I went about it a different way... I downloaded the high res TIF, blew the area up, and reasoning that at that distance the adjacent hopper car is essentially the same distance from the camera, simply

That looks better. Note on the partial end view the nuts show at the bottom left corner of the casting, along with a call out for the bolt, which I just can't quite read, but looks like 1-3/8" diamete

Further discussion tickled the gray cells. Here is a photo of a boxcar built by the Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1901 for the Iowa Central that has similar trucks: https://www.midcontinent.org/equipment-r

Unfortunately, Ike's Southern design is about ten years too new; it has the drawbar carry iron cast integral. The USRA design used a separate cast carry iron attached with a large bolt, and indeed, th

Do you have any idea who built those cars? Somewhere deep in the recesses of my memory (or what's left of it) I recall that Barney & Smith had a fabricated plate passenger car truck, that from the sid

The better question might be, "Who thought it was a good idea to omit the fascia in the first place?" I ran into this issue years ago when designing the Accurail USRA car, and made the judgement that

I was going to mention, but Ed beat me to it, that the built dates span the production change of the roofs. Not really a big deal, as the panels (the whole component, not just the raised pressing) wer

It's photos like this that makes one wonder if the ends initially remained FCR, same as the roof. I know dirty red can be mistaken for FC color, but the white lettering and fascia don't look all that

A couple of things are not being accounted for in this discussion. Yes, metal shrinks as it solidifies, as does most things, water excepted. But in the investment casting process, the molds are at som

Those may well be my parts, I intended to sell part of the run to recoup some of my cost, but when Richard heard about it, he bought all I wanted to sell. Dennis Storzek

Well, we certainly have agreement here, don't we? Over the years I heard anywhere from "don't worry about it" to 7% shrinkage from pattern to investment cast part, although I dismiss both ends of that

Wax was used when the masters were being "spin" cast in rubber molds. For higher production numbers the masters are injection molded from styrene. Precision scale Co. plastic parts are the same; inves

I was looking at Ian's web site some more tonight, and have a few corrections: The resin kit is specifically the CC&F cars, CNR 500000-500223. It turns out Ian's roster has links to photos of some of

Wow, where to start? Decals... you do realize that I sold the resin kit line, what, 33 years ago, right? And, I'm not a CNR modeler, so I have no idea what is available in CNR decals today. Give the d

These kits are now 29 years old, being released in 1991, IIRC. They were originally released as the 4000 series (wood ends and doors) 4200 series (7/8 steel ends and wood doors) and the 4400 series (s

Oops! The message I responded to had a link that led to the Delano photo on the group's home page... for whatever reason. I know that photo is Bensenville Yard. Since I've seen your recent message, I

That's why photos shouldn't be separated from their credits. It's a May 1943 view of the Milwaukee Road's Bensenville Yard (Chicago) part of a series taken by Jack Delano. I don't have time to find th

Lots of things used to be shipped in barrels at one time. Another example would be nails, which used to come in small size barrels called kegs. Last time I saw a nail keg was in the sixties while in h

Similar to this car at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum: https://www.midcontinent.org/equipment-roster/steel-freight-cars/utlx-12283/ I wouldn't be surprised if the B&O purchased their tankcars second

Car seals. A padlock can be picked, then snapped shut again after the pilferage is done, leaving the RR liable for the shortage. A car seal needs to be cut, leaving evidence of the deed. Security of s