I think the B&O car is accurate... but is the NYC flat ok?

B&O http://www.imrcmodels.com/ho/html/48753.htm
NYC http://www.imrcmodels.com/ho/html/48752.htm

Thanks
Tim O'Connor

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

Jerry:
Coke is usually a light grey, silvery color, at least from the old
beehive or the more modern non-recovery systems (you didn't specify era). I
am less sure about coke from a byproduct plant.

Eric Hiser
Phoenix, AZ

Richard Wilkens wrote:

So to "Legally" include Christmas on this list I'll ask the following, did the railroads that served the Christmas tree growing areas of North America see all that many shipments of trees by rail? How were they handled? Box cars? Refrigerator cars? Gondolas?

I've never seen anything in photos except box cars. SP publicity photos often showed box cars being either loaded or unloaded, and were included in their Christmas article for the employee magazine, _SP Bulletin_ most years, so I'd assume they would use a typical scene.
One exception: as included in my volume on SP flat cars, the National Christmas Tree, set up every year outside the White House, was usually shipped on a long flat car. In 1960, SP used a TOFC car for this.

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

I worked as a switchman in L.A. from 1970-1984 and at least up until 1975 we would handle box cars only loaded with Christmas trees beginning in late November up until mid December for Safeway and Market Basket (two large grocery stores chaines in Southern Calif) and they would arrive in the oldest junk 40 foot box cars. The trees were loaded crosswise in the cars about 6 to 8 feet high and top iced with crushed ice blown into the cars and covered the trees about 12" thick. Sometimes the doors were closed and sometimes they were left open. And sometimes a few were missing when the cars arrived in L.A. The stores allways gave us a tree when we delivered the cars to them if we wanted one.

These cars were old NP, SP&S, GN, Milw, SP, CB&Q and just about anything from the northwest and all of these cars were in the last years of service.

These cars were delivered to their warehouses for unloading and trucked to the stores for sale. The only good thing about those cars is you could smell them a long ways off.

Charlie Slater



To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
From: pc66ot@sbcglobal.net
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:00:35 -0800
Subject: [STMFC] Shipping Christmas Trees





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]





_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/


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

I just decaled one side of the gon and about had a heart attack. The New Date on the decal sheet is 1957. I model 54. But, a quick glance at the prototype photos showed one with a reweigh date of 1950.

I find it extremely necessary to include a prototype data sheet with each model kit.

Decals are nice quality, no repack data though.
Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa

Yes I did and still waiting for the decals to arrive.

Charlie Slater



To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
From: Bruce_Griffin@uncg.edu
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:45:30 +0000
Subject: [STMFC] WrightTrak B&O M-53





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





_________________________________________________________________
Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.
http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009

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

Jerry,



AFAIK, Centrailia is still owned by Des Plaines Hobbies.  See:



http://www.desplaineshobbies.com/store/



Jim Brewer

Glenwood MD

Clark,



I purchased this kit, as well as their NS low side gondola kit at Naperville; my kits appear to contain all the parts, even those that you are missing.  However, both contain the same sheet of basic instructions and no prototype information or finished model photographs.  I am still waiting on the decals for the NS kit as I understand Wright Trak was waiting to have then printed pending approval of their art work.  These kits aren't listed on their web site so there is no help available there.  I'm hoping once Wright Trak catches up wiith business after Naperville and Trainfest, the necessary information will be made available to us.



I made a cursory search on-line for photos of the prototypes, but couldn't find anything..



Jim Brewer

Glenwood MD

Could anyone suggest where I might find good (as in, good for making a
model with) drawings of the Type X underframe?

Thanks.

Frank Valoczy
Vancouver, BC

There isn't yet but soon will be if a certain unnamed keeper of the Sunshine
website gets off his butt and gets busy. That unnamed person has photos of
all Stan's built up kits and a web page partially done.

Jim Hayes
Portland Oregon
www.sunshinekits.com

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 8:31 AM, lnbill <fgexbill@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

Is there a resource on-line that has an up-to-date list/description of
Stan's offerings?

Bill Welch


--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com <STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>, "Clark Propst"
<cepropst@...> wrote:

I picked up one of Stan Rydarowicz's new 50' Mathers stock cars at

Naperville. I'm about finished with assembly.

The kit is basically a P2K stock car with styrene and resin parts for the

doors and center extension of the frame.

All parts needed for assembly are included. The instructions made me

laugh because they are written just like Stan talks. He did not included
several of the assembly steps, so like most small maker kits, you're on your
own. He does provide some poor photocopies of the constructed model. I was
impressed by the thought Stan put into this model.

This is a time consuming kit. Heck, the P2K kit is time consuming alone.

There is no good photo of a completed model or prototype. The decals
included do have a drawing of the cars. A friend supplied photos of the
prototype which were quite helpful.

Next time I talk to Stan I'll recommend he amends his instructions to

make each step clearer to the builder.

The kit is priced at $35. These cars were built in the early 60s, but are

so cool I had to have one!

Stan sells an extensive line of resin supplemented kits including several

modified reefers.

Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa

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

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

I'm guessing shipping by rail was most of Dec. (maybe late Nov.) until the 25. It seems that ** trees were put up differently in the steam era than now. I remember ours went up the 24th and came down the 1st., at least in the 40s. As this list goes to 60 the purchasing time window would have changed and I suspect by 60 they weren't delivered by train anymore. Thoughts?

Jon Miller
AT&SF
For me time stopped in 1941
Digitrax, Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI user
NMRA Life member #2623
Member SFRH&MS

In my experience trees moved from British Columbia in standard box cars to Texas - late sixities.
 
Carriers restrict the use of high class cars for hauling material that would damage the inside of the car, therefore I would not see a railway giving a working reefer to a tree shipper. Realize there was a  test case was made in a reefer.
 
In my experience these shipments were given very high priority, traced and expedited constantly thru the approx one month period they moved.

Also of course reefers would have incur additional charges for protective service.
 
Ross McLeod Calgary

 


__________________________________________________________________
Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/gift/

Is there a resource on-line that has an up-to-date list/description of Stan's offerings?

Bill Welch

Thanks for the info. It looks like the flat cars I need are coming now I will cross my fingers for the SP Stockcars. Until I saw the list I didn't know Intermountain was also handling Tichy and Con-cor


Paul Deis
Chief Engineer, D&P Mountain Railroad
http://web.mac.com/curlyp
pdeis@att.net

I picked up one of Stan Rydarowicz's new 50' Mathers stock cars at Naperville. I'm about finished with assembly.

The kit is basically a P2K stock car with styrene and resin parts for the doors and center extension of the frame.

All parts needed for assembly are included. The instructions made me laugh because they are written just like Stan talks. He did not included several of the assembly steps, so like most small maker kits, you're on your own. He does provide some poor photocopies of the constructed model. I was impressed by the thought Stan put into this model.

This is a time consuming kit. Heck, the P2K kit is time consuming alone. There is no good photo of a completed model or prototype. The decals included do have a drawing of the cars. A friend supplied photos of the prototype which were quite helpful.

Next time I talk to Stan I'll recommend he amends his instructions to make each step clearer to the builder.

The kit is priced at $35. These cars were built in the early 60s, but are so cool I had to have one!

Stan sells an extensive line of resin supplemented kits including several modified reefers.
Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa

Tim, you wrote: Right, CCS is custom Intermountain tooling.

That's unclear to me. Do you mean CCS is selling cars made by
InterMountain or the other way around? InterMountain has CCS cars on its website.

Jerry Michels

I'm about finished with a Wright Trak SAL gondola kit I bought from them at Trainfest. (Hope their models sold well)

If memory serves me correctly the kit contained the body, Tichy brake sprue, weight (which was too long), trucks, and a piece of brass wire, decals, plus two sheets of instructions.

The instructions included one typed page and one page with four photocopied photos of the constructed model. The instructions mentioned an inside floor and etched parts sprue, which were not in my kit. The builder didn't recommend using the etched parts anyway?

I was able to dig up the styrene for the floor, grab irons, sill steps, cut levers, and a brake platform.

Construction time was what you'd expect from a one piece bodied gon. Drilling holes for the grabs and steps and adding the Tichy brake parts.

One item missing from the kit that makes it impossible to finish is a good photo of a completed model or prototype. I had no idea what color to paint it or where to place the decals! I was able to obtain the information from a friend.

I paid $40 for the kit.
Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa

Group:
I made one of the tools from scrap and it works great.  I made one change by cut with a saw a grove in one side at each top grove helps hold the wire in place.  I also pebend with plires the wireto a ninty degree then bend the other side down.  Works good for those odd size grabs like on the ends of PRR H21 and GLa (Iam an SPF) hopper cars.
Don Ford
Kanab UT




________________________________
From: steve l <stevelucas3@yahoo.ca>
To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 8:42:57 AM
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Grab Iron tool

 
Was the article not a Bobo Hundman one on scratchbuilding an ATSF stock car?

As for "Christmas" trees, Ben Stein's opinion is illuminating- -

"Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away."

Steve Lucas.

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups. com, SUVCWORR@... wrote:

That article was in Mainline Modeler but I don't recall the issue and my copies are currently

in storage. The tool works very well and depending on the angle you use, it will allow you to make any wi
width grab iron in small or large increments. The shallower the angle the smaller the steps in width. You
need two pieces of styrene. The first you cut in the shape of a (politically incorrect term coming) Christmas
tree. The trunk becomes the handle. Overlay the branch area with the scribed siding styrene. Then
deepen the scribe lines with either a knife or razor saw. One pass of a saw is usually all that is needed.


Rich Orr

Sometime back one of the magazines ran an article where a piece of sheet
plastic with manufactured scribed slots (siding?) was cut in a triangular
shape with the slots running parallel to the base of the triangle. Then,
you pick the slot that matches the width that you need and lay a piece of
wire in it and simply bend it over the edges of the plastic. Bingo, a grab
iron. The taller the triangle combined with a narrow base gives you a LOT
of slots which vary in length only slightly as you go from one slot to the
next.



I built one of these for a zero cost using scraps from the plastic box and
it works great.



Hopefully my description makes sense.



Allen Cain

Thanks Steve,

That's very useful. I'm working on four of these cars right now myself. I've already decided to use Tahoe Model Works Bettendorf Swing-Motion trucks, and LaserKit window screens, both of which look more like the real thing than the kit parts.

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
Executive Editor
Model Railroader magazine
asperandeo@mrmag.com
262-796-8776, ext. 461
FAX 262-796-1142

Tom sez...

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 guy who made the masters for these cars told me that the version of this car available at Naperville is good only for the Gothic lettering as these cars were rebuilt starting in 1955. Therefore, the car I purchased (kit 93.4) will be in very new paint as I model late summer/early fall of 1955. The earlier rebuilds of these cars that would have had the Roman lettering have not been released yet.

Bill Darnaby