Jeff Aley wrote, in part:

Isn't the magnitude of the problem much different
between military equipment (armor, aircraft, ships)
and freight cars. I mean, for a given piece of
armor, how many paint schemes were there? Three or
four? Now take, for example, a PS-1. Now we're
talking about a LOT of paint schemes. And what, 12
(or more?) different variations.

Actually there's more similarity than you might think.
Aircraft (say, a P-51) and armor (say, an M-3 tank)
changed in appearance as time went by and modifications
in design were incorporated into the production line.
Think of the FT, and compare how it looked next to the
F-9 went it went into production. As far as paint, colors
and variations of colors changed with time, theater of
service, and the different countries that owned that piece
of equipment.

One nice thing about the Squadron books is that they will
usually give you a line drawing of most, if not all, the
variations that a particular plane or tank had, as well
as a great many paint schemes. Much the same thing could
be done with the PS-1 boxcar. Not so much paint schemes, as
we can readily find photos for that, but design differences
such as doors, ends, brake gear, etc.

The idea is that instead of articles on the PS-1 appearing
in a continuing series of magazine issues, put that same kind
of information (with more detail) between two softbound covers
and include everything known to date about the car. So what if it
didn't have all the bits of information that might be floating
around out there - you could always do a second volume; Squadron
has certainly done that enough times.

Wouldn't it be nice, instead of having to search through half a
dozen magazines for info on the PS-1, to have everything known
to date about the car between two soft covers, in one place?

Shawn Beckert