It just dawned on me that, before bags, cement was shipped in barrels. For a bulk shipment, I guess you could just use bigger barrels, similar to the LCL containers used in the late 40s and early 50s

Same as today, by bulk hopper truck.

Oops! You're right. The diagonal panels are reversed.

Aleene's Tacky Glue has a long and storied past. Originally designed by 3M to glue blue foam insulation to plywood, it lost out in favor of tube-loaded products, such as Liquid Nails. 3M sold the righ

Union Pacific class S-40-12. This is one of the very few models that Athearn got dead-on right (but I think the brake gear has to be rearranged).

I use technical grade methylene chloride for very fast bonding and MEK when I need a few seconds of working time. Methylene chloride was the original ingredient in Tenax 7R and MicroWeld before they c

OK, I give up😒

Sounds like a mix-up of ScaleCoat I and ScaleCoat II. I'm not blaming you, the quality control at ScaleCoat has left a lot to be desired recently. Some colors have changed completely. -- John

Luckily, the Intermountain PFE brake details are so poorly cemented on, that I can easily pop them off and add brass wire for the correct arrangement. -- John

Also, but not necessarily in your case, many builder diagrams show the brake system (and other underbody details) as though you are looking down, through the floor of the freight car, not looking up.

Thanks, Tony. My memory ain't what it used to be. -- John

To the best of my knowledge, Hairinsul was used by PFE in their reefers. I think it was combustible, hence stenciling on steel cars not to use torches during repairs (or something like that). -- John

I forgot, the new version of Walthers Solvaset no longer uses butyl cellosolve. It doesn't work as well as the old Hobsco.

Ordinary 91% isopropyl alcohol and butyl cellosolve (2-butoxyethanol). I customize my mixtures depending on the plastic I am stripping, 5% butyl cellosolve for ABS and up to 10% butyl cellosolve for s

I've used solvent-based paints (Floquil, Scalecoat I & II) with no problem and no grit blasting. Just clean surface with some solvent first, as they sometimes have an oily coating (mold release?).

Thanks, Scott. That is the kind of information we need. -- John

I just finished looking at a bunch of YouTube "experts" talking about airbrush basics, since I just bought my first Paasche TGX-Vision airbrush (should be delivered today). What I realized is that abo

Try T-J Model Trains in Pasco, Washington. Teressa and Joel maintain a much fuller catalog of in-stock detail parts than I have been able to find elsewhere. They have an eBay store, but can also be or

I may be wrong (and often are) but I think the Cabot car is closest to your time frame needs (car is stenciled "NEW 8-49"). These cars are still used to haul carbon black from the refineries along the

I said it was 50 years ago, so my memory is not the greatest. But, now that I think about it, I believe the peanut harvest was a two-step process. First the farmer would plow up the peanuts, which gro