Guy, thanks for that interesting little fact. The description indicates preparation for transport during winter months in one of the northern states. As hay was typically used only during the winter.

I sat in on the hands-on clinic. As I already have an Iwata dual-action brush and one of their top of the line compressors, I was knowledgeable with the product line, and the proper means of disassemb

Great stuff Tony. In Iowa the plates use to be marked with number assigned to each county, set to the left of the plate. In the late steam era the plates change every year, color of plate or color of

Jim, hemp was a cash crop in Iowa during WWII. Farmers raised hemp for use in manufacturing ropes, etc. for military use. Not sure when it fell out of favor, but once the war ended I suspect. This lin

Bill, I can't help with your specific questions. But to add to possible confusion, I do know that the terms stockpen & stockyard later became stock pen and stock yard in common usage. Believe the chan

Bill I just checked an online Google 1888 version, the dictionary was 140+ pages long, which may more than anyone wants to scan and upload. Your best bet would be to download the entire CYC as a pdf w

Rob re: Champlin Oil, I am not home at the moment, so do not have access to the full records at the moment and cannot identify the cars for certain, but I have station record books showing the M&StL d

Rob, the records cover from about 1943-1963. But they are hard copy, they are also 11x17 ledger size. I have only entered a couple of years in a Spreadsheet. Clark Propst has copies of the 1954 record

Looks to me like a couple of the "factory reps" demo-ing the machine. I have a bunch of Fairmont photos showing front office guys in their hats and suits on Fairmont equipment posing for the company p

And you will let Bill Schneider operate the yard, again, on the day Cocoa Beach opens. I also suspect that O&W hopper is still waiting to be unloaded. And you ask what are you doing wrong? Fortunately

Everyone, Clover House has produced new Dry Transfer Lettering for Decker reefers. (Decker & Sons meat packing plant of Mason City IA). This is for the 4th and final lettering scheme, used on 36' wood

Jim, ie the cell phones, I recall last time I attended Cocoa Beach, the second slide in my presentation was a photo of my driveway back home with 70"s of snow on either side, the actual temp of -31, a

Rob contacted a few of us at the end of last year with a new revamped format sample and an enquiry as to interest in perhaps offering content. He is intentionally working on revamping and improving th

Larry there is a photo of Cudahy reefer #5557 in the Billboard Reefer book published by Signature Press. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

I have never heard of, nor seen anything in writing, that would indicate straw catching on fire was an issue of concern with stock cars or livestock movements. As Guy Wilber pointed out, livestock bed

Ben I have some of the same lists as Gene. Two of them are bad order or set out lists from 1948-50 & from 1958-59. Most set outs were due to hotboxes. In the 1948 list these were the three NYC hoppers

Read http://skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/VERTICAL_URBAN_FACTORY/concrete.php for more about Turner and his mushroom system. Basically he discovered that if you flare out the top of a concrete column, ie

Prior to WWII, Des Moines was home to a Ford plant. The plant shut down in the 30's, but parts distribution continued until the building was sold to Solar Aircraft Company during the war. In 1958 the

Dennis, you might be thinking of Gene's freight car under frame document, which is in the group files. Look for "Freight Car Underbodydetail.pdf" Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Ben in desperate times, railroads used almost anything to ship grain. The 1973/4 grain sales to Russia was one such time, and there were other times as well. Two bay coal hoppers with tarps to cover t