Replacing wheels in CV trucks is pretty straight forward, but perhaps not a straight forward as one might wish. I have replaced CV wheels with Reboxx and some ball bearing wheels in perhaps 30 or so t

The following message was received from Jeff Stone at Bitter Creek models re: semiscale wheels in their trucks. Denny Begin forwarded message:

Adrian writes- Al writes- The key will be whether or not these trucks can be either purchased OEM, or later converted to the .088" wide wheels. Off hand, and with no references at hand to confirm, the

Creating bushings to compensate for disarity in size between 2-56 screws and the gaping truck bolster holes is one path to solution- but it can be a remarkably frustrating one. The depth of bushings n

To a greater or lesser extent, whether or not the usual 2-56 screws will or will not back out of body bolsters holes will depend upon the tolerances of a particular screw, and in broad terms the diffe

On behalf of David Rygmir, and at the behest of a fellow good List Member, I am am forwarding the following letter to the group. NWSL has been a resource of inestimable value to our hobby for so many,

May I again gently urge all of you who attended Greg Martin's ShakeTake clinic at Cocoa Beach in 2008, and will be attending 8-11 January 2009, to not forget to bring along their models, no matter wha

Understanding the reason for the application of Trust plates on locomotives, passenger and freight cars, what I do not know is whether these plates were applied in pairs (one on each side), or singly.

Paul Lyons comments- I do not disagree with a good deal of what Paul says, and to a large extent it depends upon what else we are doing on the ends of our cars, and to what degree any one of us tolera

Continuing a mild obsession of both creating much more accurate prototypical detailing for the ends of our steam era freight cars, AND retaining good reliable handling and operating characteristics wh

Jeff Aley comments- Posted by: "Aley, Jeff A" Jeff.A.Aley@... jaley95630 Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:13 pm (PST) I cannot speak to how common white oak would have been in boxcars, although I do know they

ERRATA: Ideal dry rot conditions are present when there is 30-35% wood moisture content, versus the diametrically contrary assertion that I posted in error. Denny Denny S. Anspach MD Sacramento

It has been hard for me to know yet just how to respond to Mike Brock's relating his experience of having a perfectly good creosoted post rotted away when put into the ground at his house (:-)). I too

I have a feeling that the very practical answer to the unsurprising (to me) unpainted bottom of car floor boards is something akin to this: The underframe was finished and painted before the floor was

Some years ago I purchased some pretty fine etched metal Pennsy detail parts (Keystone, locomotive, trust plates, etc.) from a supplier that I believe was Schuykill Division. Does anyone know whether

This is a short note to exhort those who participated in Greg Martin'skitbash PRR X45 kitbash clinic at Cocoa Beach this past January (and who will be attending this year) to bring their completed car

I have long savored the satisfaction of building refined wood car kits (Ambroid, Northeastern, Weaver, Suncoast, etc.), and the very best glue to use these days is white glue, either the fancy kind su

Getting ordinary paint to stick on galvanized metal is a common problem that has never completely solved, as far as I know. The most common means of minimizing paint failure has been to apply on the c

I have just finished uploaded to FILES two new folders covering the data behind the recent new production of HO cast brass anglecock brackets by Precision Scale (PSC). These are in two FILES beginning

Infinitely better. What I am referring to is the manual bending, and shaping of the brass hoses prior to installation, not the usual breakage problems following installation. With careful support of t