Ron Gager wrote: Ron, the best single source is the book, "Billboard Refrigerator Cars," by Richard Hendrickson and Ed Kaminski. It certainly does not include EVERY billboard scheme -- I doubt it has

Jack Burgess wrote: Many if not all of them are based on photos, but Russ Clover did not have a magic ball for identifying color in such photos. Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA 290

Put a strong loupe on those images, Gene. They most certainly ARE black dots, of varying sizes, on a white field. Your eye-brain connection blends them as gray. Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press,

Ron Merrickt wrote: Nope. It's to stiffen the wheel. Nothing to do with the casting process OR thermal stresses. Rib-free wheels perform identically well (or poorly) under thermal stress patterns. I w

Tim O'Connor wrote: I had an experience very similar to what Tim describes. I built the Westerfield UP auto car, and it fell to the floor )a short distance from my staging at the time) and broke into

Richard Hendrickson wrote: There is a third solution. The "1958" Tangent model has the post-1945 GATX paint and lettering, but a 1958 reweigh date. Simply patch over that date and put any earlier date

Doug Harding wrote: In the steam and transition era, there were (statistically) no insulated box cars. The bunkerless reefers were AAR type RB. The RBL is a bunkerless car with load restraining device

Bob Witt wrote: The standard ice reefer in the first half of the 1950s, with four-foot door opening, could not be loaded with a fork lift and pallets (nor could a SFRD car with five-foot opening). Thi

Gene Semon wrote: Since Naperville this year was over 320 people, right up there with Martin's very best years, I find it hard to see that Naperville is "on its way down." Tony Thompson Editor, Signat

Brian Carlson wrote: As you may know, Brian, I prefer washes of acrylics for weathering generally and especially for tank cars. I do use Bragdon powders, and they seem to stay pretty well where they a

Tim O'Connor wrote: I think you are right that the persistently slow economy is a factor. But I used to chat with Patricia Lofton at every Naperville, and talk about attendance, so I feel confident in

michael gross wrote: Rich Townsend was intending to send the placards to me. I've recently written two blog posts about placards for house cars (I supply a link to the second of these below; it also c

michael gross wrote: Thanks for the kind words, Michael. I would like to see your placards (or scans of them). As it happens, there was a terrific article in _Mainline Modeler_ in 1993 by John Ryczkow

Denny Anspach wrote: The only outside-braced SP cabooses I can think of were on the SPdeM and were made from box cars. And SP Pacific Lines cabooses were never numbered anywhere near as high as 6954,

Clark Propst wrote: Gloss. And in my opinion, there is no need to do prep on clean styrene. I have worked on both freight cars and a scratchbuilt girder bridge, and applying the Archer rivets directly

Tim O'Connor wrote: Tim makes a good point. You can tell immediately in the ORER because the dimensions of a "lumber door" are quite small compared to a full end door. Tony Thompson Editor, Signature

Bob Chaparro wrote: PFE did experiment with dry ice refrigeration, but found it was too difficult to control, and often led to what we might call "freezer burn" on cargoes. As the trials were conducte

Ed Mines wrote: Ed, as I have pointed out several times, there is a SUPERIOR adhesive for all kinds of dissimilar materials, and etched metal running boards in particular: canopy cement. I wrote a blo

Nathan Obermeyer wrote: Nor will you. They have never done email and still don't, nor are they on the web. Jim Hayes has an excellent website listing all their models. To view it, go to: http://www.su

Pat Wade wrote: This may be a similar adhesive, but when I tested it, it is not as strong as canopy glue. Microscale urges its use for model windows, which I can only get to work decently for rather s