The road differences for mineral red aren't great for newly painted cars, but sun bleaching and paint oxidation lighten the paint so that it can take on an oxide shade. Then there's mineral brown used

Charlie, if Shapeways has the N scale drawings, couldn’t they scale the blade for HO? Nelson Moyer

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m looking to model. Thanks for the photos. The flat car is either a FM-11 or FM-11A. The difference is that they were separate order numberx, so once they are renumbered for

ATSF and CB&Q are two roads that used the term 'mineral red'. It comes from the red iron oxide containing rock ground into powder and used as a red paint pigment. It was available and cheap, so that's

Yes, lots of variables, that’s why I narrowed the range somewhat from 1940s to 1953. Most of the cars I need truck color on are 1932 and 1937 boxcars. Nelson Moyer

CB&Q painted trucks mineral red, and there are many others that painted trucks their boxcar color. Probably not good to generalize too broadly, especially in ALL CAPS. Nelson Moyer

What about roads that painted hoppers and gondolas red early and black later, or vice versa? Are the trucks always body color on those cars, or did some roads red cars have black trucks? I have inform

Agreed for the mineral red and brown roofs and ends, but not so much for the light oxide roofs. If I can find proper decals to piece together the end lettering, I’ll repaint the roof and ends of those

Thanks, Fred. I’ll start a spreadsheet to document responses. Hopefully, yours won’t be the only one. Nelson Moyer

About ten years ago I built a large number of assorted boxcars, hoppers, gondolas, and flat cars for many roads, all from Branchline, Intermountain, Red Caboose, and P2K kits. At the time, I was cluel

Reminds me of the BLI Rock Island E6, which was also purple. Yuk! Nelson Moyer

I hate preordering because we’re buying pigs in pokes, in the most recent case, multi-colored pigs in pokes. I pre-ordered twelve steel and wood PFE reefers. The first six have arrived over the past t

Not even close. Nelson Moyer

Thanks, but the blade would take a lot of surgery, and after that, the compound curves still wouldn’t look quite right. Nelson Moyer

Getting the compound parabolic curve right would be a challenge. Much easier for a person skilled with SketchUp to import photos and create a drawing suitable for 3D printing. The blades were mounted

GN had identical blades as far as I can determine. Maybe the GN faithful will confirm that assertion? Nelson Moyer

The CB&Q used gondola wedge push plows in the early years, but in 1948, they scrapped the gondolas, salvaged the wedge blades, and mounted them on FM-11 and FM-11A flat cars. I’d like to model one of

The CB&Q used gondola wedge push plows in the early years, but in 1948, they scrapped the gondolas, salvaged the wedge blades, and mounted them on FM-11 and FM-11A flat cars. I’d like to model one of

Here’s my guess: ATSF 141702 has National Type B-2 trucks. You can use Kadee or Walthers, maybe others? ATSF 144028 looks like AAR Double Truss trucks best represented by TMW-107. Nelson Moyer

Bill makes a valid point about drilling on the sprue, and that’s the way I do it as well. I use a #79 bit for the wire, and there is a molded dimple on the retainer valve to help you start the bit. Bi