Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Steam Era Freight Cars Blog



"This blog discusses all aspects of North American freight cars of the steam era, from the dawn of railroading through 1960.
it is designed to be a place where model railroaders who seek to produce the most prototypically accurate freight cars possible can come to view information pertinent to their pursuits.
Prototype modelers are encouraged to participate in this blog. Please consider sending photos of prototypes and your efforts to model them, reviews of kits, books and other products, “articles” about your modeling efforts – with or without photos. The nature of blogging means the material can be "real time," and in-process models can be shared. These are not only welcomed, but appreciated as we all love to see a model develop over time.
Also welcome is information about upcoming prototype meets, existing steam era freight cars (including where they are located), newly discovered photo collections, upcoming events, etc.
Information for this blog is considered to be submitted gratis. Also, all submissions must include your name and contact email."


A couple of years ago I created a blog intended to highlight steam era freight car modeling. Intended in no way to replace the STMFC Yahoo! Group I figured the blog format lent itself better than an email group to showing modeling and highlighting specific projects and techniques. After all, if you've ever tried to follow a modeling project on a chat list you know seeing the photos can be a frustrating experience.
My ultimate goal is for the blog to have numerous contributors - if someone wanted to contribute only one or two items they could send it to me and I'll post it (full credit will be given to the modeler of course!) 
If someone wanted to share a lot of projects/photos and the like I would give them "Author" permission and they would be able to post away without any interference - or effort - on my part! 
Although Charlie Duckworth did send me several contributions, the blog has languished in the internet waste land for more than a year - although it's had close to 10,000 views I haven't posted anything new in quite a while. 
There was (and has been) talk of reviving the Steam Era Freightcars website - and some of my fellow modelers were concerned this blog would be seen as competing with that effort. But frankly that seems to be stuck in limbo. 
So I thought I'd mention the blog here. I'm going to start by cross posting some of the freight car posts from here just to get some new content included. If I get little or no response I reserve the right pull the plug - but I will take a month or two and see if there's any life left in the thing. 
If you're interested in sharing any of your steam era freight car modeling please email it to steamfreightcar@gmail.com!




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