Review of Update I

Last Update: 2007-12-13

The following review pertains to our book by the same name, but since all of the material from Update I is included in this website, it could be considered a review of our site.

by DON SPIRO, courtesy of the reviewer. (This appeared in the April '97 Railroad Model Craftsman.)

In my recent review of Scenery, Structures, and Details, by John Nehrich, I mentioned how that book and Nehrich's previous work, the Steam Era Freight Car Guide, are "works in progress". As new material is researched and published, these updated sections may be purchased and added to those books already in the hands of the hobbyist. Well, no sooner had the block cleared on Scenery, Structures, and Details , when around the bend appeared Nehrich's first update to his monumental Freight Car Guide. Now, if your are serious freight car modeler, you either:

Well, for you modelers who fall into the third category, the Freight Car Guide is simply an awesome, all-encompassing 600 plus page guide to just about every "steam era" HO scale freight car kit manufactured since World War II. Each of the kits are broken down as to what prototype roads actually owned cars the model was based on, what paint schemes and trucks are correct for the model. Also, it specifies what kitbashing, modifications, or additional details might be appropriate to make the car more accurate for a specific road. Trucks, underframes, brake rigging, roofwalks, sheathing, ladders, grab irons, and just about everything else you have ever wanted to know about freight cars is contained between the covers of this book. If you view an Athearn 40 foot box car as nothing more thank a blank canvas for the addition of grab irons, freestanding ladders, NBW castings, full brake rigging, a photo-etched roof walk, a delicate replacement brake wheel, coupler cut levers, Delrin or wire stirrups, and a custom paint and decal job then you simply must have this book on your workbench. Okay, now that we are all up to speed, here is what the update has to offer.

Update I is a 190 page replacement for the final and more abbreviated chapter in the two previous editions of the Freight Car Guide titled, "Freight Car Paint Schemes." The first section in the update explains railroad lettering, reporting marks, dimensional data, billboard reefers, auto cars, chalk marks, gasoline companies, and further probes into that mysterious and proverbial "black hole" of freight car modeling, "What is boxcar red?" These topics are treated in a broad general overview and have application to all freight cars regardless of specific road name.

A page or so is devoted to decal and dry-transfer type model lettering. Nehrich simplifies, and in the process makes more attractive, the use of dry-transfers as an option to decals when lettering a freight car model. This method is often-times overlooked and perceived as unforgiving when decorating freight cars. Too bad, as the dry transfer manufacturers have often times made lettering sets that no one else makes and produce sets for some rather rare and obscure pieces of rolling stock as well. Nehrich eases much of those application concerns and gives some fine pointers on working successfully with the dry-transfer medium.

Once the foundation is set, the rest of the update deals with specific railroad paint schemes. Compared to the original chapter, the update gives a much broader coverage of specific railroads and what coloring and lettering was applied to each type of freight car that particular railroad owned. Some roads, now outlined in Update I, are so obscure that I never once heard or read anything about them. Ever hear of the Conemaugh & Black Lick, Delray Connecting, Fairport Painesville & Eastern, or the New Iberia & Northern? Me either, but these, plus countless other obscure roads plus all of the more familiar short lines and all of the Class-1's are covered in detail in the expanded text. Companies such as Railway Express, Pacific Fruit Express, private manufacturers, dairies, and the many tank car leasing companies are studied as well.

Each railroad's coloring on specific type freight cars is covered. The evolution of the myriad of lettering schemes a given railroad applied to its freight cars over the first sixty, or so, years of the twentieth century are then outlined. Where applicable, commercially available decals or dry transfers are listed for each scheme covered in the text.

Take, for example, the DL&W. Nehrich traces the evolution of Lackawanna's boxcar lettering schemes from the early portion of the century when simple DL&W reporting marks were used, to the mid-'20's when Lackawanna was spelled out and a small herald was added to the sides. In 1942, the road began to apply the now legendary "Phoebe Snow" billboard scheme. In 1954, the scheme was further modified and the work "Lackawanna" was moved to the left hand side of the car and appeared in much larger lettering.

If you, as a modeler, are trying to portray a specific time period on your layout, this guide will direct you to just what schemes a particular road used during that specific period that you model. It will effectively give the nitpickers one less thing to bring to our attention as they skillfully dissect your modeling efforts. All of the various railroads, regardless of their size, are treated in a similar manner. When pertinent, Nehrich has included references and quotes from freight car articles by modelers that have appeared in the various modeling magazines over the years. Quite frankly, I am amazed at the vastness of the author's thoroughness in this regard. Like all of his other works, a staggering amount of time and research has gone into this update, and the modeler is the real beneficiary of this most scholarly approach.

If I see one drawback to the update, it is a lack of sufficient lettering diagrams to support the text. Now this is not the fault of the author; several manufacturers were not cooperative in allowing Nehrich to use their decal lettering diagrams to support the text. These manufacturers have been prolific in producing steam era decals and an excellent advertising forum for their product line was lost by their choice of omission. There are, however, excellent diagrams of dry transfers produced by Clover House and Greg Komar throughout, as well as a smattering of unusual photos.

In spite of the sparse diagrams, the Update is a highly useful reference tool. It appears to me that modelers today are more intensive and willing to invest more time into research when building an accurate freight car model. The days of relying solely on the diagram included in a set of decals to letter a car is receding like the once popular forests of Norwegian lichen on scenicked layouts. Modelers now have a veritable reference library available to them through books, videos, and historical societies archives to help them achieve highly accurate freight car models. Those decal set diagrams, many whose artwork was produced decades ago, have often-times proven to be inaccurate in recent time as a result of these superior research tools.

This update can be viewed on a number of levels. As an addition to the aforementioned Freight Car Guide, it broadens significantly the already vast scope of this landmark work. Separate from this guide, it can be yet another highly useful reference source as an adjunct to the currently popular and never ending supply of color books, videos, and historical society publications that have been a real boom to serious freight car modeling as of late. By itself, Update I is an excellent primer and a jumping off point for the modeler who is beginning to take his or her first steps into the pleasurable and highly rewarding subculture of accurate freight car modeling.

Personally, I prefer this update as a welcome addition and companion to the excellent Freight Car Guide. Whichever level your choose, I highly recommend this new work by John Nehrich.