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More resources!

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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Easy boxcar update

I like to wrap up a project or two before a prototype modeler meet so I can take the models for display. A couple of months ago I came across an Accurail 36-foot boxcar that I had detailed but had not completed. That’s how the model appeared when I decided to finish it off.

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Catching my breath

The daily schedule has been busier than usual and work has lagged on a few projects. I just added additional detail to the hopper featured in the last post. I met Jack Spencer in 2005 and he explained how he creates and installs details made from Mylar. I’ve wanted to experiment ever since.  I figured this project would make a good introduction for Mylar brake platform bracing. The retainer valve and retainer line were added before the brake platform was installed. I need to install the KD brake components on the underframe next.

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