Yep, which enables them to run on NMRA track. They are a compromise just like Kadee small head couplers. They don't look as good as fine scale wheels, and the Kadees don't look as good as Sergents. Bu

They don't impact operation at all and you can't really see them on box cars and gondolas. But on an open ended hopper or tank car, they make a big difference in appearance. Unlike the fine scale whee

The first Walthers sprung trucks I remember were in their PS1. I remember getting several of them in late 1988, and you had to put the trucks together like the good old days and thread the springs int

Must have been before my time. IIRC the first TM kit I ever got was an X29 and it had one piece trucks, as did everything after that. I had a bunch of the 2-bay hoppers. The later ones, say around 197

I put Kadee trucks on many of my TM cars. They were pricey but worth the trouble. IIRC the TM cars had all plastic trucks - one piece molded wheel/axle combo, in a plastic sideframe. I think the delri

I forgot TM did both ribbed and offset versions of the hopper. I have no idea how accurate either of them is. I'm not a western modeler but the railroads I model primarily built their own cars, so I'm

I hated those plastic boxes. Yes, I hate the ones Kadee uses too. Once a car becomes fleet - i.e. it's weathered and pretty much done - the box goes into storage and the cars go into bins along with e

TM was the first to attempt an X-29 in the early 70s. They made what they claimed was a PS offset side hopper, which I think Walthers recently re-ran. Also a funky ballast gondola that we may have tal

At last years local NMRA show, the estate table had a tray full of detail parts, with a little sign saying 50 cents each. I started thumbing through them, and the guys said "You can do that or 30 take

Hopefully you can get the price tags off without damaging the plastic. I have two drawers full of Evergreen - probably at least one pack of every size/shape they made at one time or another. Odds are

In the summer of 1978 I was living in a college apartment, and painting with a Paasche H airbrush and a WR Brown "Speedy Sprayer" compressor. Only the living room of my apartment was air conditioned,

If you subscribe via email, you don't get those links at the bottom, however the original From: email addy is present in the header and you can copy and paste it. Andy

Annette bought several of his tank car kits - mainly because she loves tank cars of any type, and having built a number of styrene kits she wanted to try a resin kit. She had trouble with the instruct

Now you did it... I'll spend a couple hours lost on shorpy again... I love these photos. The resolution and quality of the plate glass negs is very impressive. The thing that always jumps out at me is

I don't attend a lot of clinics, an in fact at any given RPM meet the number of clinics I will attend besides my own (if I'm giving one) is between zero and one. I prefer to just hang out in the model

I didn't win the kit... or any of the other reefers. What I did win isn't appropriate for this group.... Andy

Neither Jason nor Bill made it down to Cocoa Beach but... three reefers appeared on the table today, I understand to become door prizes. ONE OF THEM IS A KIT!!!!! This is, to my knowledge, the first K

Apparently the Cocoa Beach Hilton - and according to staff - ALL Hiltons are equipped with the World's Dumbest Clock. Mine was 45 minutes slow, not all that unusual. I went to reset it and.... .... no

So it really DOES take a rocket scientist to run an RPM meet. I was already too fat to be an astronaut by the time I found out I was also claustrophobic. But I was always a space fanboy, still am. Wen

Annette got me a Hawaiian shirt in Kissimmee, and I wore it today only to feel like an outcast. I think there were only four in the whole place. I guess I didn't get the memo.... Andy