I hope you're not saying that this was always the case, as this seems to imply. If the weight hadn't changed by more than a set amount (which I'll leave to somebody else to look up) the figures weren'

Nice looking car, but the two rivet heads on the bolster tabs reveal it as a fake. No bowtie. Don’t feel bad, Charlie, I use the Intermountain body as the basis for three CB&Q XM-32A cars, and I didn’

Try the Repower and Regear group. This is frequently a topic discussed there. Thanks Pete

Jerry and Bruce, I want to model the NYC's Water Level Route; on the prototype, long trains were the norm. Even though the maximum train length on the Central was 125 cars during the 1940s, it was not

I agree Phil and cast my net too broadly. I have had terrible experiences with Hallmark, but being a Missouri Pacific modlere, they were the main importers of MP brass. Ditto for Sunset. I bought thei

Here’s the $10 kit finished, roof toned down with brown and black dry pigments, a little brown also run down the rivet seams and white oils below the door to denote a few broken flour sacks while in t

Bruce, The repowerandregear groups.io group exists for the express purpose of making older brass run like the proverbial swiss watch. Just about any steamer, even the Mantua and Tyco can be made to ru

I saw an ad that just came out for Bowser "H34" covered hopper cars. First, I noticed that PRR was not one of the road names offered, which makes sense since the PRR H34s (300) and the later H34a/b/cs

There are examples of this but plenty of older (pre-1970) brass that pulls wonderfully. Tony Thompson tony@...

Or is otherwise a good runner. I have a Max Gray brass engine that, though not wonderfully detailed, will pull the paint off the walls. I wouldn’t dream of “repowering” it. Tony Thompson tony@signatur

Facebook groups are not useful as reference material... They are fun for social sharing but everything ages very quickly and scrolls away... little Twitter, TikTok, et al. There is a lot of content, b

In 1963 the standard 2x4-wheel trucks 169000 GRL (LDLMT+LTWT) was increased to 177000. Yes, the GRL categories are based on journal size.

Ed, Indeed, and as we have oft discussed here, a limited but real number of those reweighs occurred offline and so should have a "foreign" reweigh station code when compared to the owner of the car (a

Phil, I have to second Jerry's question... and add why? And add that your "prototype" situation only applies to straight flat running. Modeling 20-25 steam era freight cars to something like a Mountai

Jerry, Folks, It's not just age, it's builder. There is plenty of older brass that runs like a Swiss watch. PRR steam era modeler Bill Neale has a great graphic showing running versus rebuilding needs

Just a note here. \When a car is reweighed and re-stenciled, both the LDLMT and LTWT are done, along with the weigh station's code and date. Those two measurements are interrelated and based on the ca

Phil, do you have a layout that can handle 70+ car trains? I am a member of the Amarillo Railroad Museum that has a very large layout and a 70+ car train would really look out of place. We routinely r

If you are not completely hooked on brass, Broadway makes excellent steam locomotives. I understand your interest, but unless you buy more modern brass locomotive production (say post 1985), you will

Bruce, Try repowerandregear ... they are "all about getting brass steam to run well". As to pulling well, there isn't a specific group for that (that I'm aware of). Repowerandregear does talk about pu

Bruce There is Brass model paint and repair on Facebook. Paul Doggett