Albeit that it never really ever operated in service on the Great Lakes, there is I believe still one more intact existing railroad car ferry still afloat on Lake Michigan: the ex-CN Abegweit. This st

This is a great video, camera facing steadily west, apparently taken c. 1946-48 from either a PRR or (pre-GM&O) Alton passenger train about to arrive at Chicago Union Station. The string of FOM-liveri

After a determined try with seven paint suppliers in this region, this was my result: Five had in hand or would only order MEK substitute. One had MEK in gallons @$49.00. One (Menard’s) had a deep she

I am on the very edge of using up the last drops of my Tenax and Ambroid liquid plastic cements, and I was jolted this morning when my reliable ACE Hardware store informed me that they can no longer c

The routine processing method that the California State Railroad Museum uses with its vast collection of toy and scale model railroad models is to wrap them first in Tyvek, a synthetic neutral paper o

David Lehlbach reports that Tangent's HO high quality replacement wheel sets have an axle length of 1.002” , truly good to know. He also states that it is plainly stated so on their website, which I h

Responding to a report that Kadee HO wheelset axles measure 1.020” rather than my reported 1.015”, I hauled out a dog’s breakfast of stashed KD wheel sets of varying vintage, as well as opened up a fr

Model railroad trucks are not consistent precision assemblies, and if they were, we simply could not afford them. This makes a simple question like suitable wheel replacement not so simple. For a vari

My most hateful modeling chore is locating and drilling for grabs and handrails, etc. I machine drill when i can with carbide drills, but practically, most have to be done by hand; and I am totally fr

Wilson Packing: Wilson had a large beef packing house in Albert Lea, MN, and I recall lines of yellow Wilson reefers adjacent. The plant was a major underpinning for the town’s economy. I have not kno

Wow! That is simply beautiful modeling at its best, a “role model”. The only simple improvement that comes directly to mind would be the replacement of the “gigantic" couplers with the Accumate Protos

Jack Burgess hit it on the head when he points out that you get what you pay for: the Harbor Freight and similar are commodity grade or less calipers and if one is into disposable instruments, these c

Would this be the Manufacturer’s Railway reportedly out of St. Louis or the similarly named railroad that switched the Western Electric Hawthorne works in Cicero, IL? (the latter owned by AT&T?). Denn

Like others reporting, I have been building wood (and wood and paper) railroad models since I was a child, and as we speak, I have finished three more. Most in later years have been passenger cars, bu

Friends, I am in possession of two gifted boxes of about 170 issues of MAINLINE MODELER dating from early 1983 well into the 21stC. I have no notion of continuity, and some issues have reportedly had

Well, Ralph Brown has it….Glaze (I found someone, i.e. me..?... had written with a Sharpie on the glass itself a barely discernible ‘GLAZE”. I never really used it extensively, but as I recall, Floqui

I have quite a few of the older square bottle Floquil paints that are still both useful and relatively easy to use. I am running out of Diosol solvent and looking for a substitute peer-grade air brush

I love this Ambroid car (one of my layout as we speak), but have always wondered about the passenger diaphragm on one end. Were these cars designed/equipped for occasional operation on passenger train

The Budd company was a major (road) truck-trailer and automotive supplier, particularly wheels, before, during and after its side production of passenger railroad cars. The Hunting Park facility was w

Probably the very first American HO freight car kits (perhaps freight OR passenger) were those first advertised in 1935 by the late Howell Day under the name of H. Owen. They were balsa blocks with si