Here was the ARA recommendation from 1922: Dennis Storzek

Hi Jack, Never say never. The Soo Line built ten cars they classified as milk cars in 1925 (which had the NP style roof) that also had ice hatches. While the cars were lettered MILK, I think the Soo w

The image doesn't have very much resolution, and I can't find a larger image, but the roof LOOKS to be the Robertson circular roof used by the NP and Soo, and I doubt very much it is a Soo car. Maybe

This is true... but the cutting forces are still liable to make the plastic part bounce, and gouge the part with the end of the cutter on the upstroke of the bounce. The hardest thing with machining o

I agree with this. The biggest problem with trying to cut on a molded carbody is they can't be clamped very rigidly. The spiral cutter flutes will tend to pull the part up, and get it to vibrating. Th

When I see period photos of reefers where the black lettering disappears into the car side (note there appears to be two lines of lettering under the name) I immediately think orthochromatic film, and

That is a clever idea, and the evergreen stock should match well, as I more or less copied the Evergreen grove dimensions when I designed that tool. I might point out that Evergreen "car siding" would

That's because you don't want media mail, but rather Bound Printed Matter rate: Difference between Bound Printed Matter and Media Mail! ... So it's a bulk rate service, much cheaper than regular Media

And newspapers don't? Newly printed magazines go media mail... as I recall, to qualify, the magazine has to be less than a certain percentage of advertising, I want to say 50% , but it may have been s

And another interesting page that illustrates the proper use of the terms T&G. shiplap, bevel siding and drop siding, for those who care. While not very applicable to freightcars, all these wood produ

Finally found a current version of the WWPA standard architectural siding patterns, which should give some form to all the names that have come up in this discussion. WWPA Siding Patterns Dennis Storz

No, "shiplap" used to have a specific meaning in the lumber and construction industries, it was lumber with the edges milled with a rabbet on each edge half the width of the edge, so the boards overla

In reality they are not bars, but ribs pressed into the bottom edge of each sheet that assembles into the door. Each sheet laps over the open pressing on the sheet above and is welded top and bottom,

Tim has hit upon the reason why it has been so difficult to track down prototypes for the Athearn "blue box" cars. While the kits are one piece bodies, the injection mold cavity inserts that form the

I like the Kansas City Mexico & Orient boxcar to the right in the photo. As the KCM&O was acquired by the Santa Fe in 1928 that pretty much means this is a pre-depression view. Dennis Storzek

The first photo is a good view of that diagonal tie rod anchor we discussed a while back. Dennis Storzek

The paper is either lining paper folded around the door post and tacked as the recent flour load photos show or paper tacked over the door opening to make a dust tight seal. Either way the ends of the

Both the Howe and Pratt trusses performed equally well in steel freight car construction, but the Howe was better suited to wood construction, since the tension members of the truss were shorter, need

They were "one and don" except the cloth went on to many secondary uses; a major source of rags and industrial wipes. Used bags made good aprons, any housewife could do it with a bit of sewing. At one

Related to air handling, could also be a plenum to conduct flue gasses from a furnace to a smoke stack. Dennis Storzek