Now if you were to have a tank car built to the minimum required standards, you might be tempted to fill it full of some heavy but free flowing liquid. Something with a suitably low viscosity, like cl

A vacuum gauge reading minus 27 is not reading pounds per square inch. It is reading inches of mercury that the vacuum can lift. Chuck Peck

Here is a tank car vacuum collapse live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS6IckF1CM0 Chuck Peck

One might keep in mind that many products would never have the manway hatch opened except for cleaning. Most liquid products can be loaded and unloaded through pipes and hoses attached to access valve

Oh Dear! Loss on top of loss on top of loss. When we can start having meets again, it may feel as much like a memorial service as a celebration of modeling. And yet, as much as we will miss our friend

Granted, truss rod cars survived in their own era. Times change. Mix even a good truss rod car into a string of 100 ton hoppers, let the slack run out, and you have a lot of toothpicks. What worked ye

As I see it, railroad are, to some extent, self-insured. Meaning, very large deductibles. To put it in personal terms, I can choose to take a risk if I can afford the result. At the same time, I can n

Bill, Sad news indeed. You and your family will be in my thoughts. I do not doubt your strength, but I hope the service will help your family see how loved you are by others. It may strengthen them. C

I can see two reasons for the car being so marked. Both suppositions, as I did not work on that railroad in that time frame. One, like cars in green hide service, I would think the interior to be grun

The X in front of the number would seem to indicate a company service car. As such, it likely carried kerosene for lanterns, engine lubricants of various sorts, journal oil, and other such supplies in

The modeling idea that first struck me was this. Have a vertical pin, delrin or such, sticking up from the truck pivot point. Cut a slot sideways in the center bolster for the pin to slide in sideways

Almost anything can be done if you throw enough money and time into it. Getting paint to behave in those tight spaces would be the second challenge. I suspect you would have to really hate decals to g

When I want a showcase model, little things matter. When Charlton Heston did a big scene with a cast of thousands, I doubt that everyone one of them got full makeup, full exact costume, and the proper

The coupler is there, but the knuckle is laying on the ground below it. This rig seems to be using the knuckle pin as a fixed pivot point. With that hefty jack for power, I can see making metal move.

If it worked, here is an advertisement for Weed Chains. If not, here is a link. http://theoldmotor.com/?p=151944 Chuck Peck

Snow chains were invented by Harry Weed in 1904. Chuck Peck

I can easily imagine the uses Pullman could have for boxcars. First, samples to send around for railroads to examine. Secondly, resupplying the many repair and service points of the Pullman system all

What we do not know, and do not NEED to know is the operating purpose of these boilers. If they are building heating boilers, they likely operate at 15 to 30 PSI. If they are power boilers, they possi

Which will STILL get you the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. Chuck Peck

Our friend Garth posted an interesting photo along with the suggestion it might have been a trailer for a motor car of some sort. I see that as a good possibility but here is another suggestion. I do