Hi Bill, The Steam Era Freight Cars website is your friend. See the files for different 'species' of steel boxcars created by Ed Hawkins, Ted Culotta and others, specifically the files for 10' Postwar

And just to add to the discussion, most of the ERIE boxcars I saw during 5+ years of prowling about the E-L Port Jervis Yard were a lot browner than the photo posted. I suspect the slide in the photo

Just as a footnote, the prototype photo is of a class Bx-44 Class boxcar, not a Class Bx-48 which is what Brian and Andy have referenced. The CB&T Shops model is lettered as a Bx-48, so their comments

I should have checked my January 1952 ORER before I hit send. Here are the NP wood reefer series listed in it: 90002-90799 RS - Steel Underframe - L 43'-1" cuft 2086 - 490 cars 90802-90999 RS - Steel

Thank you Larry, Dennis & Aaron. I have a copy of Rick Leach's reprint of the 1940 NP freight car diagram book, but it's in storage about 1500 miles from here. If someone else has a copy, that might h

Hi Tim, This is a very interesting photo, but I'm not sure it represents the ERDX cars in my 1952 ORER. The overall length of the 1952 ERDX 9000 series was 42'-6", and all the other MDT owned cars wer

Armand, ERDX was one of the reporting marks owned by Merchants Despatch Transportation Corp. My January 1952 ORER lists ERDX 9900-9999 as the only series. They were 42' long RB's (bunkerless reefers =

Fred, I can't read the lettering on the domes, but I think it probably gives the gallon capacity of the tank and (separately) the dome in 2 lines of text. Todd Sullivan

Gary, I don't think it's photo shopped. The number and initials on the far end of the gondola match those on the near end. There is an apparent optical illusion due to the guy standing on the forks of

Hmmm, in the photo, the tone of the roof looks pretty close to the tone of the red in the NP herald. Todd Sullivan.

Jack Mullen wrote "And when the driver think he safely on the other side He shouts back down the line to the man and he says I fooled you, I fooled you I got pig iron, I got pig iron I got all pig iro

Hi Ron, I convinced myself several years ago that not all of the freight cars on my layout need to be detailed to the nth degree, so I do have a few Accurail, MDC and Bowser cars that are fairly accur

Hi Scott - Not sure what those numbers are for. Could be that Clarence Menteer had them put there to indicate mold numbers. Clarence owned MDC when the hopper models were created. Clarence used to dir

Dave, More photos here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rslist.aspx?id=CBQ&cid=2&Page=3 A great shot including the roof is here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=373991 Todd Sulliva

Hi Ed, When I clerked in Portland Or in 1961-62, the Penn Salt tank cars were painted in cream yellow and with a black center band and bottom with blue PENN SALT lettering. The cars themselves were la

Bob, It seems that tie downs were a RR option, and were most useful when steel strapping was used to tie loads down. The New York Central favored such tie downs on the top chord of their gondolas, as

Atlas model reefer photos ... Todd Sullivan.

About 8-9 years ago, I did a lot of work on a fleet of 28 Atlas Swift reefers for a friend of mine with a large layout. I studied all the color photos I could find (there are not many), and did a lot

Thank you, Bill, for straightening out the record. Todd Sullivan (now in Richardson, TX)

Tim, Your observation is correct, and I noticed it too, although the photo is pretty fuzzy when you enlarge it. I once photographed a 52' gon in Port Jervis in the mid-1970s that was painted PC green