Could be for hauling dried processed sewage from the IC subsidiary Illinois Northern which could get it from the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Chicago. The MSDC had their own dump cars which presu

All- The attached image, although of a baggage car truss rod underframe, shows a camber intentionally built into the unloaded frame. The second image shows the car loaded up with railroad wheels, stra

Michael- Is the caption “I may be an actor on TV and the movies but in real life I am a Model Railroader?” You are right about the magic; my post relating that Ron worked at All-Nations Hobby Shop in

All- Barb and I are still stunned by the news of Ron’s passing on Wednesday morning. I was just up in Illinois for the recent Burlington Route Historical Society Meet and I enjoyed spending the entire

Claus- The link worked from Eric’s post. Must have been all the STMFC people all viewing it at once… Thanks, Charlie Vlk

Claus- The link doesn’t seem to work. Thanks, Charlie

All- Drawings for the CB&Q 36 Ft car appeared in Mainline Modeler. HO brass cars and resin kits have been available in the past. If my 3D CAD buddy ever gets his printers going I’ll have cars (at leas

Brad- CB&Q SM16 stock cars were 36’ and lasted well into the BN era (not renumbered AFAIK) and even past the movement of livestock being used to carry ties. I don’t have the stats to back this up but

Group- Sorry for the cross-post; I didn't notice that Denny had included the STMFC in one email. Sorry for the unintentional non-freight car content! Charlie Vlk

The CB&Q open-platform cars Denny mentions have an interesting history. Some of the cars seen are actually stretched wood cars (the cars with the longer wheelbase trucks) that had been steel sheathed

All- I can tell you from personal experience that flat cars need to be loaded in a balanced manner.... ....I have two 7 1/2" gauge flat cars equipped with pivoting boat seats for riding cars. The firs

All- Another off-topic post that has to be refuted…. The BLI PA in both HO and N specifically had the grills done in etched brass so the Farr-Air grille of the late PA-2 could be modeled. It was one o

All- The NW-2 Ph 5 is not a never done before model. The Broadway Limited NW-2 is a Phase 5. Also, BLI tooled the larger radiator making it a SW-7 Ph I and with the tooled small front window cab a SW-

Nelson- Evidently it is not intuitively obvious to the casual observer…. It wasn’t to me either. The instruction does not have to be like a Rosanna Danna Danna opening line in tone….”You stupid !@$@#)

All- Surely there are Monon Lettering and Painting Drawings out there that list the Paint Manufacturer, Color Name, and Stock Number for the band. Having that information might put the color used in c

All What Nelson meant to say was Phase I had rhe air intakes for the radiator on the sides of the hood instead of one on the ends. The frame and step locations also were different. Charlie Vlk

Eric- This is a nice reference. Great for those of us that would like to know what cars are appropriate for our “cut-off date” without having to do extensive research for each of the hundreds of railr

"Crown" car was the brand name for the RTR Mantua cars that I mentioned in my previous post....the old filing clerk in my head fogot what drawer that factoid was stored in.... Charlie Vlk

Both are correct. The car more recently in the Bachmann line was offeted by AHM. Tooling dates back to the Mantua carded blisterpack RTR copies of various Athearn cars. Charlie Vlk

What I recall most about Train Miniature is they were the among the first if not the first company to have monthly releases back in the day when we felt blessed if Athearn would favor us with a new fr