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

Stainless steel is called "stainless" for a reason! It doesn't hold paint well. If you give it some "tooth" by rubbing with Scotchbrite first it helps. The additional problem with wire is that it is f

I lived outside of Enterprise, AL for a while in the early 1970's. Although not the 1955 timeframe we are talking about here, this is what I remember. There were peanut fields all around us. Enterpris

I have 52 Bowser PRR GLAs on hand. Not something I will be rushing out to buy. Now if it were a GLCA or an H25, that would be different. -- John

Naw. I use Excel to track my collection. I have found that I can sort, search, etc. as well in Excel as I can in more sophisticated database applications and it is easier to use and modify. It is work

Error in my above reply. Ethylene oxide actually forces ripening of fruits and veggies, I believe the additive in the bags does the opposite, slows it down.

LDPE at my local Publix. Beware that some of them have an additive (ethylene oxide??) to keep fruits and veggies fresh longer (usually green colored). That could react with some model paints unfavorab

Thanks. I just ordered a couple of those pens from Michael's, based on your comments. -- John

The sterile blade comment was conjecture, with no scientific proof on my part, to back it up. One thing I still use is the Xacto #17 chisel blades (when I can find them) since I can't think of a scalp

Been using them for about 40 years now. Sharper than Xactos, with multiple sizes and multiple blade designs. I buy them by the 100s. Plus, if you get sterile blades, you are less likely to get an infe

Rob Schoenberg's website, http://prr.railfan.net/, has a complete list of PRR scale locations with stencil codes. However, his list is from 1923, so there were changes (plus and minus) over the years.

By the way, my information indicates that these cars were not used to transport chocolate bars, but were used to transport milk in 10 gal cans to the Hershey plant from outlying farms. Hershey was (an

Years ago, Tyco or AHM or the likes had a Hershey wood reefer. I saw one at a show several years ago and grabbed it for $2.00 for the novelty. Turns out that the road number was accurate, HERX 1038. B

I think that, all in all, the most important factor is the evaporation rate of the solvent. Acetone evaporates the fastest. I've had the paint dry before it hits the surface being painted with acetone

Mont: I use standard paint thinner (a/k/a mineral spirits, a/k/a Stoddard solvent) with SCII (I do not use the low-odor paint thinner). SCI is a whole different problem. Since DioSol has gone the way

For dead flat black paint, believe it or not, I have been using Krylon Black Primer/Ultra-Flat. Rattle can only, but it is as black as the monolith! It dries very fast (usually <10 min) and shrinks a

Yes. Some did and some didn't. Some paints would not stick to galvanized steel at first, so early roofs almost always had their paint peeling off, sometimes dramatically. Eventually steel manufacturer

I think this is another case of Intermountain quality going to hell in a handbasket. It seems to me that the key factor was the closing of the Hong Kong factory a year or so ago. I just got 6 PFE reef

I bought a full set of 4 Starrett (166Z) pin vises through Amazon for $109 including tax, so will see when they get here. I think I will like the cushioned grip, since my arthritis is getting worse th