an offal gon, based on extensive notes on the subject
from Al Buchan and others, using an F&C PRR GS, in an early issue of TKM. I
will try to dig that info and photos up.

Elden Gatwood

________________________________

From: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of
Louis
C. Whiteley
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:26 PM
To: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [STMFC] Re: gondola's

--- In STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> , "Bruce F.
Smith" <smithbf@...> wrote:

Tom,

Thanks for the great clarification!

Bruce

In regard to Bruce's tale of the car loads of horse manure on the
Octoraro Branch, he is correct in his description of how the

stuff was

transported, although hopper cars were also used.

When I was qualifying as a block operator to work at Lamokin

Tower on

the Pennsy Main Line Philadelphia to Landover, I rode MD-47/MD-48

from

Thurlow Yard at Trainer, Pa. to Oxford, Pa. on Christmas Day

1965. It

was the only time that I ever had the opportunity to ride the

Chester

Creek Secondary Track and the Octoraro Branch. I had to make the

trip

on my own time as the assignment clerk did not want to pay to send
anyone out riding freight trains. Legally, I could not have done

it "on

the clock" as this was almost always a 12 to 16 hour trip coming

and

going depending on how much switching had to be done. Operators

were

limited to 12 Hrs and 59 minutes on duty (in any position where

there

was one trick and no relief) and anything more would result in a

Federal

hours of service violation.

The crew signed up at 6:30 AM and we left Thurlow at 7:00 AM and

we had

several loads of manure in the consist that had to be set out at
Oxford. Fortunately, it was a nice cold, sunny day. We finally

made it

back to Thurlow at about 8 PM that evening. The first thing that

came

to my mind when I saw those loaded cars in the train was train
dispatcher Henry Welsh's story of riding the cupola of the cabin

car on

a hot day in the summer when he was qualifying as a dispatcher.

He said

that the cabin was right behind 8 cars loaded with manure and you
haven't lived until you were trying to eat your lunch while riding
behind them. Thank goodness for the cold weather and the fact

that they

were placed up in the body of the train.

The cars came up from Potomac Yard on TP-2 and set off at Thurlow

North

Yard for the MD-47 to take south the next day. The manure was

mixed

with straw which came from the racing stables and horse farms in

the

south. Once set off on the local public delivery tracks and

unloaded,

the manure was taken to the mushroom farms by truck in the

Avondale,

Kelton, Kennett Square, Toughkenamon and Oxford Pa. areas where

it was

"cooked" before being spread on the beds in the mushroom houses.

They

used steam to kill off any organisms that were contained in the

manure.

MD-48 would return the empties to Thurlow to be sent south to be
reloaded. These cars had been moving to and from the Branch for

many,

many years prior to my ride that Christmas morning.

Tom Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
PH: (302) 738-4292
E-Mail: tmolsen@...
"Bruce F. Smith" wrote:

Doug asks...

To shift from our "discussion" of cement, I want to throw out

another

"rural legend". I have heard a story about meat packing plants

shipping

offal(?) (packing plant remains) from one plant to another in

open gons.

The story speaks of an Armour Plant in Kansas City shipping to

the

Decker's Plant (Armour) in Mason City, Ia. According to the

story, low

sided gons where used. But no further information. I believe

this took

place in the 40's or 50's.

Does anyone know about such shipments? And what kind of

cars/gons were

used. The Decker's plant was served by the M&StL. More

important what

models would work for the late 40's, and what would one use to

duplicate

the load?

On the Octararo branch of the PRR, there were a great number of

mushroom

houses (as Kennett Square PA is the self proclaimed "Mushroom

Capitol of

the World"). Now, the raw material for growing mushroom is

composted horse

manure, and a significant pool of this raw material existed in

the race

tracks and horse farms of the mid-atlantic region. On a

regular basis, the

PRR hauled gons of horse manure. These were GR or GRA

composite gons, that

by that time were nearing the ends of their lives. The gons

were

restricted from any other cargo. The cargo was finally

embargoed by the

PRR after the local fire departments refused to come out and

extinguish any

more burning gons, ignited by the heat of decomposing manure!

Obviously,

train placement of these cars was critical as they needed to be

as far from

either the loco or the cabin as possible...

As for offal, the gon might need to be "tight" as there is a

lot of liquid

(or they may not have cared if it leaked all over the place),

the car would

certainly be one in its final years of use, and it would likely

be in

captive service. If you need pictures of fresh offal, I can

always wander

down to the necropsy room, shoot a few and post them to the

files section,

or you can find several in a Google Images search <VBG>. To

model offal

you would need a thin walled tubing of a faily small diameter.

Bovine

intestine is up to ~2" diameter, and the color is anywhere from

a whitish

to purple, depending on circumstance. If the entire "pluck" is

to be

included, you might consider modeling clay for lungs (again

whitish), liver

(liver colored <G>) and heart (reddish to purple). You could

even make a

master and repetitively cast these parts in resin! Modeling

such a load

would definitely be a challenge...might I suggest a tarp

covered gon?

Happy Rails
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith V.M.D., Ph.D.
Scott-Ritchey Research Center
334-844-5587, 334-844-5850 (fax)
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/>
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/> >

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benjamin

Franklin
__
/ &#92;
__<+--+>________________&#92;__/___

____________________________________

|- ______/ O O &#92;_______ -| | __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ |

| / 4999 PENNSYLVANIA 4999 &#92; |

||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||

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__|

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Along the route of MD47/MD48 on the Chester Creek Branch was
American Rendering Co., which some summers could be smelled from
Ridley Park. I imagine offal might have come from the
Philadelphia Abattoir Co. on the Washington Ave. Branch. I have
never seen any first-hand accounts of shipments of this other
fragant commodity, though.

Lou Whiteley
Lawrenceville, NJ

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> >

Bruce F. Smith V.M.D., Ph.D.
Scott-Ritchey Research Center
334-844-5587, 334-844-5850 (fax)
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/>
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/
<http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/> >

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benjamin Franklin

__
/ &#92;
__<+--+>________________&#92;__/___

____________________________________

|- ______/ O O &#92;_______ -| | __ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ |

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Doug;
Al Buchan and other ex-PRR guys told me that they used old, near their end,
steel-floored gons that had been "sealed" for the liquid, which it largely
was on its surface. Those involved told me that you could not see much in
the liquid, but that it resembled a yellow white frothy slime on its surface.
It smelled like you suspect.

There would be no one to say for sure if they were never used for anything
else, but would you accept a car that smelled like that, unless you were so
desperate you had to? One apocryphal story I heard was that a full shipment
of offal was left sitting around in various locations in the Pgh area for
days, and that those in charge at each yard would just ship it out somewhwere
else, to get rid of it. Thus, it ended up at various yards.

Al's story about one gon sloshing its contents on to an ROW is a classic.

Elden

Ron;

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time.



Take care,



Elden Gatwood



________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
mopacfirst
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 12:49 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: [STMFC] Re: MoP 52'6" Beth Steel gon; and sunshine kit 70.10



I don't see any replies to this message, and it's already several
weeks old. For the record, I'd been preparing for conferences and
then been out of the country for some time, so my backlog of website
reading is enormous.

These cars were pretty vanilla, and their biggest distinguishing
feature is that the ribs didn't extend over the fishbelly. They were
all the same height, and were riveted. The ends were early
dreadnought. They were signature cars on the MoP, used for all kinds
of junk, both literally and figuratively.

I'm regretfully behind in my purchases of cars (my wife would say
thankfully) and after my last order of Sunshine cars arrives I'll buy
some of these. I'm currently building some F&C earlier MoP gons (the
non-fishbelly cars) which may round out my purchases of that car.

Ron Merrick

--- In STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> , "Gatwood,
Elden J SAD "
<Elden.J.Gatwood@...> wrote:

Hi all;



Does anyone out there own a Sunshine kit of this car; kit 70.10;

and could

someone who does, or is familiar with the prototype tell me:

1) if the car itself has any unusual features?

2) Do the ribs extend down into the fishbelly, or are they

all even

length? And, are they riveted?

3) What the fixed dread end looks like (i.e., rib taper)?

Thanks very much in advance!

Elden Gatwood

Bill has noted the two primary sources for Winona information, although it sounds as if Mark has also done considerable digging. It is a fascinating operation (how many other small railroads owned their own refrigerator line?) starting with trolley freight, moving through some unusual internal-combustion locomotives and finishing with a pair of GE 44T (there is a view of one in the X2200S series on 44T, with the observation that any views of them are quite rare, since they were resold fairly soon).
The only model I have ever seen was done in O scale by Jan Girardot some years ago; when he offered it for sale, I was tempted, but figured I could build my own (although I have not yet gotten around to it). So far as I know, there has never been a set of commercial lettering for it, although perhaps Art Griffin could be tempted.
Jace Kahn, General Manager
Ceres and Canisteo RR Co.

Being a traction nut, I have CERA B102. It contains a 12 page section on
the Winona and a small photo of WRLX 810 with no date. Ghost Railroads of
Indiana devotes a whole chapter to the Winona and includes an M D McCarter
photo of WRLX 704 taken in 4/41.

Bill Darnaby

_________________________________________________________________
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Bruce Smith wrote:
"Very few details of the surrounding area can be seen due to the
tight cropping of the shots."

That's really the only quibble that I have with the book - other
photos from the Charles collection published in the Teichmoeller PRR
hopper book were less tightly cropped, showing glimpses of other cars
in the train/cut of cars, giving the modeler a better impression of
how these cars look in context. However, that's only my personal
preference, and does not detract from the outstanding job that Ted and
Larry did on the book.

A well deserved thanks also has to go out to whomever in the NMRA
organization that greenlighted this project and the ORER reprints,
making available to modelers some truly essential references.


Ben Hom

Charlie Duckworth wrote:

Anyone received the new NMRA Post War Freight Car book - would like to
see some comments as to the quality of photos and research.

Charlie,

Larry Kline's and Ted Culotta's book is a compendium of freight car photographs taken in or about Harrisburg PA immediately after WW II. I agree with Bruce Smith that it should the titled as "Pre-War Freight Cars After WW II."

I have only one real complaint about the captions to the photographs. There was no reference of why many of the older cars photographed were retired within five years after the photograph was taken. It is my belief that many of these cars were retired because the owners chose not to retrofit them with AB Brakes, and, thus saving about $300 of cost per car.

Otherwise, it is a great book which should be in every one's library who is interested in the freight cars in service immediately after WW II.

Tim Gilbert

I picked up a copy of this new book at the Naperville Proto Modelers Meet
and reviewed it for our club newsletter. Since there has been very little
discussion of it here, I thought I'd share my review.

Eric Hansmann
Morgantown, W. Va.





Book Review
Focus on Freight Cars
Volume One: Single Sheathed Box and Automobile Cars
Author: Richard Hendrickson
Publisher: Speedwitch Media

Focus on Freight Cars a new series of soft-cover books featuring several
hundred black and white images of freight cars taken in 1936 and 1937 in the
Los Angeles area. These images were only recently found and offer a unique
look at the national freight car fleet in the Depression years. This is just
before widespread implementation of the steel sheathing box car designs we
are more familiar with as model railroaders. Volume one is an 84-page
spotlight on single sheathed box and automobile cars. Author Richard
Hendrickson is well known among prototype modelers and has contributed
prototype data to manufacturers in efforts to present models that follow
specific prototypes.

On my initial page through, I was impressed with the quality of the images.
Most pages feature two large images and details on the pictured freight
cars. There are many detail shots of end sills, doors, brake systems, ends,
and hardware. All of the cars are of the single-sheathed construction that
is often referred to in the model press as 'outside-braced'. Nearly all cars
are wood sheathed, but a few examples of early steel sheathed cars are
presented. The text offers a variety of details pertaining to specific car
classes and number series complementing the fine images on each page. The
combination of data and photographic evidence affords a modeler a set of
tools to build or improve upon a model of any one of the box or automobile
cars presented here. Many of the featured freight cars have been offered as
resin kits in HO scale, but there are a large percentage that have not been
offered.

None of the featured prototype cars are of the USRA single sheathed style.
Some are similar, but many are home-designed cars or roughly follow American
Railroad Association practices set forth in the 1920's following USRA
control.

As I read further into this book, there were several points that kept coming
up. I noticed many cars featured a radial roof rather than the typical
peaked roof. Different ends and hand brake gear were apparent, as well as
double door and door-and-a-half cars. I thought it may be interesting to
tally some data and compare the numbers to a national sample. From the
information provided in the text, the images in this book represent
approximately 89,450 single sheathed box and automobile cars in the 1936-37
freight car fleet. I also noted the following from data supplied in the
text:

Cars with radial roofs - 23,275
Cars with double doors - 15,375
Cars with door-and-a-half - 9,900
Fifty-foot cars - 7,600
Fifty-foot cars with double doors - 4,600
Fifty-foot cars with door-and-a-half - 3,000

As a comparison, the national box car and automobile car fleet in 1936
included 809,280 cars. 28,700 of these were the steel sheathed Pennsylvania
Railroad X29 class.

While these are decent numbers of freight cars, these figures are not
all-inclusive for the period. The numbers I determined are based on the data
presented in this book. As mentioned, it does not include many thousands of
USRA single sheathed cars that were in service in 1936-37, nor do these
figures include other similar freight cars that were not featured in the
book. For instance, in 1936 there were 8125 cars in the Pennsylvania
Railroad X23 and X24 classes of single sheathed box and automobile cars that
were not featured.

Determining an overall number of single sheathed box and automobile cars
would be an exhaustive task. It becomes apparent from reading though this
first volume of Focus on Freight Cars that there were significant numbers of
these freight cars to warrant more attention. Additional text details
indicate many cars were rebuilt in the 1940s, but a large number of cars
were in service into the early 1950s with little modification. Hence this
book becomes important to the post-war modelers as they attempt to mirror
the freight car fleet on their own model railroad.

The combination of the many high quality images and insightful textual data
make the first volume of Focus on Freight Cars a real winner. The $30 cost
is a small investment that brings so much useful information right to your
fingertips. I look forward to the next installment.

On Nov 30, 2006, at 7:38 AM, Charlie Duckworth wrote:

Anyone received the new NMRA Post War Freight Car book - would like to
see some comments as to the quality of photos and research.

Charlie,

Um, I know you're not a newbie... did you miss the discussion in October <G>?

To repeat and expand - the book is outstanding! Boxcars are covered most extensively, then hoppers and gons then tank cars and finally flats (with pretty sparse coverage). The quality of most of the photographs is excellent, although a few lesser quality shots were included to illustrate specific cars. The photos are almost all broadside "roster shots" so end details are only visible on a minority of photographs. Very few details of the surrounding area can be seen due to the tight cropping of the shots. Most of the photographs are from the PRR and Reading in Harrisburg PA, although other photos are included in the book to illustrate specific classes of cars. The quality of the research is top-notch. It is presented in the chapter prefaces and the extensive captions which give things like car number series and often, specific appliances. This is particularly true of the boxcars and is somewhat less so for other classes covered. Ted and Larry used the collection of photographs to illustrate the evolution of freight cars through the WWII era. Thus I find the title slightly misleading... it is really "The Prewar (and immediate post war) Fleet (in the post war years)" <G>.

Regards
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith
Auburn, AL
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Some days you are the bug, some days you are the
windshield."
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