Somewhere I have a photo of a Katy stock car in the yard at San Luis Obispo, and the Jim Gerstley slide collection includes a Reading coal hopper at Los Angeles. I have decided not to model either one

What a blow. Mike was a wonderful person and a friend. We met at the San Jose NMRA convention in 2000, and hit it off immediately. I have attended nearly all the Cocoa Beach meetings and enjoyed every

Correct. Only the last 200 cars got the DPR. Tony Thompson

Tom Madden wrote: That was a remarkably ignorant person, or was repeating the company line. As I learned by living a year in a Cambridge college, port is in fact a quite sophisticated beverage and wel

Ken Adams wrote: Everything Ken says above is essentially true, but misses an important point. As late as 1960, the majority of wine consumed in the U.S. was not traditional wines of the kind he descr

Some early SP stock cars did have Andrews trucks, but they were the early L-section trucks with the long bottom strap, as produced by Kadee. But the majority, including those shown in the photo, were

Next time you’re in a wine store, please note that there are different kinds of wine. Tony Thompson tony@...

Data I have are only for PFE (see the table on p. 449 of the PFE book 2nd edition). For 1953, for example, potatoes exceeded 85,000 carloads, followed by lettuce at almost 67,000 carloads. Citrus was

Is this -10 still available? Tony

Tim O'Connor wrote: Just a reminder, this list is a STEAM ERA list. I will repeat my original point: I believe Standard Railway Equipment was not Stanray in our era. If anyone can show otherwise, plea

The Stanray subsidiary status is mentioned in the 1961 Cyc, not in 1953. I cannot find anywhere in the history of Abex that they ever acquired Standard. Can you direct me to a source, Tim? Tony Thomps

Note in Tim’s attachment that the car was DEVELOPED during 1954-56. This different construction was not approved until 1957. Tony Thompson tony@...

Standard Railway Equipment didn’t start terming themselves “Stanray” until the early 1960s, so this is an anachronistic term for these cars. Tony Thompson tony@...

I’m not an expert here, but I think not. The kind of car you describe essentially was permitted beginning in 1957, including domeless and frameless tanks. Tony Thompson tony@...

Well said, Tim. I have a project of Richard’s, not completed, that was modifying the Athearn model to match a Santa Fe car. Just as you say, he had packed the underbody area (behind the fishbelly side

I’d say the emblem is correct. Wish I could use one of these, but I model 1953, and through the 1950s these cars remained in Texas, carrying limestone aggregate. Eventually they began to show up syste

As a 1953 modeler, I’ve found that I use my 49-51 book the most. Tony Thompson tony@...

Good point, and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise in my previous comment. I was just pointing out that inspection of journals was routine. I have heard the statement that journals were often repacked m

Southwest not actually being an airline right now, I’m fairly concerned. Tony Thompson

Tom Lawler wrote: No _necessary_ correlation, but often a reweigh would be accompanied by a repack — you got the car off its yard track to be weighed, why not? The repack HAD to be done at least annua