Eric, Very nice! That's a beat up car, so close to a 10-year old paint job. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Kris, folks, The F39 is off topic for PRRPro. I have deleted the original post. Regards, Bruce Smith, listmeister

Folks, Does anyone have suggestions for accurately modeling the trucks carried by the idler? Obviously, these tended to be older trucks, so Andrews (Crown) are clearly appropriate, but I’m looking mor

Kris, I've been wondering the same thing. From my observations, the wheels on most of the "shop" trucks on these cars appear to be above the deck, so I'm hypothesizing that there might have been wood

Ed, Just to clarify - the M70B cars lasted in numbers through the mid 1950s, and one car remained on the roster until 1960. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Chuck, I think that the term used for the outside support is "bearing" not bolster. At least, that's the term I've heard and used. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Kris, BINGO! It is my understanding that this is a water pipe from the tender. These were added when tenders started to be assigned to the wreck train, which was late in the steam era (when diesels st

Claus, There certainly are a lot of similarities and then some minor differences. For example, you have to add a window to the RPO section, whereas I have to remove one! I look forward to both our res

Folks, I dug out the critical issue of the Keystone for this project, Spring 1993, Volume 26, no 1. This issue contains a lengthy article by Chuck Blardone on PRR Steel RPO cars, so for most of projec

Claus, I like the plan. Interestingly, my approach to the mPBM54 will be similar, but where you have to lengthen the RPO apartment to 20' by adding a window, since my raw material is the extant plasti

Jerry, BCW BM70K? I think I missed that one! I have some vague memory, but it's no longer on their web site. I assume that this is John's standard etched brass sides with some PRR ends? Regards, Bruce

Folks, Happy New Year! The PRR mail car/railway post office project is now open for discussion. Please feel free to post your ideas, progress and problems to the list, and any photos to the photo albu

Bob, Thanks! Headend cars rarely ever saw the carwashers so they got pretty dirty, pretty fast. I actually consider the weathering on these 3 to be light to moderate 😉 Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Aubur

Rich, I am not aware of any other sets. That Champ set is pretty good too. A reminder - these cars received buff lettering well before other "passenger" cars. Regards, Bruce Bruce Smith Auburn, AL

Folks, Way back, for Project #2, in January, 2004, we started our R50B, express reefer project. At that time, I completed 3 cars, one Precision Scale brass car and modifications to two Walthers cars.

Hi Kris, I model 1944, so all cabin car roofs are FCC. In the late 1940s, the PRR started applying asphaltum to cabin cars to stop leaks and only after that did it become codified in the Paint and Let

Rob, I actually posted weathered underbody shots in a previous post 😉 Regards, Bruce

Hi Pat, yes it does fit my June 1944 era, with one caveat and that is the trucks. They are ever slightly too modern as they were installed December of 1945. Following the history of the car I received

Ok Folks, this is the last N4 progress report. It's "done" (whatever that means 😉). Remember when I said I wanted to keep the weathering somewhat "simple"? Yeah, I lied! I'll repeat a bit from the las

Folks, It looks like project #35 will be mail cars (RPOs). With 33 votes it was the clear winner. Snow fighting equipment was 2nd with 14 votes, and Bridges was 3rd with 11 votes. We will begin the RP

#poll-notice