Al,

Micro-Mark makes a tool that you can use to remove cast-on ladders, grabs
and other offending items without damaging the car bodies. I have the
standard sized model and really does work!

It is a stainless steel chisel, 6-1/2" long and 4mm wide. The catalog
description and part number is: #80893 Plastic Modeler's Chisel @ $18.95.

It also comes in a smaller version. The catalog description and part number
is: #82709 Special Narrow Version with 2mm wide cutting edge @ $18.95.

You can order on-line at: http://www.micromark.com/

The tool is listed in the Holiday Catalog on page 33.

Best regards,
Tom Olsen

Thomas M. Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
(302) 738-4292
tmolsen@udel.edu <tmolsen%40udel.edu>

This may get me raided by the Prototype Police, but I don't mind clipping molded grab irons off an open-top car and replacing them with wire, providing the car body is dimensionally OK. I don't mind doing that on a house car, either: it's a good trade-off for price. However, I find it easier to remove molded grab irons and install a ladder, than to remove a molded ladder and install ladder *grabs*. That one's hard to do without scarring the car side. One weathers heavily and hopes purists don't notice.

Ducking for cover as sirens wail,

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.


--- In STMFC@yahoogroups. com, Bill Welch <fgexbill@.. .> wrote:

Dennis is correct. Heap shields for the cars we are talking about,
BTW well illustrated in several volumes of RP CYC, were a single
piece of steel. Regarding the MDC/Roundhouse part to create a heap
end, it is meant to go with a 3-bay ribbed side hopper in that line.
I have some of these to do a Southern version.

I have a some Athearn undec with heap shields so I can "sort of" get
to the L&N cars I want. I have plenty to keep me busy so I will give
Athearn some time to see if they redo their offset twin with separate
grabs.

I will grab some of Dennis' new car and I have 3 Atlas cars w/radial
ends and sets of Martin's "Alternate Sides" to do 3 Clinchfield cars.

I just would rather not spend time carving and drilling. Oh well!

Bill Welch

The biggest problem is the "heap shields" used during the era twin hoppers were built were an integral part pf the end… that is, the end sheet and whatever bracing was used on the end just extended unbroken above the level of the top of the sides. Some later applications to larger hoppers built in the sixties had heap shields that appeared to be add-ons that were attached to the top chord of the end framing. These would be a natural for a separate detail part (and somebody did offer them at one time) but don't do any good for the steam era twins.>

That's a good one... for about the same price I've picked up a
dozen stainless steel dental instruments with various shapes and
sizes of cutting heads. They don't flex like the X-Acto blade
does when trying to remove stuff. (I grind X-Acto blades to
desired shapes and round off the edges too.)

Tim O'Connor


At 11/20/2009 02:35 AM Friday, you wrote:

Al,

Micro-Mark makes a tool that you can use to remove cast-on ladders, grabs and other offending items without damaging the car bodies. I have the standard sized model and really does work!

It is a stainless steel chisel, 6-1/2" long and 4mm wide. The catalog description and part number is: #80893 Plastic Modeler's Chisel @ $18.95.

It also comes in a smaller version. The catalog description and part number is: #82709 Special Narrow Version with 2mm wide cutting edge @ $18.95.

You can order on-line at: http://www.micromark.com/

The tool is listed in the Holiday Catalog on page 33.

Best regards,
Tom Olsen

Thomas M. Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
(302) 738-4292
tmolsen@...

Westerfield.A Premo
 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Tim O'Connor
 To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:19 PM
 Subject: [STMFC] Re: Heap Shields


   

 Andy Miller once found some resin castings that represented
 C&O "dreadnaught" style ribbed hopper car ends, that were made
 to fit the Athearn car. Anyone remember who made them?

 Tim O'Connor

Westerfield.A Premo
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim O'Connor
To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:19 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Heap Shields




Andy Miller once found some resin castings that represented
C&O "dreadnaught" style ribbed hopper car ends, that were made
to fit the Athearn car. Anyone remember who made them?

Tim O'Connor

Al,

Micro-Mark makes a tool that you can use to remove cast-on ladders, grabs and other offending items without damaging the car bodies. I have the standard sized model and really does work!

It is a stainless steel chisel, 6-1/2" long and 4mm wide. The catalog description and part number is: #80893 Plastic Modeler's Chisel @ $18.95.

It also comes in a smaller version. The catalog description and part number is: #82709 Special Narrow Version with 2mm wide cutting edge @ $18.95.

You can order on-line at: http://www.micromark.com/

The tool is listed in the Holiday Catalog on page 33.

Best regards,
Tom Olsen

Thomas M. Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
(302) 738-4292
tmolsen@udel.edu

This may get me raided by the Prototype Police, but I don't mind clipping molded grab irons off an open-top car and replacing them with wire, providing the car body is dimensionally OK. I don't mind doing that on a house car, either: it's a good trade-off for price. However, I find it easier to remove molded grab irons and install a ladder, than to remove a molded ladder and install ladder *grabs*. That one's hard to do without scarring the car side. One weathers heavily and hopes purists don't notice.

Ducking for cover as sirens wail,

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.


--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, Bill Welch <fgexbill@...> wrote:

Dennis is correct. Heap shields for the cars we are talking about,
BTW well illustrated in several volumes of RP CYC, were a single
piece of steel. Regarding the MDC/Roundhouse part to create a heap
end, it is meant to go with a 3-bay ribbed side hopper in that line.
I have some of these to do a Southern version.

I have a some Athearn undec with heap shields so I can "sort of" get
to the L&N cars I want. I have plenty to keep me busy so I will give
Athearn some time to see if they redo their offset twin with separate
grabs.

I will grab some of Dennis' new car and I have 3 Atlas cars w/radial
ends and sets of Martin's "Alternate Sides" to do 3 Clinchfield cars.

I just would rather not spend time carving and drilling. Oh well!

Bill Welch

The Casad Depot alongside the former Nickle Plate just outside of New Haven, IN had some fairly large piles of different ores or minerals when I moved to the area in 1997. I believe it's only been in the past 3-6 years that they disposed of whatever was stockpiled there. If this link works, you will see a number of piles of something on the east edge of the facility. That tan Butler building and assortment of rusty looking equipment at the top edge of the view is the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. The folks that own the 765.

Â

http://www.bing. com/maps/ ?v=2&cp=qvchj77x ny2g&scene= 13499039& lvl=1&sty= b

Â

For those of you interested, this Depot was served by both the Nickle Plate and the Wabash which passed just north of this facility. The Wabash had a spur that came south along South Ryan Rd which is to the west of Casad. By scrolling to the west and then north, you can see the remains of the roadbed and the outline of the connector track in the trees where it tied into the Wabash. This place would make for a HUGE switching layout back in it's prime.

Â

Jason Cook

New Haven, IN

--- On Thu, 11/19/09, Gatwood, Elden J SAD <elden.j.gatwood@ usace.army. mil> wrote:

From: Gatwood, Elden J SAD <elden.j.gatwood@ usace.army. mil>

Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: DT&I hopper in Tracy CA (was Re: Accurail Offset Twin)

To: STMFC@yahoogroups. com

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 1:49 PM

Â

Interesting! I have been told by ex-Army folks that this was a huge deal

during the Cold War. We were worried that the Soviets would blockade us and

we would not be able to get critical metals for aircraft production, amongst

others.

I have always wondered what special additives might have been used in nuclear

vessel/reactor construction, and what things might have been shipped around

the country for our military or specialty steel production, as it was a far

larger "industry" than most might expect, and most of us don't model it. And

it didn't just move around in "U.S. Army" box cars, as some might think.

Those strategic minerals went by regular RR car.

The stockpile facility near me was behind a cyclone fence, with a gate and

guard. It was up a branch in the woods hidden from view, but had only a

trailer office and small piles of different colored ores piled here and

there. Yes, the local USSteel and other steel-makers were nearby, and yes,

they did make "specialty" steels, so none of this should be surprising, but

all the same, I sure would like to know what was coming from where, and in

whose cars!

Elden Gatwood

-----Original Message-----

From: STMFC@yahoogroups. com [mailto:STMFC@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of

richtownsend@ netscape. net

Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:24 PM

To: STMFC@yahoogroups. com

Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re: DT&I hopper in Tracy CA (was Re: Accurail Offset

Twin)

Back in the early 1960s I lived on the New Cumberland Army Depot, which is

across the Susquehanna River from and a little south of Harrisburg. It is

immediately adjacent to the PRR's four-track main line along the west shore

of the river. There were scattered small stockpiles of exotic ores on the

base (when I say small I mean about single carload size). They were labeled

with what they were and where they came from. The one I remember was chromium

ore from the USSR. The stockpiles were pretty exciting for this childhood

rock collector with their exotic contents and sources.

Richard Townsend

Lincoln City, Oregon

-----Original Message-----

From: Gatwood, Elden J SAD <elden.j.gatwood@ usace.army. mil

<mailto:elden. j.gatwood% 40usace.army. mil> >

To: STMFC@yahoogroups. com <mailto:STMFC% 40yahoogroups. com>

Sent: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 10:01 am

Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: DT&I hopper in Tracy CA (was Re: Accurail Offset

Twin)

Here's another one. During the post-WW2 period, the U.S. government and

critical industries, were importing, and sometimes stockpiling vital minerals

and metals only found in economically viable quantities outside the U.S.

Many entered the U.S. through east coast ports, particularly Chromium (40% of

US needs from Turkey, 38% from South Africa; 79% of all US needs from

abroad), Cobalt (77% imported, much from the Congo), Columbium (most from

Nigeria and Belgian Congo), Manganese (majority from India, South Africa,

Gold Coast, Cuba, Belgian Congo and Brazil), some Tungsten (that coming from

Spain, Portugal and Brazil). All of this entering from eastern US ports would

have most likely been loaded into eastern road hoppers, for shipment

elsewhere.

Since shipment of these commodities was done on the railroads, some research

into what industries are served by your railroad might come up with some

interesting answers.

BTW, I found a strategic stockpile facility served on my section of the PRR.

Hmmm.

Elden Gatwood

-----Original Message-----

From: STMFC@yahoogroups. com <mailto:STMFC% 40yahoogroups. com>

[mailto:STMFC@ yahoogroups. com <mailto:STMFC% 40yahoogroups. com> ] On Behalf Of

Dave Nelson

Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 12:44 PM

To: STMFC@yahoogroups. com <mailto:STMFC% 40yahoogroups. com>

Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: DT&I hopper in Tracy CA (was Re: Accurail Offset

Twin)

Another possibility is with the Holly sugar mill (perhaps under a different

name in 1947) in Tracy -- or any of the several nearby sugar mills. Sugar

mills use coke for purification purposes and I've seen evidence in the WP

papers in Sacramento that coke was brought from as far away as Alabama for

this purpose. No idea why Utah Coke, Colorado Coke, Arkansas Coke, or locally

produced Petroleum Coke was not used... but hey, there's that record of the

Alabama Coke that shows that sometimes at least, it wasn't.

With that in mind, scratch out coal and plug in coke and everything else in

Tim's message makes perfect sense to me.

Dave Nelson

-----Original Message-----

Simple: Coal sometimes travels long distances for some particular industrial

use (IOW not so much for heating or steam production).

Since DT&I served Michigan & Ohio (AAR District #15) a DT&I car on ANY

railroad in MI, OH or IN (which comprise District #15) could be loaded for

ANY destination in North America without regard to its ownership by the DT&I,

once the rules about loading a car off its home road were observed (i.e.

basically no more suitable equivalent car was immediately available).

Since the most suitable car in this case would have been an SP (T&NO) hopper,

it's reasonable to think that the chances of an SP hopper in Ohio were no

better than the chances of a DT&I hopper in California.. . So the roll of the

dice gave us the DT&I hopper in Tracy on this occasion. (And on another

occasion someone photographed T&NO #4406 on the Nickel Plate...)