Richard Townsend wrote: Photograph would be nice, of course. But AFAIK all the early Champ stuff is totally prototype based, even if some lettering is a little crude. I am not aware of any Champ foibl

Ken Adams wrote: Shell had their own tank car fleet, both SCMX and SCCX (the latter for Shell Chemical, shipping such things as alcohols). Tidewater Associated (the correct company name) had their own

Peter Ness wrote: Walthers bought the dies and produced the GS gondola cars for a time; I have several in Walthers kit boxes. The gentleman in Colorado who obtained the dies from Walthers really only

Bruce Metcalf wrote: There were studies in the model magazines back in the 1950s that concluded (possibly correctly) that the biggest factor in car weight performance was CONSISTENT car weight. As Bru

Ken Adams wrote: In your and my modeling period, Ken, UTLX was pretty substantially in bed with the "baby Standards" such as Standard of California, and to my knowledge had nothing to do with Shell. T

Andy Jackson wrote: Depends on the outside and inside diameter of the coils, and on the width of the strip. But the "standard" coils in use at the time these cars were built were loaded two at each en

And a tiny nit in Bob's list: the Stewart-Lundahl paint was 410M. I struggled with it myself, so I am sure of the answer <g>. Tony Thompson tony@...

I don't believe that Globe should be in the very interesting list sent by Bob Chaparro. They were founded in Milwaukee, moved to Chicago late in their life, and were bought by Athearn in the early 195

Bob Chaparro wrote: As a teen growing up in the '50's in southern California, my local hobby shop told me to pronounce it "sigh-dam." Of course the original Dutch is quite different from either of the

Steel coils. Tony Thompson

Elden Gatwood wrote: Elden states it very well. It is interesting to read articles in _Railway Age_ in the first decade or two of the 20th century, when there were plenty of railroad people skeptical

Tim O'Connor wrote: Of course. But even if segments of such routes are approved, the railroad can refuse them because there is a reverse haul in the example you constructed. I certainly did not mean,

Schuyler Larrabee wrote: Schuyler, I think this was quite common for many decades. I have heard tales of shippers routing rather indirectly, over roads they "liked," much like your story. You had to d

Tim O'Connor wrote: Not really. It's true that an agent with a full set of "approved routing" books had a four-foot shelf of the things -- but as Jerry Stewart pointed out, it would be hard to devise

Thanks, John. My question was, WHEN were they painted silver? Tony Thompson

Nelson Moyer wrote: Don't forget what we learned from Gilbert-Nelson. Cars show up around the country (on major railroads, and on main lines) according to their proportion of the national car fleet, i

Nelson Moyer wrote: Why? The shipper chose the routing, not the railroad (unless the shipper chose to defer to the local agent). Shippers had lots of "original" ideas about routing, as one former cler

Nelson Moyer wrote: I believe this is a misunderstanding of Car Service Rules. First of all (and the first rule), home road cars were not to be loaded if there was a "suitable" foreign-road car availa

Aaannnnnndd - a Richard Hendrickson kitbash of FE-13, using various Athearn and other body parts. Tony Thompson tony@...

Schuyler Larrabee wrote: The decision is focused on the "unfair" advantage to Armour's meat business to also operate a produce reefer business. Railroad regulation in the early 20th century often focu