Richard Townsend wrote: There is a brief summary of this topic in Chapter 3 of the PFE book. CFT was the first big, private fruit shipper, and operated 600 cars by 1891, but their high rates led to se

Garth Groff wrote: Garth, I thought it was the single-sheathed cars, originally numbered 15001-16000, that were renumbered into the 26000 series and some of them given roof hatches. The 16001-18500 ca

Nolan Hinshaw wrote: Thanks, Nolan. Glad you enjoyed it. I have no idea how YouTube inserts the ads, but if you watch a few times, you see all different ads, and not even the same number of them each

Tom Casey wrote: Thanks, Tom. Glad you enjoyed it. Tony Thompson tony@signaturepress.com

Jim Dick wrote: Reading the correspondence, about a reefer spotted for unloading, the "detention" sounds like a demurrage topic. The retired PFE Car Service Manager I interviewed stated that partial u

Greg Martin wrote: Well, not really. Reefers were paid on mileage, loaded or empty, NOT on per diem. That's why Western reefer owners like SFRD and PFE had agents in every eastern city, to "encourage"

For anyone who might be interested, there's a new commercial video that has just been posted of my layout (link below) and maybe also to my blog post about it. The blog post is here: https://modelingt

As most freight cars averaged less than nine trips PER YEAR, these not only have to be the trips for both cars, but are still remarkable. PFE was proud that its cars averaged between ten and eleven ro

Bruce Smith wrote: I am not one who disputes these facts. What I always point out, which was pointed out to me by a retired PFE executive, is that PRR had the highest perishable damage claims, PER TON

fred huss wrote: Not all their sets are the same, even the ones they got from Jerry Glow. I don't know if they are changing over their production, or if production is just uneven. But DO NOT discard t

There is quite a bit of info in Hinman’s book on MDT. Tony Thompson

Brad Andonian wrote: Like all these cars, they were DESIGNED by Enterprise, but built by the buyer's choice of builder. Enterprise did not build cars, but patented their designs and had demonstrator c

Jim Mischke wrote: Full agreement, Jim. My own bugaboo is Pullman Green or SP-UP Dark Olive Green. In indoor layout conditions, they approach black. I have experimented with ways to lighten them so th

Bob Chaparro wrote: See Chapter 9 in Hendrickson and Kaminski's book on Billboard Reefers, which covers Quaker, and includes these and other examples of prototype paint schemes. Full disclosure: it's

Not at all, I'm suggesting maybe you don't know as much of what happened as you think you do. Tony

So you're stating that Richard made it up? Of all his character traits, that is about the last thing I would imagine. He sometimes dramatized events, but I can't recall any imaginary ones. Tony

Brian Leppert wrote: Not sure I see where your account, Brian, differs from what Richard wrote. If Gould was brushing off offers of assistance, why would you have heard about it? Tony Thompson tony@si

Tim O'Connor wrote: Good point, Tim. Some of us have not forgotten the "EXPERT" who advised LifeLike that the SP GP9s were never painted Black Widow, only Scarlet and Gray. Tony Thompson tony@signatur

Dennis Storzek wrote: No argument, Dennis, but there are also plenty of instances from those days of dedicated modelers providing very complete info packages, and the manufacturer going ahead with som

Bruce Smith wrote: You are right that Richard had nothing to do with model design and was less than happy about what eventually came from OMI. At one point he pulled out his prints of all the photos h