... And then, Brian, maybe not. I can make out the lettering on the end as “PAINT ALT. M 5 53”. Now, that looks like a paint date to me of May 1953. Any suggestion? Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Nice photo... is there one of the side of the car? And my attention was drawn to the two tenders (from class L1s?) in the background. Makes me think that this photo was taken in the early (pre SK) 195

Thanks, guys. Maybe I really should reread my copy of the Societies’s Boxcar book. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Only if it is a wooden roof walk... metal roof walks match the roof color. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Bruce, I believe that that hole is not what Jon is referring to... but rather the “bubbling” of incipient corrosion along the bottom of the sides. This is similar to what happened to the PRR X29 cars.

Richard is correct... the reporting marks show a S.R.I.X. on my 27” 5 k monitor. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Nice panoramic shot... notice the T&NO boxcar at the left end, and, no, it’s not that long, but an artifact of the panoramic camera that shot the image. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Pete, The prices are not all that bad... it ain’t like the old days when film and paper were cheap, and darkroom labor was even cheaper... I’m sure they aren’t making a killing at those prices, but ju

David, As has been mentioned here earlier*, orthochromatic (or blue sensitive) rendered yellow as a medium gray. It was used at the time because it was the best that was available at the time. While s

Utah wasn’t the only copper state in the west... Arizona also generated a rather large amount of copper from sulfide deposits. And, like Utah’s smelters, smelters in Arizona also discharged SO2 into t

Thanks for the correction, Bruce. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California

Steve, that was the typical arrangement on the Ban Dyke tankcars. Some still exist on the Cumbes & Toltec, albeit narrow gauged. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa California

You might notice that the “W” on the road name was added later. The D&RG absorbed the RGW shortly before and became the D&RGW. On the end reporting mark, the “W” is much whiter than the rest of the re

It was the doughnuts.

Hi Gene... any chance you could post the full drawings, or is the half drawing all you've got? Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, CA

Notice that in the color shot, the knuckle of the visible coupler has been removed. Of course, those archbar truvks are long illegal for interchange. The brake cylinder appears to be a KD style. Back

Well, it does help to be sitting in front of my computer when your request came in... Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, CA

Well, seeing as to how the rail between the car and the rest of the line has been pulled up recently (at least as of the date of the photo), it may be safe to assume that the car is in true captive se

They are watertube boilers. Similar to marine boilers. They are the opposite of firetube boilers which were commonly used on steam locomotives where the combustion gasses go through the tubes and wate

Bruce, that white stuff is where the scenery guys hadn’t gotten to yet. Come back in the spring and it’ll be done and all green. Bill Daniels Santa Rosa, California