A hobby adventure
Sam Anderson has been working on new HO scale projects as Zenith Model Works. Above is a Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Swing Motion Arch Bar truck with a 4-foot, 9-inch wheelbase (ZMW 7001). He sent the following details for a new line of HO scale 3D printed freight car trucks that follow prototypes from the 1900-1930 years. Here’s Sam with more details.
Continue reading “Zenith Model Works”
A few face-to-face Railroad Prototype Modeler (RPM) events are ahead on the calendar. The Reading modelers meet this weekend while the Central Ohio and Carolinas events are next weekend. An RPM in Los Angeles closes the year. Check the RPM calendar for dates, locations, and links.
Continue reading “RPM Update”
My lovely wife and I hit the road recently to visit our kids and grand kids, and my parents. We drove from middle Tennessee to Buffalo to celebrate a second birthday with a grandson. The Heritage Discovery Center was holding an open house, so we dropped by for a visit the day after the party.
Continue reading “Roadtrip finds”
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.
Continue reading “Catching up”
The Car Builders’ Cyclopedia of American Practice has been published through the years by Simmons-Boardman Publishing. Early volumes were published by Railway Age and the Railway Gazette. These have become valuable modeling resources to understand early rolling stock designs and the many assorted hardware elements that were applied. Later editions had a title adjustment to Car Builders’ Dictionary and Cyclopedia, as seen in the 1919 title page above.
Recent messages on some discussion lists included links to several volumes that are in the public domain. I created a blog resource page here to help modelers find these PDF versions.
I’ve often referred to volumes when building and detailing freight car models. Many of the freight cars and hardware details published between 1905 and 1925 remained pertinent in later years. I hope these publications inspire your modeling efforts.
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