Eric Hansmann

Notes and Updates

A USRA 2-10-2 strolls along the NC&StL mainline on the Dixie Model Railroad Club in Nashville.

A rather balmy winter is keeping me busy here in middle Tennessee. I’ve become involved with a local club and helping with a couple home layouts. I’ve been slacking on the blog posts. A couple of the resource pages needed an update. The Guide to 1920s era HO scale plastic freight cars has a few overdue additions. This resource page gets the most views every week on the blog. I’m glad to see modelers are using the info. I suspect there are more modelers with a focus on the 1900-1940 years than what the hobby press polls reveal.

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New Workbench

It’s going to be a few months before the garage is transformed into the new hobby space. Setting up a hobby work space in the garage makes no sense as it would need to be moved once remodeling starts. After some negotiating, I was able to use an alcove in the TV lounge above the garage for space. The lead image illustrates the appearance before some changes.

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Vintage Vehicles

Let’s face it, we are all suckers for older cars and trucks. What reader has not walked through an antique car show? As a modeler with a 1926 focus, my eyes are always keen on finding vintage vehicles whether they are autos, earth movers, commercial vehicles, or farm equipment. We continue down the research path with this post as we never have enough data.

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Prototype Data Files – pt 5

With the recent Accurail product announcement of Fowler box car kits, Ray Breyer got busy and created a Prototype Data file to review the prototypes of the roadnames in the initial kit introduction. Ray also researched the origins of the car design and found some interesting details.

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1926 B&O freight car fleet

B&O 90596 at the AC&F Wilmington, Del., plant for repairs in 1922. From the Jackson & Sharp Collection in the Delaware Public Archives.

Do you recognize this box car? I know you recognize the railroad name, but do you recognize the car design? I’ll bet most readers are not familiar with this car design. It does look similar to many box cars used in the first four decades of the 20th Century, but this was the most common B&O box car until 1926. There were 9988 listed as in service in an October 1926 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Are you surprised?

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