Tom, We do have a standard underside layout put together by Bob Hogan which he uses, but each RR had their own ideas about where to put the under body fitting and accessory passenger equipment. This naturally leaves a lot of discretion to the individual modeler building our Passenger kits. If available find a photo(s) of the car you wish to model and use what can be seen.
Just now speaking with Bob H., he indicated that his layout of parts follows standard practice, but we all know how common the exceptions are to the rule is. We are nearing a fully functional website; www.thesupplycar.net. At this time you can see a 40' 10IH DS boxcar built by Pete Silcox in an unpainted stage. Later today we should start populating the site with built passenger cars. Thanks, Bob McCarthy THE SUPPLY CAR . ________________________________ From: Tom Hawley <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 2:46 PM Subject: Chattanooga -- Re: {S-Scale List} M&StL 53'6" AAR: flatcar ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Baker Iron Rail Models has a new flatcar? I was there, even purchased a few items from Iron Rail but never noticed a new product. . . . . . . . . . . > > > > > > > > > > > > I think we were like the blind men examining the elephant, we all got at least a slightly different impression of the convention. I was mostly confined to the dealer hall, and here are some of the things I found interesting. Iron Rails (Greg Berendtson) is always an attraction for me because he makes contemporary era tank cars. I've bought quite a few and had him run off a batch of DOWX cars just for me to sell. I talked to him once, had a look at his new tank cars and other products. I noted a flat car body, assumed it was an AM product, but he said no, a new product of his. It looked rather generic to me, but I'm no flat car expert. Then somebody told me he's getting out of the business, or at least changing the way he does business. So back to him again and he admitted yes, he's going to Florida, will take a break, and when he gets back to it he'll have a different business plan. He said decorating & lettering those tank cars is just to labor-intensive. He also said he cannot get the old Ace parts, conversion bolsters &c, made at a price where people could afford to buy them. Then when I got back home I got a phone call from a friend who said Mr Berendtson had unloaded all his unsold inventory on Hoquat. I have no idea what that does to the flatcar. Doug Miller was there with a conversion kit for the cab of an HO shay, to make it Sn3. He was also working on wheelsets to regauge the locomotive. I bought one, just to show the guys back home. It's in my house somewhere - when it turns up I may be able to give you better information on it. But what really fascinated me on Doug's table was a sort of rotary dumper for dumping narrow gauge cars into standard gauge cars. It was still in developmental stages, but looked promising. John Degnan & I suspended hostilities and he showed me one of his Sergent couplers on a car. It looks very realistic, much more of a scale representation of a real coupler than the KDs, though I'm still not convinced that I need to convert all my operating fleet to Sergents. Bob McCarthy (the Supply Car) had several interesting kits and also had a lot of under-floor parts for passenger cars. I naïvely asked him if there was a diagram showing where the stuff goes on typical cars. He said no, each car's different. I also wholesaled off to Hoquat 95% of what I didn't sell. I will continue to sell some track, SMMW kits, and anything connected with intermodal. But I have considerably downsized Michigan Models. The Terminal Brewpub a block from the convention HQ was a good place to eat & drink. When I get a chance I'll post some pictures of the above, including one of John Degnan & me standing together. (John said Bill Lane challenged him to come up with a picture of us together.) < < < < < < < < < < . . . . I also missed, much to my regret, seeing and speaking with Andy [Malette]. . . . . . . , > > > > > > > > > > I talked to the Perfesser briefly. He had some kind of nerve problem in his right arm that has curtailed his piano playing. Hope he gets relief. Tom Hawley -- Lansing Michigan (where the trees are the right height)
