A quick look at Microscale turns up nothing for New York Central steam era boxcars, the oxide red cars with the oval logos (outline or black background). So what is the preferred source of NYC decals

Is there a prototype for MDC/Roundhouse's 30-odd foot truss-rod wood caboose? I've got one here that has a cupola whose roof has a bell-curve shape, which I've seen on their drovers caboose, but not o

I picked up one of Broadway's Pennsy H32 covered hoppers recently. These are the long, low 5-bay covered hoppers that were slightly over 3,000 cubic feet, which was very large for a covered hopper in

In my heap of stuff I have an old HO body shell molded in yellow plastic that doesn't appear to have ever had any paint or lettering on it. It is a 40-foot ice reefer with a sliding plug door. I set i

Okay, so I come home from last month's Wheaton show with a few cars from that were $7 apiece. One is an Athearn 3-dome tank that was shortened to a 2-dome car (yes, I know, it's more accurate to call

For what it's worth, a sign near the intersection in pic # C4649 says SL&N R R / LIMITED CARS / STOP HERE. Google didn't give me any info on a railroad or interurban named SL&N. The cross street appea

Craig Zeni wrote: I was under the impression that Tropicana mostly used intracoastal shipping for their orange juice shipments from Tampa to the Northeast, which would have been most of their business

A friend is scratchbuilding pulpwood flats, bless his heart (that's a Southernism for "he's crazy"). A picture in the Oct 93 RailModel Journal shows SAL 43786, series 43000-44199, a 40-ton flat that l

Tim O'Connor asked: Definitely an Alton & Southern RS2. And since the image is flipped, you're looking west or southwest. The sun angle makes me think it's close to midday. Time frame is early to mid

Series 2000-2369 AAR designation XL, AAR Car Type A230 10'0" Inside Height 15'0" Extreme Height 50'6" Inside Length 9'2" Inside Width 9'0" Door Opening Width 9'4" Door Opening Height (obviously, the d

Regarding "self-stopping" trains, I did read awhile back about a locomotive engineer who talked about how plain bearing journals never warmed up on really cold days and as soon as you shut off the pow

I added a photo album a couple months ago for such questions. Right now I only have a B&O battleship gon in there. It has metal sides and a wood floor. Any ideas? The album is titled "Old Models" in t

George Courtney asked: American Steel Foundry's model A-3 "Ride Control" plain bearing truck was Pullman's favorite in the '50s. For PS-1 boxcars, you'd want the 50-ton version, which is made by sever

I rescued an old Golden Spike kit for an FGE reefer from an abusive home. It has the underframe parts painted either the same freightcar red as the ends and roof or simply left unpainted metal. I can'

I doubt it's a shortline's boxcar. Looks like a USRA single-sheath in MofW service. The caption says North Conway, NH in 1974, where the B&M dead-ended into the MEC's Mountain Division. Did either lin

Clark P asked: Kadee just introduced one: http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page566.htm And yes Clark, all of your 1,958cf cement hoppers should have 70-ton trucks. Scott Chatfield

Roger Robar wrote: Actually, in a hand-held drill this is _more_ likely to break the bit off, especially small bits. Clamp the bit at a point double the length of the flutes. This minimizes flexure at

Brian Carlson asked: The General-American Airslide was a proprietary design with special hatches. I don't see why the Jack Frost cars would have different hatches. All an Airslide needs to be food-gra

A friend wants to scratchbuild a model of LOP&G 601, a 40-foot boxcar that smells to me like it could a former Southern Rwy box. Not that I'm an expert on those, mind you. He sent me a copy of a pictu

As a follow-up, a little digging indicates that in the era covered by this list, the primary use of bromine was as the compound ethylene bromide in conjuction with tetra-ethyl lead for motor fuel anti