The IC&E had a small fleet of scrap gons that were cut down from 4000cuft coal gons. Walthers happens to make the prototype 50' Coal Gondola that I found on ebay. I compared the model with prototype photos and decided how far to cut the car down. I used blue masking tape as a guide and made the cut a little higher so I didn't take off any extra material. Once it was marked off I used a dremel to cut off as close to the blue tape as possible. Once I had the rough cut I flipped the car over and sanded it down until it was even and square.

Hi all,

Following my topic on chlorine tank cars and lots of reading (including MRH issues 72 and 73, a must-read excellent article on tank cars by Tony Thompson), i was looking into an oil dealer (union 76) that was present in the area i model (Pasadena) in the 60s.

I wanted to check the following:

Hi all,

I'm just getting started back up modeling. I have a bunch of rolling stock from back in the past, but the one item I have that I'm not sure what to do with is a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation from about 1988. It's still new in the box actually.

I bought a Tsunami DCC decoder to put in it, but then I took a closer look at the loco. It's got the old-style pancake motor in it and the two halves of the frame are energized by the locomotive wheels. The tender trucks are the really cheap snap-in style with plastic wheels and no power pickup.