Tim, the CB&Q XM-32B class cars in series 17000-18399 were built in 1950. See Mainline modeler March 1996, page 71. I’m not familiar with the Branchlne car body, and Clark didn’t post an end view, but

That was my experience with baking soda as well, except that I was building RC model airplanes then and balsa is even softer than styrene. Nelson Moyer

The attached picture shows the butt joint in the center with faint shadows on either side of the splice plate. Those shadows are the troughs. They aren’t very deep, and you can feel them better than s

Dennis, That sounds easy enough. I’ll give the dry wall compound a try. I used in on the joints on my Masonite branchline backdrop, and it hasn’t cracked in the three year’s it’s been in place. The co

Are you kidding! I have to fill two shallow 2 in. wide troughs on either side of the splice plate for a total linear length of 96 in. Nelson Moyer

I used Tamiya putty on the butt joint crack, and it sanded smooth without any evidence of opening up after four years of expansion and contraction. Ambient temp in the basement ranges from 60° in wint

I switched from Squadron to Tamiya putty and never looked back. My first tube of Tamiya lasted several years before thickening to the point that it had to be discarded. It wasn’t completely hard, and

Does Bondo shrink when it dries? Can it handle expansion and contraction without cracking? I’m looking of a product to fill in the irregularities in a 0.080 in. styrene backdrop splice where I put too

That makes about a much sense as calling a pile of coal a shale heap. Nelson Moyer

In Southern Illinois around the CB&Q owned and served coal mines, it was referred to as a gob or gobe pile. I maintain that there isn’t any slag in coal mining waste regardless of what it’s called. La

I think we need to clarify the definition of slag. It’s a smelting byproduct, not coal mine waste. I pasted in the Wikipedia definition. Slag is the glass-like by-product left over after a desired met

There's an exception to most definitive statements, and I ran across this one while looking at MDT reefers. The wheel faces appear black to a very dark bluish gray, more like a oily black. I concede t

Try Resin Car Works parts. They have a 3D printed Klasing hand brake like you need. Nelson Moyer

Thanks, John. TCP-244 is very close to the pictures you attached. I’ll compare SC PRR Freight Car with Tru Color ACL freight car red and see what it looks like. Nelson Moyer

Tru Color has no less than three ACL freight car paint colors: TCP-182, ACL 1944-60s Freight Car Brown TCP-206, ACL 1950-60s Freight Car Brown TCP-244, ACL 1935-1950s Freight Car Red The YMW kits are

OOOOPPPPS. That was supposed to be sent off list. Sorry. Nelson Moyer

Here are the files plus my construction notes. Nelson

Thanks for the feedback. I have your book. According to my 1953 ORER, there were 53 car still on the rails in series 43000-43999, so I can model at least one car without era creep. I haven’t seen Tru

I’m ready to paint a wood MDT reefer originally series 19940-19999, renumbered in series 43000-43999 when converted to AB brakes. The few color photos I have of MDT reefers were taken in the orange sc

I’ll have to send them individually because of the size. Jerry Hamsmith does lots of Q decals, including the XM-32 series. Speedwitch also makes some Q decals. I used Ted’s XM-33 50 ft. boxcar set to