valve on the caboose, which in turn would sound an alarm, or warning device in the cab? I'm thinking of the emergency chord found in early Pullmans, only different application. the valve to be from Th

I've been replacing those with wire for about 40 years. I was very disappointed to see that even Kadee molds them in place. Filing the outer surface of the wire flat represents the prototype shape bet

I am detailing some Stewart fishbelly WM hoppers. Does anyone know the dimensions of the channel end supports and the corner post angles? Are there any pictures or plans available that show the arrang

Most of the resin gondola kits have sides thin enough to dent them from the inside just like the real dents are created. Mark Vinski -

I like to use flat head slotted or phillips screws and counter sink the coupler box cover. Unless you turn the model upside down nothing shows. Mark Vinski

I noticed today that the Tangent three compartment tank car has no retainer valve. I then checked the acid car and it too lacks this part of the brake system. Mark Vinski

I agree that they are both very nice cars, and I don't think that any models have come with bleed rods. However we should not have to buy parts that are usually included even on toy train cars to comp

The Gould/ Tichy car uses molded plastic end handrails which are always being broken off by operators using uncoupling sticks. The plastic brake wheels have the same problem. Mark Vinski

I was thinking of the retainer valve on toy train cars. Al Brown mentioned the bleed rods. I thought the bleed rods were never on RTR cars but the Tangent Dry Flo covered has very nice ones, and some

The 1980 Car and Locomotive Cyc shows a 1 1/4 inch square shaft with a 16" brake wheel. This scales to a little more than .014 in HO. I found staples that match this dimension with a little filing to

I just tried MEK on a P2K E unit and it seemed to make a good bond. Mark Vinski

The shallow three foot depth poses some challenges on weighting the car - how do you get everything sandwiched into about 1/8" of space. Then I thought - don't sandwich it - make the weight and the fl

Hello Bill, I use 0-80 flat head screws to mount Kadee scale size coupler boxes. With a slight countersink the screws are flush with the surface of the box. 1-72 screws work in the same manner with th

I don't have any pictures and I don't know about SP practices, but I did that sort of repair to gondolas and hoppers when I was a car repairman and welder for the Union Railroad in Pittsburgh,Pa. I've

Color coding does help. I have different colored handles for various knife blades and stripes on Phillips screw drivers to differentiate them from the flat bladed type. Mark Vinski

Evergreen sells sheets of black styrene in various thicknesses. http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Sheets.htm Mark Vinski

Is it really a weathering pattern? It looks to me like there could be an extra layer of metal welded onto the roof to prevent denting when the hatches are flipped open. Mark Vinski

Different nozzles are available that may make spray cans more suited to model painting. http://artprimo.com/catalog/art_primo_caps-101 Mark Vinski

Most small chain has circular links. The chain can be made to appear smaller by squeezing the links to an oval shape. Mark Vinski

B&O cabooses did not have retainers. They had a whistle on the retainer pipe that would sound when the brakes were released. The air coming from the brake cylinder would blow the whistle. Mark Vinski