Had no idea there was a real railroad called the Coal Belt. The only Coal Belt I knew of was Bill Henderson’s wonderful HO layout set in Camelback country. Marty

Based on the side sill, the shape of the ends, the apparent lack of a running board on the car in the original photo I’m almost certain that’s one of the NYC/Rutland express cars. It most certainly is

Couple of thoughts on what is rapidly steaming towards off topic - 1. Other Fouled has a specific meaning on a ship, No self respecting sailor would ever say Fouled Up when he or she meant Fu.... 2. I

FUBAR is indeed a Navy expression- dating to at least WWII and is still in use today. Heard it in a meeting yesterday in fact ... And the Navy context, and I believe Richard’s use of the derivative fo

I’d actually put Bills FGE clinic on my steam freight cars blog a few years ago (with Bills permission of course). Such a large document in the blog was problematic, so I substituted a link to the doc

Rapido doing an O&W car - there’s a big surprise! (Merry Christmas Bill!)

Thanks to all for the photos. Good point about the running board brackets. Of course I was focused on the somewhat unusual lateral support brackets. I think I might have to go with shim brass strips t

Anyone have a prototype photo (or reference to one) of these cars as they would have looked in the 1930s? The Westerfield kit (their no. 11251) has a couple of builders photos, but would like to see a

I hope you're doing well and surviving the scourge.please can i count on you for a request. Thanks, Marty

Digging through some boxes came across this old Westerfield catalog. Not sure what year it’s from, but intro page says “our latest kit is the USRA mill gondola.”

I’d received the ID of the load after I’d posted the photo on my blog. Obviously I forgot to update the post! My car is a Sunshine Models kit that was one of the registration door prizes Martin used t

Don, While the CV never used anything as formal as drift cards etc… in general I think by the post war era the color was of freshly painted cars was pretty close to the standard CN Red #11 color. I re

Just ran across these at my “local” hobby shop. Two styles of drop shaft handbrakes for flatcars - Peacock and Universal. Haven’t used them yet, but I’m the package they look nice. A quick look at the

It’s definitely White River Junction, Vermont. It’s the CV’s freight yard alongside the White River north of the station. Marty

Looks like White River Junction, VT.

Dave, Thanks, No surprise considering the situation. Marty McGuirk Gainesville, VA

Here’s a photo of one of my old Steam Shack kits - a CV auto end car - GTW had identical cars.

I've not seen many photos of NYO&W cars offline, but this is one I have seen - gondola 6366 in Sheldon Springs, Vermont in Sept 1941. https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8c07268/ Marty McGuirk

With the obvious exception of the number of stake pockets, the GT car does look very similar to Central Vermont 4287 ( http://centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2018/08/wordless-wednesday-199.html) wh

Interesting shot. I don't have the article, but back in the early days of prototype rolling stock modeling (John Nehrich or perhaps even Richard?) did an article on reworking an Athearn flat to more c