The reason for having two sets of rails across a scale (one live set for weighing, and one 'dead' set that are unattached to the scale mechanism) is that running cars and locos over the live rails at

Chuck, About the gondola loads, they look granular, or lumpy. Could be sugar beets? (SWAG) Todd Sullivan

Neat photo. Is there a date? Todd Sullivan

philip, Con Cor's recent PCC car has some interesting mirror effects, similar to what you describe. If you can find that model to examine first hand, let me know, and I'll send you some photos of mine

The location of this photo is very likely Elmira, NY, which was home to both American LaFrance and Ward LaFrance, both makers of fire trucks. The American LaFrance plant was large and sat opposite the

Geoffrey, With that number, it has to be one of NYC's USRA all steel boxcars from the 1920s. Westerfield has the kits. Todd Sullivan

Jim, Bowser has both 50 ft and 40 ft double door autoboxes for the PRR. It's just that they have molded on ladders and grabs, but they are pretty accurate. Rapido is doing or has done the 40ft version

Kevin, Interesting comment about painting all the layout wood black. I found it increasingly difficult to work on track wiring and turnout controls under the layout, and also found that spiders - cell

I should have added that the particular comment is in the tab named "Miscellaneous" on the CASO site. Todd Sullivan

Mike, Google is your friend. Just search on CASO and it should come up in the results. Todd Sullivan

Yes, George Meile (owner of HFM) was a real character. So was his store. Todd Sullivan

Just to add to the discussion, with my last layout, I tried using stock fluorescent bulbs to illuminate the layout room, using twin tube fixtures. The light emitted gave everything a greenish look. No

tim Thanks for providing the juxtaposition of SFRD and PFE reefers showing the color variations and near matches between the two companies. Somewhere in my slides I have a photo of a string of wrecked

Rob, The lettering pattern of the reefer at 6:49 indicates it was an FGEX or WFEX reefer. Todd Sullivan

Dennis, That's interesting about the MILW arrivals. Did the MILW have more mud in its ballast? Todd Sullivan

I do most of my weathering with acrylic paints, ustabe Polyscale, now craft acrylics (not my favorite paint, but cheap and available). For solid bearing trucks' wheel faces, I start out with black, an

Interesting photo, but why on earth would they do that? Todd Sullivan

Bruce, Most certainly coal would freeze in the winter if the loaded open-topped coal cars were snowed on or were subjected to other winter precipitation that froze in the loads. Back in the 1980s and

Thank you, Ray! Todd Sullivan

Ted, I don't know if it suggests that, but cattle shipments did tend to be seasonal. My understanding is that, in the spring, cattle were often shipped from winter grazing areas to summer pastures at