Hi, The underframe is from a Tichy USRA SS boxcar kit; the ends were available from Shapeways a few years ago. Sides and roof were scratch-made. AL B.

Attached is a photo of the finished car. The idea was to more-or-less-replicate the photo of W&LE 27439 in Corns, "Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway", vol 1, p 58: only not quite so beat-up. Body paint is

I like Archers, even for small groups. The trick to getting just a few to stay put, I find, is to cut them from the sheet with a little extra film. I use half-strength Solvaset to set them, and then g

Woops, ARA not AAR.

This is the Southern's version of the mid-1920s AAR double-sheathed design; they had 2,250 of them. Photos appear (inter alia) in Culotta, "Focus on Freight Cars 2", pp 60-61. Sunshine made a kit: nea

Will do!

Hi Fenton, A partial end shot of Southern 272617 appears in Ferrell's "Slow Trains Down South, vol 1", p 269. A photo of Southern 272993 in a train appears in Staufer's "B&O Power", p 138. A builder's

Wow, lots of character. Is that a rebuild? Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Hi Bill, The green? That's putty. The 3D print is a little imperfect IMHO. There's supposed to be a rivet row in the exact center and there is (the 1:1 end is two panels, joined vertically), but it's

Here's a photo of the A end. AL B.

Having a pair of the old Shapeways ends, I decided to model this beast. It's ready for paint: picture attached. Shapeways ends; Tichy USRA SS underframe and some other parts (in the picture, everythin

Sure is. There are lots of photos of various loads, as well as the AAR diagrams. Nice thing about the photos is they show tie-downs, which the diagrams don't. Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

"Muchos gracias" Dennis and Eric. Corns, "Wheeling & Lake Erie" vol 1, p 58, has a photo of W&LE 27439 which appears to confirm Eric's proposal. AL B.

Does it have a hopper bottom, maybe, or did it? Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Anyone know where the main crossbearers were located? I can think of at least two possible locations ("wide" and "narrow", by analogy with door-and-a-half designs). Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Shapeways sold the ends at one time. Dunno if they're still available: couldn't find them on the site yesterday. Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

There's a spreadsheet in the Files section entitled "Accurail 41' gon". Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Painted a week later than planned. Encouraged by Craig's result, I applied Archers to bare plastic, gloss-coated over them, painted over the gloss-coat. The paint was Scalecoat II; I let it cure for a

Forgot to say: I plan to mask and spray late this week, maybe Thursday to Saturday.

In general I find Archers are fragile until I gloss-coat or paint over them, but will stand up to handling afterward. I'm about to paint a car with lots of Archers (photos posted in the Shake & Take g