That advice and information helps a great deal. Thanks Dave. Matt Goodman Columbus, Ohio, US

Thanks for the help Howard.

All, My father recently got the itch to reproduce a 1907 American Strawboard boxcar (as seen here and here) and has given me the job of researching decals. I used Photoshop Element’s perspective crop

Dennis, as usual, shares interesting information. Enough so that I went back to the Cyc., which mentioned the repositioning of the low (inner) side guard rail relative to the high side running rail (t

A bit more information from a Railway Maintenance And Maintenance Cyclopedia (1929) is attached. There’s a couple more pages of detail, if you’re interested in various rules, practices and vendors of

Duke’s advertising collection is quite good. My town of residence is pretty well covered, though unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of close-up freight car photos like this one. Regardless, they are gr

Agreed on the “no rusty wheels”. I’ve been working on prototypically modeling/weathering wheel faces for solid bearing trucks recently. Every time I think I have an accurate and easily reproducible me

The radial lubrication streaking on the left most wheel face caught my eye. Probably from a leak through the rear seal while standing still. Matt Goodman Columbus, Ohio, US

Thanks Eric - I’ll take a look through. It might fill out some of more details on strawboard in general. The ownership part is turning out to be a real rabbit hole - mainly thanks to Barber being invo

Mr. Barber also has a connection with another relatively “behind the scenes” industry - strawboard production (one of my areas of interest). Mr. Barber’s formed the Portage Strawboard in 1882 - not to

Interesting. I’ve seen 4-40 shears on wire strippers, but not 2-56. The former works, but requires cleanup. Ironically, my full size strippers will cut down to the 4-40, whereas the smaller strippers

Bruce, maybe you’ll find this useful for your idea. http://www.columbusrailroads.com/new/pdf/accident%20reports/crash%20steamroad%2019410915.pdf Matt

Dennis; re: paint, I see your point. The mid eighties were the period that paint on the roofs and hoods of cars (automobiles) performed very poorly (flaking, fading and otherwise failing). Thanks for

It’s interesting that the streaking/fading down from the lettering is rust colored - not white. I just weathered a batch of cars with a white fade last week. If I’d seen this photo when Garth initiall

Steve mentioned a photo-etched flue applicator. I’m not familiar with UMMs version, but have had good luck with the glue looper with thin glues - I rarely use my open-ended sewing needle anymore. http

Definitely cast in place - slip forming is the only process that I know of to cast storage bins of that height. Here’s a view that shows the storage bins in context. https://digital-collections.columb

Nelson raises a point worth considering - how much air is moved. I have a off the shelf Paasche booth that vents inside the basement. That was fine for short paint sessions, or slightly longer session

That facility still stands, though currently unused (AFAIK). Many in the neighborhood see it as a safety issue and eyesore, but I’m not sure how you remove a slip form elevator. The photo is wonderful

It’s great to hear the information I was given was incorrect. Thanks, Mark. Matt Goodman Columbus, Ohio Sent from my mobile

Regarding in-plant service, I only saw them with casting sand piled into them. It appeared they were used as shuttles to bring the sand from the plant out to huge mounds of the stuff, where they were