Best to all my Train Friends!

NEW LIRR 1925-1975 book is out. Order from the authors or direct: http://www.trainsarefun.com/

Lots of new stories, maps, photos, and a new look for the LIRR pages. You'll find the Emery Bushwick maps, Yard A updates, Recollections from "old timers" about the LIRR, and other GOOD stuff. Here's a sample list from http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrcontents.htm 

Freight Ops Yard A  Nick Kalis 12/14/04
 1901-1955 Steam Roster 12/13/04
Before & After 12/13/04 Same location years apart
 SIRT - Staten Island Rapid Transit 12/06/04
LIRR Freight Yards: A Brief Overview 11/30/04
75 Years of the LIRR April 22, 1910  11/29/04
 Montauk Update 11/29/04
Engine Roster 1949 11/25/04
 Switching Yard A 11/24/04 Joe Falco
Island Park Switching Update  11/23/04 JJ Earl
 Fresh Pond Junction Update 11/23/04
 Bushwick Beers Freight Line Update  11/23/04
Bayridge Branch Update 11/23/04
LIRR Double-decker Roster 11/21/04
The Cannonball 11/10/04 by Vincent Seyfried
 Budd RDC1 #3101 RDC2 #3121 11/05/04 D. Keller
MOW Rosters and Picture Update 111/01/04
Picking up Your Engine Steps by Mark Smith
Engineer to Fireman by Mark Smith
Nearing Promotion by Mark Smith
 Freight Donkeys by Mark Smith
 Engineer-for-a-Day Program by Mark Smith
Moving Coal by Prayer  by Mark Smith
CR4 1913 Sidings Western Suffolk 
CR4 1919 Stations & Sidings Suffolk 
LI City Yard A Update  
LIRR Links Update
 Montauk Div. Road Crossings 1908
Celebrating 75 Years
Eastport     

NEW LIRR BAGGAGE CARS FROM WALTHERS

Pennsylvania RR class B60b baggage cars. Pennsylvania RR, Long Island RR, Norfolk & Western, and Penn Central. Models feature balloon-style roof, prototype-specific trucks, and car-number decals. Available with and without rooftop vents. May 2005. $34.98 each. Ready-to-run. Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.

PASSENGER CAR LIGHTS

Passenger car lights.
Lighting our passenger cars has long been a subject that keeps coming up
and for good reason, it looks great! Turn out the lights and see that loco
headlight heading toward you followed by a string of lighted passenger cars
can really stir the imagination.

In reality, no matter how much you clean the track, the wheels and the
wipers or however you pick up current from the tracks, after a time you end
up with a Lionel set with lights blinking off and on like Morse code. Yet we
continue to struggle with this.

If you not an electrical wizard, rocket wizard or whatever, I have found
the best AND simplest method is to use a battery. That’s right, a plain old
AAA or N size works fine in any application. The N battery is short and
stands up nicely in a compartment. AAA has to be hidden underneath or
inside. With the advent of circuit boards came micro switches. So small they
are easily hidden in the underside of any Passenger car or caboose for a
simple on and off control.

Hang one, two or three 1.5 volt lights in parallel, two in series for that
dim look or try other hookups. They don’t blink, go out or flash off and on
like an old hotel sign.

When the battery dies, (and they do last a long time) you simply replace
it. Buy the better ones so they don’t leak and always remove it if you are
storing the car. Battery holders are available at Radio Shack and a host of
online stores as well. And what wring could be simpler? Battery, holder,
wire, switch and bulb. And the battery adds weight to the car as well. One circuit I’ve seen is using two batteries. One at each end of the car and
supplying power to three bulbs each and operated by one double pole single
throw micro switch on the underside of the car.

One last point, as your train is sitting in the station, the lights are
still on! Try that with pickups. I’ve used this method in my cabooses for
years. Never had a bulb burn out or go out other then a dead battery. So before you tear your hair out, put down the blue prints, the circuit
boards, the cleaning fluids and what ever else and try the simple method.
Not everything has to be a project. 
Tom Wortmann
Chief Railbender
MS&K Railroad

CERMACOAT DISCUSSION

> I've used Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paint for painting styrene and
> hydrocal.  It is cheap and seems to work fairly well.  I have used
> their Mudstone color which looks like older concrete color to me.  But
> I have a couple of questions for anyone else who has used it:

I've been pretty mixing a little #2090 Hippo Gray with #2404 Sandstone to simulate concrete; straight Sandstone seems a little too yellow for me.  Just looking at a Ceramcoat color chart (http://www.ceramcoat.com/Literature/Pdf/CMC/CMC_Ceramcoat.pdf), #2488 Mudstone looks like a pretty good straight match for concrete.  I will check it out.


> 1.  Does it stand up well or would you recommend that I use a more
> expensive paint?

I think it stands up well.

The biggest shortcoming for me is that I can't get good airbrush results (compared to true modelers paints such as Modelflex), which I guess is understandable since the paint wasn't really formulated for that use.


> 2.  Can anyone suggest which of their colors ( or mix of colors) I
> could use to give the appearance of aged and unpainted wood?

For a starter point, try #2404 Sandstone.  Once dried, darken it with a thinned wash of #2506 Black.  Here's the effect achieved by an artist far better than me: http://www.trevinocircle.com/details21.asp.  For new raw wood consider starting with #2435 Trail Tan.

As far as location to buy Ceramcoat, you can get 1  oz. bottles at Wal-Mart for about $0.70 - $0.90.  But I've found that my local Michael's
(http://www.michaels.com/) craft store carries a much larger portion of the entire Ceramcoat colors (plus it seems that every color is always available in stock), so I've been buying them there at about $1.29 a bottle when I need
new colors.   Besides, my pre-school daughters enjoy to go along on a
craft-shopping trip.  You can never have enough craft supplies when you're that age. Mark

> If you thin it properly (like up to 50%) ...

What do you use to thin it?

My best results have been with Windex, but I can't use my Badger Paint Mixer to blend it -- it just makes a frothy mess!

Q: Can I use Delta Ceramcoat® Acrylic Paint in a watercolor method or with an airbrush? Yes. When the acrylic paints are thinned with Delta Ceramcoat® Acrylic Thinner, it reduces the paints to a proper consistency for watercolor and airbrushing techniques. When the acrylic paints are dry, they cannot be "lifted" like watercolors. Thinning acrylics with water causes them to lose their vivid color and appear flat after drying. With airbrushing, too much water can cause the acrylics to lose their bonding and covering ability. Mix equal parts of Delta Acrylic Thinner & Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint for use in an airbrush. Add additional Thinner until desired consistency is achieved. Clean Airbrush following the manufacture's directions.

So my 50-50 mix is even potentially low.  Jim

>I use Liquitex airbrush medium.

That or Delta's Ceramcoat thinner http://www.deltacrafts.com/paint/ppnp/paint.asp (2nd from the bottom of the page.)

I have used both, and haven't noticed a difference in effect on the paint.
The Liquitex medium is available in larger bottles, and is a  better price/ounce.

I've tried lots of different thinning materials while experimenting with Ceramcoat, including water, isopropyl alcohol, ammonia, Golden Airbrush Medium, and Windex -- based on different advice I've seen on rec.models.railroad, all with varying levels of success. I felt I got the best results with Windex and a 0.70 mm nozzle on my Aztek A320 airbrush.  But I've only had my airbrush for a few years and people's skill change over time (hopefully for the better), so maybe it's time to revisit things again and see if I can get a better method for airbrushing Ceramcoat.

As for the dried paint flakes -- that's a good point, the craft paint bottles tend to gather a dried up glob of paint at the cap over time.
But it's not hard to remove.

 NEVER CLEAN MY AIRBRUSH... not really, anyhow.  I just keep a cup of Windex (or something like it) in a coffee cup on my bench and run it through my brush between color changes.  A "feeder cap" that can be affixed to your paint jars is avaialable through Micr-Mark... I couldn't live without mine... and if the paint is well mixed (I use a small battery operated mixer), thinning is often not needed (you can always add water)... as for a moisture trap?.. nope.  I use a Paasche VL and a generic, non-adjustable compressor I got used for about $50.
I do alot of painting, and all but have abandoned regular paint brushes... I can't live without my airbrush, and wouldn't even try!  Art Fahie

> When using polly-s paint what air pressure should I use. What should I
> use to clean the air brush after painting. Should I use water or
> something else. How far away from the object that I am painting should
> I hold the air brush. Thanks

Ah one of my favorite brands.  Pressure should be 30 lbs + but I've used less with satisfactory results.

Cleanup can be done with water, 409, or rubbing alcohol.  Be sure to rinse with distilled water when done.

Thin with distilled water or liquitex airbrush medium.  Do not use alcohol or 409 to thin.  You will not like the results, the paint tends to curdle enough to cause trouble.

I brush about 6" from the object, but it's pretty forgiving.  The finish will be flat, so you may want to add a gloss. Greg


BILLBOARD SITES

Someone else asked a similar question last summer and received several responses.  The following were some of the sites provided in that thread:

www.gatewaynmra.org/download.htm

 http://www.billboardsofthepast.com/

http://www.boondocksnet.com/cb/posters_vintage_advertising.html

http://www.frankjump.com/

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/

http://www.desperate.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/shophome.cfm?L+despstore+czsu1155+1058690955
"Rob Oostrum"

Clip Art Collection:

 http://www.ribbonrail.com/art/

Circus Posters:

 http://www.the-forum.com/posters/circus1.htm

Billboards of the Past:

 http://www.billboardsofthepast.com/index.html

Ad*Access:

 http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/

Gateway NMRA:

 http://www.gatewaynmra.org/download.htm

Boston & Mt. Washington:

 http://www.trevinocircle.com/wtw.asp

Fritz's House o' Billboards:

 http://wyomingyard.com/billboards/

Duke Univ. site:

 http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/browse.html

Tons of stuff here, listed by decade.  Worth a look and a bookmark. Matt


BARBED WIRE

> Anybody know a good way to make barbed wire fence in HO scale thats
> not too oversized looking? Thanks, Bruce.

There may be better modern methods for doing this but what I'm going to suggest I read many, many years ago in some model rr publication.

Take a piece of scrap wood whatever length you want, or the length of the fence you want to make.  Then, and I don't remember the exact measurement now, tap in a very small finishing nails spaced evenly.
Take some very fine, grey (for new), or brownish (for older, rusted) sewing thread, and tie it around each tiny finishing nail.  When all the nails have knotted thread around them, one at a time slip the knot off each nail and pull the not tight.  Do this until all the thread has been removed from the nails, and all the knots have been pulled tight.  Use this evenly spaced, knotted length of thread as a single strand of barbed wire, attaching it with a dab of glue, and or tied around scale four inch diameter fenced posts spaced 10 or 12 scale feet apart.

I've never tried this but it sounds like it may work and look OK if something better hasn 't come along since this was originally
published.    Paul - "The CB&Q Guy"

I have seen old barbed wire (circa 1920s, maybe before) that was definitely non-evenly spaced in appearance. Until more modern times all barbed wire was hand made. Once strung by a farmer or rancher it would not need replacing for many, many years unless damaged. In Kansas I have seen fence posts I knew to be 50-60+ years old held up only by the barbed wire strung between.

So unless you are modeling only the most current era, non-uniform spacing should be the norm. Current standards call for barbs spaced 4", 5", and 6" apart based on the wire gauge used. Older wire was more like 9" to 12" between barbs if I remember correctly.

I know I sure ripped enough pants and shirts trying to cross fences as a kid. My mother kept a stack of iron on denim patches for the three of us. Art

Here is a link to a site selling HO scale barbed wire:

 http://shop.store.yahoo.com/internettrains/yescreatbarw1.html

They also have a cattle guard and windmill available.
Hope this helps. Paul - "The CB&Q Guy"

Modern barbed wire is between 12 and 13 gauge galvanized wire. It is possible to model since real world barbed wire is either twisted pair or three-strand woven with barbs placed 4 to 6 inches apart.

12 gauge is equal to .0808 AWG (American Wire Gage). Multiply that by the two strands gives you a little over .1616 diameter including the zinc coating.

In HO that comes roughly out to .002 diameter And it is possible to find this size commercially. Art


WATER

There are many possibilities, but the 'Envirotex' route seems to give the best result relative to the effort and 'side effects'.

Many have problems with the WS  'Realistic' water product, it's simple to use, but results are variable at best.

Other plastic resins may also work well (like Castolite SG), but have a stronger and more obnoxious  odor than Envirotex. All the resins lose most of their odor once they set up, but some can give off VERY annoying, and possibly unsafe, chemical vapors in their liquid state. Envirotex does too, but perhaps at 20% of the level of some others. It smells sort of 'musty' when liquid. Not great, but not really nasty either. Provide ventilation for perhaps a day after the 'pour'. If you use any 'other' resin, provide COPIOUS ventilation.

There are also sheet glass and plexiglas techniques, painted and textured plaster, real water (probably the very WORST choice, except for garden layouts), and perhaps others. Dan Mitchell

OPERATIONS & SWITCHLISTS

My layout is finally at the point where I'm starting to think about some actual operations instead of just running trains around, so I downloaded the demo version of a switchlist generator.  It has all the functions of the registered version but is time limited.

  I have found that this software has two ways of handling yards:  One way is to consider the entire yard to be a single track or "destination".  However, this basically relegates the yard to nothing more than a big car storage area.  Since I took the effort to lay out arrival/departure tracks, assembly tracks, etc. this is hardly what I had in mind.

  The other way is to define each yard track as a "destination".  This is even worse, as it makes up trains that often include cars on one yard track that have a different yard track as their destination.

  In short, it seems that this software does not include the concept of making/breaking up trains in a yard, let alone any real way to identify the use of the yard tracks for those activities.  The same limitation applies to interchange tracks.  The cars are pulled from, or sent to, the interchange track one at a time rather than as a cut of cars.

  Since none of the higher end switchlist programs seem to have demos, can anyone who uses any of them comment on their abilities to deal with the above considerations?  Any relevant comments are welcome, as are pointers to switchlist forums, newsgroups, demos, etc.  I'd also like to hear if/how anyone has successfully overcome the limitations of a lower end program.  Am I just being too narrow-minded in how I should use this software? Steve

My understanding of the prototype practice, particularly in the day before computers, was that waybills would not be used to assign cars to various tracks in a yard.  The yard master would designate tracks to be used to collect cars moving east or west on thru freights to the next major yard, or for the east or west local turn for cars going to industries on that division.  The older waybill generator we used to use on the club layout (I forget it's name but recall it was written in basic) only dealt with point of origin, type of car and destination - assignment to intermediate yard tracks and to trains was the choice of the yard master and practices/rules external to the traffic generator.  Seems like you could set up the software to only use the yard as a destination for empties, and let operating practices establish how the yard is used for loads passing through from shipper to final destination.  If you get too many cars for the length of the westbound local track, then that is exactly the kind of problem real yard masters had to cope with.  Gary Q

The first method of operation is basically what the real railroads do. Cars are not assigned to tracks by individual orders.  They are more just put onto a particular track according to what needs to be done to them. In other words, a car may come in from an industry to a particular group or tracks (prototype yards often can't handle all of the cars from one place onto one track), the car then gets logged into the records as to where it has to go and gets switched to the track appropiate for the train or other destination (cleanout for one) by the yard switchlist.  The car then gets switched to that destination during that shift.  If the car is lucky, it gets put onto the outgoing track where the next train takes it away. Bob May

CURTAINS

For curtains with some texture, try spray painting some aluminum foil on both sides with the curtain color. Once you cut out the curtains and touch up the edges, you can bend and fold them any way you like. This is especially useful if you want curtains that are blowing out of an open window.

I remember reading this... uh... somewhere.  Maybe it was on one of the Great Model Railroad volumes with Sellios:

Take those noisy very thin plastic bags (the kind you get from Radio Shack), stretch it out between your fingers and tie off either end, then douse it with Super Glue.  I've never tried it, but it sounds interesting.

I've accordion-folded bits of colored paper, used shots of curtains from
catalogs, and used painted Kleenex -- all look good.    -Gerry Leone


KDs ON PASS CARS

> I am looking to replace the horn and hook couplers that are on the IHC
> cars with Kadees, any suggestions?


   You have two ways to go.  Kadee and McHenry make direct replacements.  The IHC factory horn hook coupler mounts on a long shaft that snaps onto the trucks, giving a "talgo"  (truck mounted) coupler.
If you can find the direct replacements, it's an easy conversion job, just pull off the old couplers and snap on the new ones.  However it may be necessary to order the replacements either from Kadee's web site or IHC's web site, my local hobby shop (a LARGE local hobby shop) doesn't stock them. There is a difference between the 4 wheel and 6 wheel trucks, which requires a different snap in coupler.
  Then there is the other way.  I have been converting over to body mount couplers.  A standard Kadee #5 coupler box will fit each end of the IHC car.  I use a Dremel to trim back the bottom of the diaphragm so the coupler box mounts flush up with the sill strip at the end of the car. A bit of styrene under the coupler box gets it level. This puts the coupler at the right height.  I drill up thru the center hole and into the car floor to take a #2 sheet metal or wood screw to secure the coupler box top, to permit future coupler repair/replacement. 
  Body mount couplers are less likely to derail on backing moves, and they look better.  I can manage 18" curves and stay on the track although you will be happier on wider radius.  The IHC cars are light.
They will stay on the track better if weighted up to NMRA recommendations (5-6 ounces). 

While on the subject, there are a few other things one can do with IHC cars.  Interiors with seats and washroom walls and such are available from IHC to fit.  The interiors come molded in bright primary colors.
They are more effective if painted some light satin finish pastel color.  You can brush paint those white napkin things on the seatbacks to make the seats show up better through the car windows.  Metal wheels
to fit are available.  The interior light kit for the Walther's line of passenger cars will fit the IHC's.  This kit gives a very nice constant brightness lighting. If you do light the cars, be sure to paint the interior, the factory issue black plastic soaks up the rather feeble light.  Also, the plastic is somewhat translucent the the lamps may shine through the car roof unless it is painted.
  In some cases the plain stainless steel cars can be improved by painting a bright horizontal stripe through the car window area.  A good number of roads (B&M and NH for example) painted them this way.  Mask off and spray paint the underbody a flat gray.
  The floppy plastic snap in truck retainer pin can be replaced by 6-32 machine screws and a #6 flat washer.  For an elegant job, tap threads in the truck mounting holes in the plastic bottom of the car.David Starr

I've been doing something very similar to what David has been doing
except I use the longer shank Kadee #46 mounted further back on the car.
   This gives it more flexibility on short curves.  There are also the
Kadee #41 and #49 to make the coupler the right height without having to
shim or trim things. SR


CAR WOOBLE FIX

All of my Atlas [HO scale] cars with the push pin design had a terrible
wobble on the rails: for me it was unappealing. Their 3-bay and 6-bay
cylindrical cars, their cabooses, their PS2 covered hoppers, and their
older, 2-bay, coal hoppers all wobbled - and quite a bit. To fix the
problem, I shaved off the plastic ridge on the under carriage of the car
that surrounded the push pin once you removed the pin and the truck
completely from the bottom of the car. I then placed a very thin, steel
washer over the opening, and I used a #2 x 1/4" screw in place of the
push pin. This make shift approach works perfectly on all of these
designs. The screw allows for perfect adjustment to how much or how
little wobble you care to have by simply tightening or loosening the
screw. The two washers have the added benefit of increasing the car
weight a litle bit [and in HO scale, that "little bit" is noticable when
you free roll the car with a hand push]. If the washer can be seen, a
dab of car body paint will easily disguise its presence.

Atlas certainly stretched the validity of r-t-r with all of those
offerings. However, the paint quality, the lettering, and the rolling
quality of their metals wheels is exquisite which is why I continued to
purchase more of their cars. They also accept Kadee couplers w/ minimal
effort.

I just drill and tap them for a 2-56 screw. Worked on all the ones I had (the cylindricals and the kaolin cars, althoguh the first run had a larger push pin in it, so I used some round styrene rod and glued it in place so I could use a 2-56 screw.) I think they've since quit using that system and use screws now, at least on the newer stuff.

BILLBOARD REEFERS

I'm just getting into model RRing (N gauge), and since my layout would
reflect the late-1950s/early-60's era, the Atlas 40' billboard reefers
has caught my eye for add a touch of personality and color to the
layout. While I'm more interested in creating an atmosphere than
exact-science stuff like whether a loco's road number matches the proto,
I still want to keep *some* realism to it. Questions:

1) Did the brands advertised on those reefers reflect the loads inside,
or were they just general advertising?

2) How likely would it have been in real life to see RR reefers in the
West with products/companies more familiar in the East? It occurs to me
that there were beer brewers on the West coast, so it would seem odd
that you'd see, say, a Schlitz reefer from Milwaukee in Washington
state. Or would you?

3) Or did (or do, even today?) *all* different types of cars from
different regions belonging to different RR carriers just get all
jumbled up and end up in different regions and on different lines?

Or should I just not be concerned about this sort of stuff in the first
place? AJS

Billboard marked cars (there were more than just reefers that had advertising on them) were generally privately owned cars.  As such, they carried the companies products from the central plant to distributing centers about the country.  Thus, the Blatz beer car would indeed be found anywhere in the country from LA to Bangor.  You'd find most of them tho in the Milwaukee area. Then there were the cars that had advertsising on them of the railroad itself.  The UP map cars come to mind here for one. Back before recent (relatively) changes in car movements, cars tended to more stay on the home roads so there tended to be a bit of regionality to the cars on any particular railroad.  Today, cars can and do spend a large part of their lifetime just wandering about without regard to who actually owns them. BM

 Billboard reefers and box cars became the victim of an ICC ruling in 1934 making all future lettering smaller than 12" and were banned from interchange in 1937. Probably most of the cars in beer company paint schemes were gone when prohibition kicked in about 1920 and not seen again. By the mid 40's most all would have been repainted. Some cars though in a less colorful paint were in service up to the 60's. Bruce

The 'Billboard' outlaw ruling was only if the car was carrying another product.  If the owner was only going to ship his own product in the car, the 'Billboard' lettering could stay.  A good example of this was the HAMX cars that carried Hamm's beer from the brewery in St Paul.
They even has 50' cars in the 60's with the special Blue/White paint scheme and lettering. The cars were replaced with rather plain standard leased cars due to the cars being broken into while sitting in interchange yards.  I worked for the CB&Q in the late 60's, nd the CMO would deliver loaded cars in the 'North Yard'.  We needed a railroad cop to watch the cars until a yard job could run up from the Dayton's Bluff yard to retrieve them bury them deep in the main yard bowl.  The fancy lettering would attract hooligans within 15-30 minutes! Jim Bernier

The main reason for the ruling in the first place was when shippers objected to the railroads delivering cars to their plants painted for a competitor's product.

The reefers were not owned by the companies, but rather by refrigerator car companies like URTX, GATX etc.  The actual "outlawing" was a rule that shippers could refuse to load a car if it was lettered for a competitor, and the railroad and refrigerator car company had to deliver a different car at their own expense.  Rather than face the hassle of trying to keep track of which car could go to whom, the reefer companies simply stopped using the advertising lettering.  In the case where a shipper used enough cars that he actually owned the reefer line, the lettering stayed ("Swift" is an example that comes to mind). Don

PRINTABLE AMERICAN FLAGS

This is a direct link to a PDF file of current USA flags from Tonys Train Exchange.  Right click and choose "save target as." http://www.tonystrains.com/download/us_flags_sheet.pdf
CTucker


DECALS LISTINGS

 Great Decals, a manufacturer of decals, has a list of manufacturers:

 http://www.greatdecals.com/



MAP SYMBOL

What is the symbol that looks like a C superimposed on the vertical  part of an L?  Followed by word "Station".  Some think it means "Limited Crossing Station" and means a flag  station.  This is on an old 1916 RR track grade drawing.


>That's the symbol for Center Line.  It indicates that the mileage or
>chainage is measured at the center of the station.

> Also in Surveying/Civil Engineering, a 'Station" is a distance of 100
> feet.
>
> For example. The plans may list a culvert at Station 125+12.5
>
> Which would mean the culvert is 12,512.5 ft from the Starting point of
> the survey (Station 0+00)

This old RR drawing indeed states that 1" = 100'.
Each 5 units (500') is noted on the track line. So, on this sheet are
noted 730, 735, 740, etc.

The sheet has as its title the name of the station stop and directly
under it says:

[Centerline symbol] Station 736+31.9

So, either way, it appears that it is saying the center of the RR
station was situated at point 736+31.9 i.e. 131.9 feet after the 735
mark
Right?

This would appear to be a logical place for the station to be located.

We are trying to find if there are on the ground any remaining traces
of the old station, which was removed ca. 1929 and we are trying to
determine where to look exactly. Someone found the drawings in  their
attic & gave them to the historical society.  Juvenaly

Correct.  You might be able to find another physical reference that you could relate to the station location, such as an old level crossing, a bridge or culvert, or some other feature that still appears on the ground.

You might also look to see if the Mile Posts are listed on these plans.

If not, just divide 73,631.9 by 5280 and it will tell you the "mile post" of the station's location.

If the tracks are still there, the mile posts will probally be still there too.

But be advised the Mile Posts my not be excactly at each mile. Some may be up to 100 feet off.  RS

BENDING TUBING

>    What's a good method for bending small brass tubing without kinking
> it?

Slip a close fitting coil spring over the tubing so it extends beyond the area to be bent. Then bend to shape, slide the spring off and there you go. While bending support the inside of the curve and it should be perfect. I have used this trick for years and had few problems. CAT

Fill it with sand, bend and remove the sand.

RAILINGS AND STUFF

    Cal Scale / Bowser has passenger car railings but not fancy ones. They could be used as a starting point to add some fancy trim to. You might find some brass etchings that could be made to work here www.scalelink.co.uk  Go to the Etched Brass Frets / Photo-decoupe section. Someone gave me this link when I was looking for a good way to simulate barbed wire. They have some unusual neat stuff. Bruce

MAGAZINE PRICE

 http://www.netmagazines.com/

6-12 weeks till it starts, mine just extended the current subscription after the last issue. Paid $14.95 with $5.00 paypal discount voucher...

Steve Lynch

SCALEFIGURES.COM

> Has anyone had dealings with www.scalefigures.com ?

I have dealt with them recently. I bought about 100 unpainted cast metal figures in HO scale. Quality and service were excellent. The owner *was* and maybe still is having some trouble getting his email. I think there are two ways to contact him by email on the site. You might want to try both. Be persistant. It's all good stuff.

KADEE #78'S

Kadee now have 2 scale couplers, the No58 which uses the common No5 coupler box and the new No78 which comes with a smaller closer to scale coupler box. The No78 in my view is the best most useful Kadee coupler to date. It has the advantage of  no coupler drop, a problem with earlier designs. The smaller coupler box means it will fit where the older No5 box is to big. The scale coupler also seems to need slightly less force to couple together, which is a good thing. See my web page for some photo's of the 78. Those modelling  UK and European models will also find the No78 useful for models with buffers.

GRAIN ELEVATORS

  In the 50's most elevators were of the smaller wood variety, but the larger concrete silo type were there as well.  One usually saw the larger ones at sea ports or barge loading terminals.
  What was common in the 50's was the 40' box car with those 'grain loading' doors nailed from the inside.  Grain was loaded into them via a spout through the upper half of  the door opening that was not covered.  Unloading could be manual(tear out the grain doors and shovel the stuff out), a track that had one rail higher and 'tilted' the car to one side(still needed to shovel the last of the load out), or a 'vacuum' system.  These unloading schemes would be done at the larger export elevators or flour mills that had grain delivered to them.
  The covered hopper was really not used in the 50's, although some 75 ton 3 bays were built in the very late 50's.  The heavy axle loading and need to have a different spout loading system delayed the conversion to covered hoppers.
  Very large elevators/mills could have their own switcher or have the cars switched by the railroad.  Most elevators used a 'car puller' to move cars into position.  This was a motorizd windlass beside  the track, with a cable that was attached to the boxcar to pull it to the loading spout.  This is still used in many locations. Jim Bernier

 http://waltonfeed.com/elevator/index.html

 live in rural Kansas.  By the 50's, most elevators were wood frame
covered with corregated metal.  We had a fire in one elevator, and the
grain burned for days.  They replaced it with a new concrete silo in the
late 50's.  Track was level.  Cars were moved during loading in two
ways: [1] by a tractor hooking onto the car with a heavy chain, or [2]
by use of a pole -- I never knew what it was called -- that had a
mechanism on one end that went between the car's wheel and the track and
then raised or lowered to get the wheel to moving.  I suspect it was of
more use in lining up the car with the elevator's loading spout, because
I never saw it move a car over a few feet.  It was hot, miserable work
to unload a car.  I did it twice.  That was enough.  Hot and dusty, in
addition to being hard work.

Here's a couple of sites that outline how the refining plant operates and
the basic design. Walthers has a refinery kit, tank kits and pipe kits. So
you should have no problem finding the parts and details you need to build
one. Do a goggle search on both the web and images and you will find tons of
pictures and sites.  Bruce

 http://www.midwestnpioneer.org/central/conoco.html
http://www.eudoxus.com/mpac9703.html


WATERFRONT

    I ran across a book at the library this week that has a wealth of waterfront photos in it, many with good rail shots.  The time period covered is 1880s - 1930s.  The book is limited to New York Harbor, but in that geographic area there is everything from shots of the old NYC Barclay Street Station and all the size and hustle of the west side liner piers to very small operations on Newton Creek and the Gowanus canal on the Brooklyn and Queens side of the East River.

 SEAPORT: New York's Vanished Waterfront
2004
ISBN: 1 - 58834 - 163 1       

I also find these Library of Congress sites helpful for scenery research:

 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

http://www.loc.gov/

Bill

PASS COUPLERS

  I found this info on the McHenry website:
The Rivarossi/IHC couplers are specialty couplers designed to be direct snap-in replacements for the truck mounted couplers supplied by these
manufactures. The coupler will also fit Con-Cor coaches; although, the Con-Cor mounting pin is slightly smaller.
Shank length measured from the center of the mounting hole to the back of the coupler head for the specialty Rivarossi/IHC couplers; there are no
height variations:
      #52
           Most 4-wheel trucks and Con-Cor 85' coaches
                                                                         1.238"
      #53
           Most 6-wheel trucks, 4-wheel RPO and baggage and Con-Cor 72' coaches
                                                                         0.908"
      #54
           6-wheel RPO and baggage coaches
                                                                         0.685"

FOAM
I  prefer to use upholstry foam for holding my locos and cars.  The softest foam works the best and it can be had in a lot of thicknesses and several stifness levels.

TAFs TNT ...... SL

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