Don, I got by with something even simpler. 12" square granite floor tile less than 3/8" think, but still flat enough & very stout. A tile shop should have loose stock available on a price/piece basis.

Gary, I've used either a piece of granite tile or thick piece of plate glass as the flattening surface. As for the abrasive, I have a few grades (200 thru 400) of automotive wet/dry paper to do the cu

Thanks Paul! That ought to do it! Tom Casey

Thanks Paul, Yes I checked there as well as the Rock Island Tech & Historical Society.

Group, Anybody know of a current source for Rock Island 40' steel AAR box car decals? I'm working on a build of a late 1940's build 40 steel box car that would have had the "Route of the ROCKETS" / bl

if you have the clearance between the car floor and top of the wheels, you can file away some height out of the bolster, and some by shimming between the top of coupler box and the floor. Tom Casey

Dean, Why not rig up your own temporary jig to clamp/grip one side of the bend? I would think some beefy cross section plastic having a straight edge ought to get the job done. Tom Casey -----Original

Good find Bob! At a distance, they're both straight side sill 10 panel side, 40' box cars with Youngstown style doors. I see the Bowser car has older style Dreadnaught ends, the prototype has late (ro

Funny, verrrrry funny. One question though... wasn't one of them equipped with internal racks to ship left handed monkey wrenches used to make perpetual motion machines? Tom Casey -----Original Messag

Don, the black should stop with the roof panels, stopping short from the side extensions. Tom Casey Sent from my LG G Vista, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Indeed! The PDS that Martin included with the kit shows the the Fast Mail crossing Diablo Canyon bridge and there is at least two of the NYC cars in that train, as well as several PRR (B60 's and conv

I wonder which route it took over the Santa Fe via Raton Pass, or the Belen cut-off. It would have been quite a sight crossing the bridges at Abbo canyon, If the Northern route, is had to go pass Woot

Doug, YUP it sure can, especially cut levers! The way I get around that issue is to cut out an outline of the model in the foam and allow it to touch the car in places where there are no "pokey" protr

Eric, I repack the finished resin models in thier original box using foam rubber (upholstery padding), protecting the end, U/F roof detials & 1/8" thin foam to protect the car sides. I can load up to

The car on the left is a tank car. The lack of heavy framing underneath the walkway plus the top mounted cut lever is the give away. Looks like the work crew is causght in the act of positioning some

BIll, The Santa Fe Warbonnet had an article regarding freight car trucks several years ago, by Richard Hendrickson. On the Santa Fe, there was an Andrews type designated "505" (probably the engineerin

Could be, since I've also seen Santa Fe cars listed as "AT" Tom Casey -----Original Message-----

Tim, The C&BT reefer in your photo is an Rr-29 kitbash I did a few years ago.. It has a narrowed and lowered roof. The ends are leftovers from Sunshine Rr-29 kits that supplied a third end casting in

I've had success using Dupo rubber cement in small dabs over a undercoat of "old silver" followed by a final overcoat of the color coat. Extended drying times between coatings is key to good results,

I can think of a few "perfect" clinics. One, due to it providing an ephiphany like moment: Richard Hendrickson gave a clinic at the Santa Fe convention in San Diego aabout 1990 or so regarding modelin