When I get home I'll look to see if I have the book. It was my Dad's copy, and my brother may have it. AL B.

There's still high-quality iron ore under the mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York: there's a book about it called "Vanishing Iron Works of the Ramapos". A little railroad called the

I've used a pencil, and the Archers adhered fine. I treat the Archers the way I'd treat "regular" decals: apply them, then Solvaset twice, then gloss cote, then dull cote, then paint. Applying Archers

I too model '49, so I figure I can only justify building one of the Tangent cars, but two or three of the riveted cars are in my future. I look forward to both kits with great anticipated pleasure. Al

FWIW, I have an MDC "outside-braced" boxcar kit, which I've been thinking of detailing up as a Santa Fe Bx-13 as being the closest prototype. More generally, I had this discussion last Tuesday with Mr

The hopper shown in the Charles Collection photo is a twin; the one kitbashed in the blog entry is a quad. Hm? (confused) Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

I can attest that the Sheriff in fact possesses earprotectors. I saw them today, as he prepared to descend into that jail, whichmust be louder than flange squeal from STMFCs (mandatory content) … I am

Lately I've weathered a few hopper car interiors by Eric Hansmann's method. Google "weathering hopper interiors", either within the group or generally: he's described it on his blog, in much more deta

Pat Wider, in RP CYC 13 p 22, says the following about MILW50000-50474: “Increased roof height was made possible by the use of 3/16” AlanWood Super-Diamond Pattern Floor Plate instead of a conventiona

The Sea Port Model Works propellers (their part # P156) are pretty small (5/16" 1:1): more suited to install on an HO scale sport fisherman than to carry with a well-hole flat. Stewart Products make "

The old Athearn HO scale three-compartment tank car is about the right size, if I figure rightly, for an S scale 4000-gallon car. If someone can come up with S scale trucks and details, they might hav

There's a partial photo of NYC 256291 in Nimke, "Connecticut River Railroads and Connections", vol 2, p 118.Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Lofton, MM 10/89 p 47, and Hawkins, RMJ 10/96 p 11, show a builder's photo of C&NW 72854 with the "Route of the 400" slogan. Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Apologies, I meant only the NYC (and ex-NYC) cars. AL B.

Westerfield offers a decal set (#3865) for DSS&A USRA double-sheathed boxcars. I dunno if it's exact for the 1916-design cars, but it has to be close. Champ had a DSS&A roadname set (HN-145), and Jerr

I missed seeing Mr Cranstone's post before posting my own. His evidence indicates that my guesses weren't restrictive enough: the tanks of SHPX 54,56 were different from SHPX 52,53,55. AL B.

The 1/43 ORER states that SHPX 50-67 were 6000-gallon compartmented 40-ton cars, except for SHPX 53,54,56 which were 50-ton cars. The simplest explanation is that SHPX 55 was a one-of-a-kind car, thou

So the Reading had vent boxes, back in the day. Who'd have thought it? Wow. AL B.

Poking through Eric's amazing treasure trove, I came across an AAR car code I'd never heard of, and that isn't listed in my 1/1943 ORER: XV. What is this? (P&R 19885-19924, built 1/1901: p 11 in the b

Hi Bill, I have those instructions and will scan them this afternoon. Best regards, Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.