Jack Burgess quotes Al Westerfield- ...and for some of us, perhaps, discouraging advice as well. Denny

Friends, I have ended up with a largely-already-built S gauge Northeastern stock car body with wood ends in its original box. I do not know the prototype. It seems to be fairly neatly constructed by t

I forgot to mention: please contact me OFF LIST! Thanks Denny

I have used for about 20 years the sensitive Drill Feed chuck that John Swanson mentions, but with a German-made Albrecht instead of a Jacobs chuck. It is very good and very accurate. However, this as

Larry Jackman writes- A quick review of my post on this subject substantiates that I was relating the 600 rpm **only to the drilling of styrene** (that is- plastic), not metal. 10,000 rpm through styr

For Sale: I am disposing of duplicate books: Locomotive Dictionary 1906, Railway Gazette, Chicago 546 pp. plus 46 page advertising appendix. Newton Gregg reprint c. 1970?. Excellent condition. wraps.

I recently purchased a near-perfect assembled Walthers 34' HO hopper in its original box. This was produced c. 1937-39, and was made of thin lead castings mounted on wood blocks. the castings are neat

As Ben Hom's sharp eyes noted, the very early Walthers hopper is not 34' (as I claimed without measuring), but has an interior length of '30 on the nose, with an OA length over the faces of the draft

I have always made a basic assumption that by basic design flush nippers are simply not suitable for cutting hard steel or piano wire without great damage to the cutting edges. In this regard, I am no

About 15 months ago, Bill Darnaby wrote on this list a truly classy syllabus on constructing this extraordinary model. I would not start to build the model without it in hand. My copy is on a hard dri

During a fascinating seven year interregnum when I lived in Montpelier, VT, I belonged to a small and very tight group of old-line Capitol Vermonters who met one Saturday night each month to formally

Recently, I acquired a new-old-stock PFE R-30-13 wood craft kit, the producer of which was Prototype Modeler. I am unfamiliar with this company. Could anybody tell me anything about when they were in

Richard Hendrickson writes- As always, Richard is certainly correct that the current plastic and resin offerings (not to mention some brass as well) can result in models superior in their replication

Al Westerfield reports- This seems to be correct. John Greedy, the ranking expert on the Milwaukee reefers, monitors this list when he can. Perhaps he will chime in. Denny

During summers in the latter 1950s, I had very personal experience with hide and salt cars (i.e. I loaded the former, and emptied the latter), and they seemed to use the same type of cars (I do not th

Ben Hom writes- Well, Ben has THAT right! I have addressed this matter partially in a number of ways, depending upon whether or not I think I can get away with it: One way is to apply fitted sheet lea

This demanding requirement for proper boxcar door placement is why, by serendipity, so many locomotive turntables remain in situ and in use in so many places. With the disappearance of so many wyes, q

Excellent thread. "Been there, done that!", (repeatedly, it must be admitted). The good advice offered by Bill Darnaby and "Jerry in Florida" about ensuring that the body bolster and coupler surfaces

Attempting to achieve maximum smooth free rolling ability on all of my cars is just one of my several compulsions as each model gradually morphs into actual operation on an actual operating layout. Te

Using a Reboxx rolltester, here are my findings in testing some selected trucks to determine the best wheel sets allowing the most rolls. I have only had the roll tester for 16 months, so a lot of dif