freight cars – Page 3 – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Chicago & Alton freight cars

Ray Breyer has authored a mid-Twenties railroad freight car fleet profile on the Chicago & Alton. The line was a busy connector between the Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Louis railroad hubs. Many are aware of the C&A passenger varnish, but the freight car fleet was also important.

As the C&A was once owned by the Harriman syndicate, several of the car designs are related to other Harriman roads (SP, IC, UP). Ray’s Chicago & Alton PDF can be reviewed in the Freight Car Fleets resource section.

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Catching up

A month can disappear quickly. I’ve been keeping busy, just not posting updates. A few models have moved forward and I attended the St. Louis Railroad Prototype Modeler (RPM) meet since the last post. Time to catch up.

A blurred year

Like many modelers, I enjoy taking a moment in January to review the projects of the previous year. It often gives me comfort to know that I’m actually moving models toward completion. 2020 was a very strange year as the Covid-19 pandemic upset our lives and routines. I also completed several models that had sat idle for months and years. It makes it harder to define what was actually started and finished in 2020, making it all seem like a blurred year.

Truss Rod end freight cars

It’s time for another freight car resource file. Ray Breyer has compiled information on truss rod end freight cars. We think of truss rods supporting freight car underframes but they were also used in other applications. Ray presents lots of photos and data covering these uses in a handy document.

Ray’s resource PDF is available on the Freight Car Fleets page. We hope modelers find it useful to build early wood boxcars for their fleets. We have more railroad fleet data and details coming soon.

Many thanks to Ray for pulling the data and images into one document.

Thank you for visiting the blog. You can share a comment in the section below. Follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear. Please share the blog link with other model railroaders. To subscribe to this blog, add your email address to the function at the bottom of the right column on the main page.

Virtual RPM – April 2020

A small band of Pre-Depression Era railroad modelers has been busy during this time of social distancing. We encourage each other and assist with prototype and model questions. This blog post is a virtual RPM with photos and details of their latest works. All models here are HO scale.