I am another newbie would could use some pointers to learn about roof, end, door and truck types? I am not modeling in HO, so the "get the XXX part or kit ..." is not an answer. Frank on the later box

Tim Gilbert wrote: Does anyone have any data on patterns of hoppers usage to deliver coal to New England? Particularily, coal for home heating? This was a common industry, even for small towns. The qu

There is a company called Small Parts, Inc that sell brass and other wire in various sizes through the Amazon website. Haven't tried them myself but they seem to have a large variety. Don Burn

Bob, Check the MilkTrains list on Yahoo, but as I remember there are a number of problems with the MDC car as a GPEX model. I know there are some photos on the list of the Chateau Martin cars in servi

Actually, the express reefer is a better starting point for a number of the milk cars than the MDC model. Unfortunately not for CM cars. Don Burn

Larry, When was the EPA rule? My wife is a glass artist and still gets aluminum oxide for her blasting? Don Burn

Well in the early 1950's I remember seeing a number of housing developments in Elmhurst, IL and everything was using drywall. I know it is a small data point, but for C&NW, CGW or IC modelers the deve

I'm not a C&NW expert, but they look like insulated box cars to me. There are plenty of commodities that do not need icing, but do need reasonable temperatures. In new england things like potatoes wou

Seeing the discussion's of Tichy and other tank cars raises a question, has the list thought of capturing this collective knowledge in some format other than the list? It would be extremely helpful fo

Tim, But you still have all the disadvantages of a mail list. Think of the Tichy discussion, this has gone on for 40 messages with a title "Tichy kits" let alone all the side discussions with differin

Try http://prr.railfan.net/freight/classpage.html?class=X31 Don Burn

Clark, I know there was a story about a model going to the NMRA convention that was scratched by a bellhop at the convention hotel, and the modelers wife repaired the scrathed weathering with makeup.

The primary reason people talk about the ALP's is that some ALP's printers could print white, which is a common color for decals. AFAIK the ALP's cartridges are now out of production. Don Burn

Since people mentioned Rocket Express, I was wondering if there are other small suppliers of N-Scale cars that fit this list? The ones I know of are: Rocket Express Fine-N-Scale Mark 4 Design Kaslo Sh

The milk trains yahoo list. There were SP milk cars (see the link below) but no one knew the details of their service. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/1916/sp6348.jpg Don Burn

Another source of a copy, though more expensive than the one on E-bay. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=863723875&searchurl=bi%3D0%26bx%3Doff%26ds%3D30%26kn%3D128%26pn%3DThe%2BRailway%

Gene, Martin Lofton's article about USRA rebuilds in Sept 1989 RMC shows a series of pictures for a Rock Island rebuild, they did not use the truss members only the frame/floor and the ends. That phot

Earl, I don't have the references in front of me, but I believe the D&H, NH and Southern 36' box cars made it to 1950. L&N 36' box cars may have also. In additon there were a fair number of 40' wood b

Actually, they also published a correction in 1971, though this was a partial drawing showing the corrected area around the door. Don Burn