GopherRail will be on February 27, 2010, on the University of Minnesota campus, Minneapolis. This is the club's biggest fund raiser of the year, and we hope to see many of you there. GopherRail will include presentations, layouts, Open Mic night, and, new this year, a photo contest. Program information will be posted as it becomes available.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rrclubum/gopherrail.htm

Bob Sterner
Faculty Advisor
The Railroad Club at the University of Minnesota

Can someone tell me if Centralia Car Shops is still an independent company
or is their line now owned by InterMountain? Thanks.

Jerry Michels

If one wanted to model coke, say to fill the Walthers coke containers, what
material would one use, and what color would it be? Thanks!

Jerry Michels

Hi Brian and Al,

Thanks guys for the replies. I have emailed Terry to see if he knows and if he does come up with the data I will post it so that all can share. Martin has just put out that NYC 1-1/2 door tall box car, but is very vague about when the NYC went to the Gothic Lettering for reporting marks and dimensional data. Until I find out when, I will be sticking with the kits with the Roman Lettering.

The NYC is the most unrepresented railroad on Pennsy layouts due to the antipathy of the great number of unwashed SPF's whom I do not wish to associate with.

I spent 14 years on System operations as a Supervisor and then Manager of System Passenger Operations on PC and CR and I worked with a great number of people on both sides of the railroad. All of the people I worked with at all levels did their jobs in a most professional manner. Of course, there was the usual teasing that goes on in any organization, but nothing that could be construed as being serious. When most of the people found out that I was a serious modeler and historian type, they went out of their way to help me get the information that I was looking for. I learned a lot from people on both sides of the fence as one might say.

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

Guys,

I know several of you must have purchased this kit at Naperville. Any feedback? I have one person's opinion of the kit, but would like to hear others to be fair. Thanks.

Regards,
Bruce D. Griffin
Editor, The B&O Modeler
Summerfield, NC

Is intermountain going to be releasing any of the Red Caboose cars?

This article by researcher and author Ian Wilson is quite informative on the subject as well. <http://www.canadianbranchline.com/christma.htm>;

I wonder how many people choose the end of December as a modelling period?

Rob Kirkham
Surrey BC
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tim O'Connor" <timboconnor@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 9:11 PM
To: <STMFC@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Shipping Christmas Trees

Paul, I found this abstract of an article on a web site:


Douglas-fir Christmas trees shipped in railroad box cars from the
Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles, Calif., suffer varying degrees of
deterioration, depending on treatment before shipment, length of time
in cars, and temperatures within loads during shipment. Test shipments
were made in 1962 in a standard box car and a mechanically refrigerated
car, with recording thermometers at three levels within the loads.

Additional shipments in standard box cars were made in 1964 using crushed
ice blown in on the loads as a coolant. At Los Angeles the 1962 trees were
mounted under simulated home conditions and their useful life measured for
11 days. Needle-drop proved a poor measure of deterioration but observations
of color, dryness, and needle-drop on the 10th day showed obvious differences.

Time of cutting, previous fertilizing, along with position in packing, and
shipping temperature affected the useful life and value of trees.


Tim O'Connor

Were Christmas Trees shipped in reefers? Were insulated boxcars around in
enough numbers to be a reasonable alternative? (I model 1952) Did they,
reefer loads of Christmas trees, need to be iced, or simply kept at a
reasonably cool temp?

Did these loads make up a significant "surge" in traffic to take up much of
the unused slack in reefer fleets during November and December?

I ASSume November and December are slow months for Reefers. I know that many
reefers were pressed into express service to handle the increased mail and
express load as we got closer to Christmas, but did the shipment of trees
make a dent in this use of reefers?

Were loads of cut trees sent to a metropolitan produce market's for
distribution to retail outlets? Were cut trees a sort of "produce"?

Tons of questions but it sparked an interest. Thank you all in advance.

Paul Catapano

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

For those building the kids for these new cars, some interesting information including better instructions have be posted on
http://atsfrr.net/Reviews/HO/Freight/IMRCaboose/Index.htm
______________
J. Stephen (Steve) Sandifer
mailto:steve.sandifer@sbcglobal.net
Home: 12027 Mulholland Drive, Meadows Place, TX 77477, 281-568-9918
Office: Southwest Central Church of Christ, 4011 W. Bellfort, Houston, TX 77025, 713-667-9417

Wow, I guess this demonstrates some amount of pent up desire
for these cars...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&;item=200405744090

Tim O'Connor

Allen Rueter wrote

What's with all the Southern cars?
Sou 261004 906 10/17 2127 10/17
Sou 166104 2005 10/13 258 10/13
Sou 261604 911 12/5 2017 12/5
Sou 148704 2126 11/21 203 11/21
Sou 13804 2107 11/7 203 11/7
Sou 13804 260 11/22 2019 11/22
Sou 11804 911 12/6 2007 12/6
Sou 116904 2127 10/13 906 10/13
Sou 116904 2127 12/7 911 12/7

Allen:

11804, 13804, 261004, 261104 are 1937 AAR box cars

116904 is a 41'6" flat car

148704 is a steel frame, wood sheathed, double door box car

166104 is a 36' wood box car w/ steel center sill

That's a nice assortment of Southern freight cars!!

Tim O'Connor

Allen

A photo with a digital camera should work quite well, if
the page is very flat, and you can mount the camera on a
tripod and get a sharp picture.

Tim O'Connor

Tim O'Connor wrote:

It's interesting that NYC continued to use lines above and below the reporting marks until around 1960 even though most railroads discontinued that practice years earlier.

The lines were never a requirement but were a recommended practice, starting back in the WW I era. The AAR discontinued that recommendation very early in 1952 and many roads soon dropped the lines from their lettering diagrams.

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@signaturepress.com
Publishers of books on railroad history

Paul, I found this abstract of an article on a web site:


Douglas-fir Christmas trees shipped in railroad box cars from the
Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles, Calif., suffer varying degrees of
deterioration, depending on treatment before shipment, length of time
in cars, and temperatures within loads during shipment. Test shipments
were made in 1962 in a standard box car and a mechanically refrigerated
car, with recording thermometers at three levels within the loads.

Additional shipments in standard box cars were made in 1964 using crushed
ice blown in on the loads as a coolant. At Los Angeles the 1962 trees were
mounted under simulated home conditions and their useful life measured for
11 days. Needle-drop proved a poor measure of deterioration but observations
of color, dryness, and needle-drop on the 10th day showed obvious differences.

Time of cutting, previous fertilizing, along with position in packing, and
shipping temperature affected the useful life and value of trees.


Tim O'Connor

cars ending 04 thru Bieber 1947 4th quarter

GN 38
ATSF 24
PFE 16
WP 16
DRGW 14
SP 12
IC 10
PRR, SFRD, SOU 9
CBQ , CNW 6
ART, MP, NP, SAL, UTLX 4
BO, FGE, MILW, NKP, NYC 3
CSVX, IGN, LAPX, LN, MDT, PLE, UP, WFE, ALTON/CA 2
SPS 1
strays:
CG CGW CP CRIP DTI FGEX GATX GTW NH NW NWX ?OB
SCCX SSW UCR WLE

What's with all the Southern cars?
Sou 261004 906 10/17 2127 10/17
Sou 166104 2005 10/13 258 10/13
Sou 261604 911 12/5 2017 12/5
Sou 148704 2126 11/21 203 11/21
Sou 13804 2107 11/7 203 11/7
Sou 13804 260 11/22 2019 11/22
Sou 11804 911 12/6 2007 12/6
Sou 116904 2127 10/13 906 10/13
Sou 116904 2127 12/7 911 12/7

SAL
SAL 17304 254 11/9 2008 11/9
Sal 15604 2101 10/26 205 10/26
Sal 17604 202 11/11 2127 11/11
SAL 19704 2019 12/27 201 12/28

For Dave, till I get a photo it would look like:
...
"Recvd: SAL 17 304 254 11/9"
"Forwd: 2008 - "
...
"Recvd: Sal 15 604 2101 10/26"
"Forwd: 205 - "
...
"Recvd: Sal 17 604 202 11/11"
"Forwd: 2127 -"
...
"Recvd: SAL 19 704 2019 12/27"
"Forwd: 201 12/28"

WP engine numbers are < 1000, GN's are generally >1000.
so 17304 17604 were northbound, 15604, 19704 were south bound

the trailing 3 digits are preprinted in the book.
of course yahoo will mangle it.
Allen Rueter

Indeed, in 1954 new NYC cars were being delivered with the
Roman style lettering and by 1955 many new cars and repaints
were getting the extended Gothic lettering. It's interesting
that NYC continued to use lines above and below the reporting
marks until around 1960 even though most railroads discontinued
that practice years earlier.

There are many good NYC box car photos from the 1950's to early
1960's in Bob Liljestrand's (Bob's Photo) softcover book illustrating
the various paint & lettering schemes (and the dates).

Tim O'Connor

Dave,
I'll have to think about how to do that, the pages are about 14x17, much bigger than
a common scanner, to thick for a drum scanner that I have access to at work.
I could try just a corner.

--
Allen Rueter
StLouis MO


________________________________
From: Dave Nelson <Lake_Muskoka@att.net>
To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 9:28:10 PM
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: Bieber 1947 4th quarter *01 cars (title correction)


Allen, can you post a scan or two in the files area so we can all see what
the original looks like?

Dave Nelson

on 11/23/09 10:00 PM, Paul Catapano at pc66ot@sbcglobal.net wrote:


Were Christmas Trees shipped in reefers? Were insulated boxcars around in
enough numbers to be a reasonable alternative? (I model 1952) Did they,
reefer loads of Christmas trees,  need to be iced, or simply kept at a
reasonably cool temp?
 
Did these loads make up a significant "surge" in traffic to take up much of
the unused slack in reefer fleets during November and December?
 
I ASSume November and December are slow months for Reefers. I know that many
reefers were pressed into express service to handle the increased mail and
express load as we got closer to Christmas, but did the shipment of trees
make a dent in this use of reefers?
 
Were loads of cut trees sent to a metropolitan produce market's for
distribution to retail outlets? Were cut trees a sort of "produce"?
 
Tons of questions but it sparked an interest. Thank you all in advance.

Paul Catapano

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







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

Were Christmas Trees shipped in reefers? Were insulated boxcars around in enough numbers to be a reasonable alternative? (I model 1952) Did they, reefer loads of Christmas trees,  need to be iced, or simply kept at a reasonably cool temp?
 
Did these loads make up a significant "surge" in traffic to take up much of the unused slack in reefer fleets during November and December?
 
I ASSume November and December are slow months for Reefers. I know that many reefers were pressed into express service to handle the increased mail and express load as we got closer to Christmas, but did the shipment of trees make a dent in this use of reefers?
 
Were loads of cut trees sent to a metropolitan produce market's for distribution to retail outlets? Were cut trees a sort of "produce"?
 
Tons of questions but it sparked an interest. Thank you all in advance.

Paul Catapano

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

Allen, can you post a scan or two in the files area so we can all see what
the original looks like?

Dave Nelson

They are usually used in a vibrator type machine or at least that's how I've seen them used.

Jerry Glow