Dennis, Don, I had an alternative explanation that is purely speculative, as yours are. Perhaps these boards have been removed by workers as part of the salvage operation. That could either be to asse

There was an American Viscose Rayon plant in Lewistown, PA, served directly by the PRR, that operated from 1921 until 1974. In the 1950's the captive service rayon cars for this plant consisted of 18

Rick, The thing is, it has been discussed repeatedly so it is all over the archives… not in just one location. For starters, if you want to try to find the information, search “Boxcar distribution” or

Folks, With respect to "extreme tank car modeling", I am looking for photos of steam era oil or gasoline tank cars that have wrecked, burnt, and possibly ruptured, for a modeling idea. Regards, Bruce

The photo looks "doctored", either by airbrush, or dodging, or both. I'm not sure exactly why, other than to perhaps fake the background? The war is over (date is dec 5, 1945) but now we're keeping se

William, X30 - definitely not. The car was in dedicated service and had a "When Empty Return To.." stencil. X31/32/33 - it depends, although a back haul was not out of the question. Regards, Bruce Bru

Todd, You meant X33, not X32, I'm sure ;) The X32 did not have an end door. None of the X31 subclasses had an end door either. IIRC, the X30 was PRR's first end door car. Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Au

I'll buy that! Bruce

Folks, What is the piece of hardware, just inside the wheel, that appears to be strapped to the center sill? Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith

Al, 1938- Length 160 in (410 cm) Width 97 in (250 cm) Height 96 in (240 cm) Weight 31,870 lb (14,460 kg) One will easily fit on a 40 foot, 40-ton flat. Two can probably fit. Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith

This car seems to have missed it's schedule reweigh by a substantial period of time (stenciled NEW 4-44). Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

This R-40-2 retains it's applied metal emblem. Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Well Armand, First, the PRR did not have any such classes. Now, they did have H21 and H25, but no H-21 or H-25 😉 Now, if by chance, you've been ignoring Bern Hom for, I don't know, the past 20 years o

Rick, Urban legend, myth, fake news! The car service rules required cars to be routed "in the direction" of the home road. And note, that when a car was captured for a load that didn't meet that requi

It is just amazing to me what a Google search of "Burro Crane History" can find! https://moablive.com/burrocrane/history.asp Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Auburn, AL Burro Crane - MoabLive.com In 1990, B

David, Look again, the journal lids are open, not missing. That's because this is a hump and journals were oiled as the car passed over the hump. He is applying a route card to the route card tack boa

Mel, There are at least 4 approaches that I know of: 1) Clear (thick) decal film 2) archer weld line decals (Bill W's favorite way right now) 3) etched metal appliques (I've done this. It's not easy b

Tim, Absolutely an issue. Patch panels begin to appear in significant numbers in the 1950s. No plans for Rapido to do them at this time, but as we noted in discussions at the modeling meet, patch pane

On Cody's Office this week (Kalmbach, Model Railroader), Cody Grivno showed Woodland Scenic's tungsten putty, which is a moldable tungsten "clay"-like product that you can cram into spaces like center

Guy, That is correct. The Rapido double door cars are class X31A. These are general service box cars with no automobile loaders and hence no tubes, fixtures or door markings. Note, that they can still