Prior to 1942 black backgrounds were painted on NYC's cars but as a measure to speed up production during the war were dropped since the black had to dry before the white lettering could be stenciled.

What works for me is to heat the cap with hot water in the kitchen sink and using a pair of channel lock pliers for leverage gently twist the cap until it comes loose. The cap expands faster than the

Off the top of my head circa 1950: RDG, CNJ, D&H, LV, WM, and N&W. AFIK only the N&W cars had peaked ends. In later years some of these cars moved to other RRs secondhand. Tony Wagner

ORER 1-1-50 lists MPZX with 11 cars 424, 442, 448, 501-504 as TM 100000 lbs capy and 507-510 as TA also 100000 lbs capy gallonage not shown. NJZX is listed with 16 cars 820-825, 827, and 829-837 all T

In the recent past there has been much discussion on this site of what cars were likely to show up in trains on various RRs. The conclusion seems to have been that in the Post WWII era, which is the f

Eldon, C&NW called them trap cars and they were used to transfer LCL shipments from the downtown Chicago freight houses to the huge Proviso freight house where they could be consolidated with other sh

Armand, Bruce, et al, In the Jan 1995 Mainline Modler there was an article by John Nehrich about freight car distribution and as part of that article he included a very interesting table dated April 1

DesPlaines Hobbies, Des Plaines, IL 847- 297-2118 Tony Wagner

My speculation about 4 wheel cabooses is that most, if not all, had wooden underframes and that was the reason for declaring them unsafe not the fact they they were on 4 instead of 8 wheels. It was in

Greg, Thanks for confirming my guess. I changed the IH in my email to conform to what UP painted on the car. Somebody made a mistake LOL. Tony

Would anyone know the number series of the UP's B-50-17 cars. It looks like the number starts with a 1, then possibly an 8. The third digit is too faded to make out but it appears that the last three

FWIW when I was working at CNW's Proviso yard in the early 1970s I vaguely recall seeing a CP stock car in one of the sub-yards. I was busy with other work at the time and didn't have time to pursue i

I agree. In reading this info I never realized how much non fresh stuff moved in reefers too. My comment yesterday about Borden's condensed milk movement in cold weather is one small example but in re

I agree with everything in your post. Do it myself. Decaling is not a "one and done" operation. Modlers have to teach themselves how to do it. There are no short cuts and one has to take ones time to

Thank you. Tony Wagner

I recently acquired a 1937 AAR Intermountain box car decorated for NKP. I have two questions. First were the ends and roof painted black when the cars were built or repainted, and secondly when did th

Don't forget B&O's thousands of box cars. Tony Wagner

When I worked at CNW's 40th Street yard in Chicago in the early 1970s empty PFE reefers were sent to W F Hall Printing Company to load magazines and catalogs going to the west coast. Some of the the n

Not a freight car subject but definitely steam era is one of my favorite bits of misinformation. It is the so called "fact" that NYC and D&H converted their oil burning steamers to coal burning during

Back in the 70s I watched the Soo Line switch a car ferry at Manitowoc WI for a short while. Hazy on the details. I was on my way to Green Bay and didn't have time to see how the ferry was un-loaded a