Garth, Neat photos! CMTX 465 and TKX 700 appear to be STC high walkway, radial course tanks. The date on the CMTX car seems pretty uncertain, but possibly post WWII, while the TKX car photo, if I am r

Elden, The PRR F28 is, as you know, an all steel car, so other than the paint and a few rubber parts, there isn’t anything to burn. Best I can think is that the load burnt, or at least the cribbing on

Folks, The Winter, 2020 issue (#115) of The Keystone Modeler is now available on the NEW PRRT&HS web site. To get there, simply click on www.prrths.org/tkm To download the issue, as well as several pa

For those (like myself) who are picky about such things, the side frames on the Helium car trucks are definitely different from those on the CC/BLE hoppers, but the hopper trucks are the best thing we

For those (like myself) who are picky about such things, the side frames on the Helium car trucks are definitely different from those on the CC/B&LE hoppers, but the hopper trucks are the best thing w

Bob, These trucks are PRR class 2D-F24, Buckeye All Service Cushion trucks. F&C made these in resin as an add-on for their X37B kit. They were only used on about 100 X37B and some X38 cars on the PRR.

Chuck , Folks, I recently finished one of the Rail Shops carbon black hopper kits as a United Carbon Company (UCBX) car, using the information in the May 1993 Mainline Modeler article by Martin Lofton

Greg, Yes, two heads, back to back, with an air space. You can see this in the rivet pattern on the outside of the car where there is a circumferential row of rivets where each head attaches. Regards,

Mel, 1) Why would two different trucks imply a scrap line? While not common, it occurred. 2) Um, the trucks on PE 8501 sure both look like Andrews trucks to me. Regards Bruce Bruce F. Smith Auburn, AL

Phil, Multicompartment tank cars have their compartments separated by domed “heads” within the tank. This represents a substantial volume that is not used for liquid storage, so your observation is no

Doug, Raw, unshelled peanuts are best stored in cool, dry place. They keep longer in the refrigerator and even longer in the freezer than at room temperature. https://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/inde

Doug, Folks, Additional photographs and discussion of RDG 12343 were posted here, August 31, 2020. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Jim, I've had better luck with them on gloss finishes. Really thin is important, and while my daily goto paints are acrylic, I feel like enamels work better for pin washes... the organic solvents help

Ray, Why would you want to turn a freight car around to run the opposite direction down the line? You simply add the car. In the RARE circumstance where a car must be directionally spotted for unloadi

Dan, There are a number of additional photos. I found these in several ways. First, the photo caption says Porterville, Ca, so I searched "Porterville". That got me a lot of hits, but there was a clic

One of the clinics during the virtual PRR day meeting was on transformers, by Rob Bennett. One thing I learned from Rob is that there was usually a transformer for each phase. I sent the photo to Rob

Garth, Folks, Photo taken 4/8/1937. Reweigh 3/37. That supports a reweight immediately or nearly before loading this transformer. 😉 Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

I jinxed myself... Just after I sent the message below, I started reaming the trucks for the 2nd car and SNAP - the truck sideframe snapped in half! %$#@# So, in spite of Brian's comments about what a

Of course! I should have known Chad would have done these. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Folks, In the movie "Troop Train", StLB&M flat car 8376 is featured as part of a pre- or early WWII movement of troops with their equipment. A quick check of the 1943 ORER show that there are 50 cars