Modelingthesp

In the preceding post on this topic, I showed two 33,000-gallon LPG tank cars, in the form of HO scale cars by Tangent Models. These are to be weathered for a 1975 layout, making these cars about 10 years old. (The first post about these cars is at:

The October, 2026 issue of the magazine of the Operations SIG (OpSIG), The Dispatcher's Office or DO, has just been published. I show the cover below. I mention this issue because of an article in it that I wrote. But my authorship isn’t what’s significant about it.

Back in 2017 when the Broadway Limited HO scale high-pressure cars were released, I purchased more than I needed, including one of their “variety” four-packs to get a paint scheme I wanted. (If you’re interested in my 2017 review, see: https...

There is a long-standing problem in building layouts, to achieve realistic depictions of industries. The problem is size. Many a layout contains buildings hardly larger than a boxcar , and that building is switched regularly, though a boxcar load of cargo could hardly even fit in the building. I too am guilty of this in a place or two on my layout.

The classic solution,...

This post contains a number of additional route card from the Michael Litant collection, as has been the case for a number of previous posts on the topic. Michael retrieved these in mid- to late 1960s from freight cars, carefully chosen, he mentioned, to not be current in the location where they were, thereby not interfering in freight operations.

I’ll start with a good...