Mel, HUH? "Aluminum foil"??? Are you talking about the metal roof? If so, it is neither aluminum, nor foil. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

George, I believe that you are referring to the towing staple or eye. These are easy to make out of brass wire. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Tony, If they are new wheelsets, somebody screwed up and didn't protect the axle bearing surfaces 😉 Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Schuyler, The chains pull the plows. The men drag them back into the load, shove them down and then someone starts the winch that pulls on chains. By having one high and one low, it keeps the plow cor

Bill, Knowing that you have been on this list for a while, I am flummoxed by your PRR gondola comment, unless perhaps it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek? PRR gondolas were common, nationwide. They don

Dan, The F&C X28? Why would you say that? http://www.fandckits.com/HOFreight/7000.html Maybe you're thinking of the Sunshine kits? Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Richard, Great stuff! It would appear that the converter cars were to handle the power plant trains. It is interesting that they were moved on the rail, presumably using US gauge trucks, and presumabl

Garth, Nice photo of the decapod kits! While it certainly is likely that home road cars were used for these loads, it is by no means a rule. Thus, Baldwin built S160s could be loaded on ANY available

Gary, Elden, Folks, Unless you have some evidence, I highly doubt that the carriers supplying the flat cars controlled the routing. There are several reasons for this. 1) Shippers controlled the routi

Brian, Exactly! How the heck could the crates be placed that way? you couldn't get the 2nd one in if the 1st one was halfway across the door! Of course, my lovely wife did come up with a possible expl

Jim, Folks, Exactly! The phenomenon is sometimes called “spoofing” (where spammers use someone else’s legit address to send email, especially to list servers). Most of the comments generated have been

Claus, It looks like it might be an ATSF BX-31 - Shake-n-Take 2014 ;) Regards Bruce Bruce F. Smith Auburn, AL "Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield."

Garth, Neat photos! CMTX 465 and TKX 700 appear to be STC high walkway, radial course tanks. The date on the CMTX car seems pretty uncertain, but possibly post WWII, while the TKX car photo, if I am r

Elden, The PRR F28 is, as you know, an all steel car, so other than the paint and a few rubber parts, there isn’t anything to burn. Best I can think is that the load burnt, or at least the cribbing on

Folks, The Winter, 2020 issue (#115) of The Keystone Modeler is now available on the NEW PRRT&HS web site. To get there, simply click on www.prrths.org/tkm To download the issue, as well as several pa

For those (like myself) who are picky about such things, the side frames on the Helium car trucks are definitely different from those on the CC/BLE hoppers, but the hopper trucks are the best thing we

For those (like myself) who are picky about such things, the side frames on the Helium car trucks are definitely different from those on the CC/B&LE hoppers, but the hopper trucks are the best thing w

Bob, These trucks are PRR class 2D-F24, Buckeye All Service Cushion trucks. F&C made these in resin as an add-on for their X37B kit. They were only used on about 100 X37B and some X38 cars on the PRR.

Chuck , Folks, I recently finished one of the Rail Shops carbon black hopper kits as a United Carbon Company (UCBX) car, using the information in the May 1993 Mainline Modeler article by Martin Lofton

Greg, Yes, two heads, back to back, with an air space. You can see this in the rivet pattern on the outside of the car where there is a circumferential row of rivets where each head attaches. Regards,