Elden, A few comments on this. First the PRR had cushioned under frame cars in late 1950 in the form of the leased GAEX box car fleet, which was added to in 1955. These cars had Waugh end of car cushi

Ben, I am "almost" convinced you are right on the MCRR 11500-11999 series. Some of the car's details match the builders photo of #11908 in my collection, others do not. The roof appears to have been r

One of the excursion cars on Henry Ford's Greenfield Village steam railroad still rides on National Type B trucks. (If anyone is interested in getting a good close look at them) Rich Burg

Scott, If you look closely at a decent photo of an H32, or any class of Pennsy covered hopper up through the mid-1950's you'll see a plate that contains data on all the commodities they can haul, with

Brian, I compared the car's end to PRR class X25A, and it seems to be a match. PRR series 598001-598437. Rich Burg

Al Hoffman did that excellent clinic. Rich Burg

A lot of RX creams, etc. still come in those soft metal tubes. Rich Burg

Bill, I haven't been a modeler since the 1970's so my making any suggestions might be pointless, but I recall back then I made gondola ends using old Athearn metal line box car end sheets, which gave

Brian, I haven't seen the IMT cars to know how they are painted. I have a photo of ILDX #338 freshly painted in 11-59. The photo is B&W but appears to be black or a very dark color with white letterin

Tim, This would involve both era, and size of an operation. I drove fork trucks for nearly forty years at various jobs, and small operations often had gasoline trucks with stick shifts to load and unl

Chuck, No disrespect for modelers, but keep in mind that not every member is one of them. Many of us are "Historians", and do zero modeling. Rich Burg

How about the Reading Railroad? Small enough to deal with and they had car classes. I have a good diagram book. Rich Burg

Eric, Sounds like you traveled much the same path as I have. Researching the real thing was too much fun to keep modelling. I agree, Craig Bossler was and is still one of those rare knowledgable histo

Tim, I think its a M64 (Blt. GAT Corp 1956). A late 1960's renumbering from the original series. (#469100-469399). Rich Burg

The Michigan Central leased (I think) former 50' composite box cars from the UP beginning in 1937 (151001-152000). Starting with 100 cars and increasing to 200 cars in 1938. They lasted on the railroa

PS: I have never seen any K7a, or K8 with a letter board other than for the shadowed Keystone K8's in the post 1954 era. Those big 13" letters wouldn't fit well between the side stakes. Rich Burg

Mr. Knott, I have never seen a photo of a K7 except for the builder's photo showing the car in it's original Vandalia RR paint scheme. Perhaps one exists, and I'd love to see it. PRR stock cars (KF, K

Bill, #498539 is a legitimate X29 number. Cars in the upper 400,000 area were assigned to company service, and not listed in the ORER. If you want a photo of a porthole window X29 in the proper paint

This issue extends well beyond just copying models. What about the wide spread scanning of photos? I feel that this has lead to photo dealers cranking up their prices because they know that once a sin

Tim, It appears to be the car float yard in Frankfort, MI on the A2. The cover photo of Craig Wilson's "Freight cars of the Ann Arbor Railroad" is take at almost the exact same spot. Rich Burg