Old Varney boxcar

in a

small local

Thought it

What

made of

wooden

as even

'60s (the

fixing,

bottom

of a

respectable. The

good; the

yellow

be.

Junction,

with a

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"GAEX" started life as 'General American-Evans Co.', which later became 'General American Transportation Corp.', and still later became 'General American Marks Co.' I suspect the last one is where marks General American no longer uses, but want to hang on to, get stashed.

"DF" could be 'Durkee Foods', or in this day and age 'Drug Free' or 'Done For'.

Len

Len spake thus:

Is that Evans the car builder?

| "DF" could be 'Durkee Foods', or in this day and age 'Drug Free' | or 'Done For'.

"Damage Free" - a cargo restraint system.

Varney metal lettered in '60's seems odd. That's about when Varney went bung foo and the line had been plastic for some time. Could it be a post war car that someone repainted and lettered?

CTucker NY

Christian spake thus:

So was this a manufacturer's demonstrator?

On closer examination, it appears that what I thought was a build date is probably something else; it says "B-64". So you're probably right, it's probably older, as everything looks original. (The metal body is attached to the floorboard with 6 wood screws.)

A quick Google search yielded

which will answer most of your questions.

This site mentions that some of the first new DF loader equipped cars were built by General American Transportation Corp. in 1950. This would seem to match as Varney kit number B-64 with metal sides and a wooden floor is listed in the 1950 Varney catalog, but was discontinued by the issue of the

1953 catalog in which all of the box car kits have higher B- numbers and came with plastic floors. The box cars in the 1948 Varney catalog all have paper sides and lower B-numbers. Geezer

Isn't DF a logo for Damage Free, some kind of load restraint system? I think they are on the car in a bold yellow italics format.

dlm

The prototype is the 360 50' boxcars built as a joint venture between General American and Evans Products Company in 1950. At that time, Evans were an independent manufacturer and lessor of load restraining and carrier systems for boxcars.

The Varney kit is an interesting one. It features the correct markings for the 1950-build cars, but on a 40'carbody. Cars in these markings are known to have been leased to the following roads:

CB&Q GM&O PRR CRI&P MEC NYC B&O WAB

All the best,

Mark.

David Nebenzahl spake thus:

Here's a link to a scan of the car:

Don't know how long this will be valid; it's one of those free image hosting sites.

On my new HO layout I have built several large mountains. I used the crumpled up newspapers with cardboard strip lattice method. Over this I have two layers of plaster cloth. I'm looking for suggestions as to what type of plaster, to use as a final layer, that I can brush or putty knife over this. I want to use something has a longer setup time than Hydrocal and can be purchased at hardware or building supply stores. I used the old paper towel dipped in plaster and applied over a chicken wire grid on two previous layouts and was not happy with the way that plaster held up. Thanks for your help. Don

I use drywall mud. Mixwith some laytex paint.

"Don Goebel" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Drywall mud. Mix it with a bit of water. Not much water just a tablespoon or two for a cup. That's all it takes to make it runny enough to brush on with a paint brush. Somone else mentioned paint. I haven't thought of that. But I can see where dry pigment mixed with the plaster might be a good idea.

I use just enough black to turn the mud gray so it won't show white when chiped.

Gordon spake thus:

Sure; just dump some black (or whatever color turns you on) tempera powder into it. Extremely cheap, available everywhere.

Also, if you go to an industrial insulation sypply house, you can not only get your B-11 hydrocal in 50 bound bags for less than 10 bucks, you can also pick a 80 pound bag of either :Delta One Shot, or Smooth coat for less that 12 pucks a sack. These products are used as insulating cement for the tops of boilers and the lije in processing plants.

I've worked with these since my 7th grade social studies project and have fponf MANY

Don't know why your plaster didn't hold up but you do have to remember that the plaster can't be too thin or it won't interlock together. The first layer of the plaster cloth is there to provide a substrate for the top coats which should be properly mixed plaster. FWIW, I've found Hydrocal to be quite sufficient to do rock carving with, what with it's setup time and how soft it is at the beginning of the cured stage. I find that with practice, I can do more than a square foot of carving at one time.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?