--- In STMFC@..., Richard Hendrickson <rhendrickson@...> wrote:
The BLI models will

have '40s/'50s P/L schemes because they will have rectangular panel
replacement roofs, which were applied by the NYC during and after WW
II. This was actually a shrewd marketing decision because, as
modeled, they can be used by a large number of late steam and
transition era modelers for whom a model with original roof would not
be correct.
Richard Hendrickson

Richard (or anyone else who may know),
Any idea how late the original flat panel roofs lasted? Were all the cars converted by 1949? I have a few Westerfield kits with the original flat panel roofs, so I am wondering if they are still useful to me.

I am happy to see these cars available in HO scale. Perhaps BLI will consider producing a Pennsy X31 with separate ladders as well.

Sincerely,
Bob Heninger
Iowa City, IA

Anyone have a link to see these models?
Clark Propst

They're not on the BL web site, and not shown on Walthers web site
either, which has hundreds of future BLI products listed.

Tim O'Connor

On May 16, 2010, at 7:06 AM, gn3397 wrote:

Richard (or anyone else who may know),
Any idea how late the original flat panel roofs lasted? Were
all the cars converted by 1949?

Bob, a few of them probably survived as late as 1949 with the
original roofs, but almost all would have been re-roofed by that time
(occasionally, there's a photo of a car with a diagonal panel roof,
as NYC shifted from rectangular to diagonal panel roofs in 1948, but
those are rare).

Richard Hendrickson

Tim:

They are in the catalog. Item numbers 1750 - 1762. You can down load the entire catalog as a pdf file. I think they are on page 33. Usually when items are in the catalog but not shown in the production schedule, this means BLI is waiting for a minimum number of pre-orders before going any further than planning.

Rich Orr

Rich Orr wrote:

They are in the catalog. Item numbers 1750 - 1762. You can down load the entire catalog as a pdf file. I think they are on page 33. Usually when items are in the catalog but not shown in the production schedule, this means BLI is waiting for a minimum number of pre-orders before going any further than planning.

Yes, page 33. I just tried the download. Lotta products!

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Richard,

Do you have a date for when these roofs were first fitted? I'm guessing 1940 would be too early for them?

Dave complains about a lack of models for 1944, 1940 seems to be much worse!

Thanks - Ed

Richard, or anyone knowledgeable of the NYC, would all of NYC's re-roofed Spec 468 cars also have received replacement steel running boards as BLI says in their catalog? While a reasonable assumption, most photos I've seen appear to show wood running boards on the USRA steel cars. Am I just looking at photos of non-reroofed cars?
Greatly appreciate all the good info everyone's provided so far on BLI's release of these cars - helps me plan my preorder!
Dave Sieber, Reno NV

--- In STMFC@..., Richard Hendrickson <rhendrickson@...> wrote:

On May 16, 2010, at 7:06 AM, gn3397 wrote:

Richard (or anyone else who may know), Any idea how late the original flat panel roofs lasted? Were all the cars converted by 1949?

Bob, a few of them probably survived as late as 1949 with the

original roofs, but almost all would have been re-roofed by that time (occasionally, there's a photo of a car with a diagonal panel roof, as NYC shifted from rectangular to diagonal panel roofs in 1948, but those are rare).

Richard Hendrickson

On May 16, 2010, at 5:51 PM, ealabhan0 wrote:

Richard, or anyone knowledgeable of the NYC, would all of NYC's re-
roofed Spec 468 cars also have received replacement steel running
boards as BLI says in their catalog? While a reasonable assumption,
most photos I've seen appear to show wood running boards on the
USRA steel cars. Am I just looking at photos of non-reroofed cars?
Greatly appreciate all the good info everyone's provided so far on
BLI's release of these cars - helps me plan my preorder!
Dave Sieber, Reno NV

Dave, cars that received new roofs during World War II got wood
running boards and kept them unless they required replacement later;
however, though there are photos of cars with new roofs and wood
running boards, the steel running boards applied after ca. 1944 were
far more common. In most of the photos you're seeing where the cars
had wood running boards, they probably also had original roofs.

Richard Hendrickson

On May 16, 2010, at 4:32 PM, eddie_walters wrote:

Richard,

Do you have a date for when these roofs were first fitted? I'm
guessing 1940 would be too early for them?

I can't say for sure. I have NYC freight car classification books
for both 1044 and 1954, but they're notably uninformative about when
improvements were made or which cars received them. It's conceivable
that new roofs were applied as early as 1940, but I'm not aware of
any photographic evidence to that effect, and if so the number of
cars so modified would have been, at that time, very small.

Richard Hendrickson