Friends, I've occasionally seen the Lindberg switcher at train shows, and scored one of the rather oversized cabooses to get the end platforms/steps (parts still in my stock), but have never seen any

Andy, Thanks for the tip. I was looking at other features, and totally have missed the spring base on the ASF A-3. I appreciate learning about this. Yours Aye, Garth Groff

Friends, After I posted, I looked at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum site, and discovered that WP MW 0220 still exists in their collection as 20806: https://www.wplives.org/collectionpageimages/fr

Andy and Friends, The Western Pacific experimented with Chrysler trucks under their Compartmentizer-equipped PS-1 boxcars. The first group was 20801-20820, soon renumbered 19501-19520. They were deliv

Ken, You are correct that most material on these cars seems to concentrate on the automobile versions. The cars built for lumber/general service get little mention. This includes John Ryczkowski's art

Andy and Friends, I had several of these kits when I was a teenager, and seem to remember that most of the cast metal parts were very similar to parts from other manufacturers such as Silver Streak. D

Friends, P&G also has a large plant near Sacramento which used to produce "synthetic granules", meaning powdered laundry detergent such as Tide. I had the chance to tour the factory in my boyhood (fac

Jerry, You are right about the rivets. The side stakes appear to have rivet detail, but there are no rivets along the end slopes on the sides, or on the ends where the end sheet joins the slope sheet.

Tim, Ta-da! Formerly at the museum in Noblesville, Indiana. I don't know where the car is now, as the museum was removed from the property several years ago. There is a color photo on page 28 of John

Scott, A similar car is/was sold by Walthers in plastic. In its original . . . uh . . . incarnation, the car had a separate roof and ladders. Good fodder for upgrading. Some of these operated by URTX

Andy, Are these 10' IH or 10' 6"? Inquiring minds want to know. Yours Aye, Garth Groff

Scott and Corey, Jim Eager said in his book that the 70000-series remained in service on the Monarch Branch until CF&I closed in 1986. He also says that the 73000-series went into Monarch service when

Shay, Nice model. Your photo shows the big difference from the Ulrich/Walthers UCR model--the sides curve inward just above the winding mechanism. On the U/W car they are straight, so my car would jus

Alan, The only UCR GS gondola "model" I've ever seen was the old Ulrich/Walthers die cast thingie, which is a pretty close match for an SP G-9 through G-12. I've got one sitting a few feet away, waiti

Johannes, Sorry to correct you, but D&RGW 72000-73699 were 46-foot inside length cars, according to my 1958 ORER and Jim Eager's RIO GRANDE COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT AND PASSENGER EQUIPMENT (see page 77)

Friends, I suppose we all had one or two of these. They were interesting looking cars. Of course that huge underframe, needed to give at least a modest hope the car would stay on the track, was a big

Claus, I suppose it depends on your era, though it seems like kind of an odd-ball car. Obviously Clinchfield stock cars were around before 1919. The only complete ORER is have is for 1958, and there a

Claus, Outside sheathing to form a letterboard for the railroad's name was not uncommon on earlier stock cars. The 1919 CAR BUILDERS' DICTIONARY (reprinted as Gregg TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA NO. 36) shows

Gene, As noted, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Chile and Argentina use 5' 6"/66"/1,676 mm. The South Asian countries had the gauge imposed upon them by the British Raj. IIRC, Chile and Argent

Dennis and Daniel, Add to that, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Chile and Argentina. According to Wikipedia, 11.37% of the world's track is 5' 6" gauge. In WWII US forces contributed heavily to the defense of