Long time no...gee, anything

Whew!  Nearly two years since a post on this blog.   2019 might see more opportunities to dabble in model trains again now that kids are more self-sufficient and home remodeling has quieted down.

Anyway, I return today with a product announcement of sorts and a (soon-to-be-) addition to the roster.

Smoky Mountain Model Works recently (April 2018) released their "return to O scale" kit for an AAR 53' 6" 70t flat car.   I heard many good things about their kits in general and from those who built this kit since its release.

Alas, I wasn't fully sold on it until finally (!) completing enough research to prove that this car type would've been active in my target era of mid-1970s to early-1980s.  Using a recently-re-discovered digital release of Vintage Freight Cars from Morning Sun Books, I found a 1973 picture of Penn Central 751355 as shown below:

I was then able to track the car series through my hardcopies of the Official Railway Equipment Registers like so:

Class	Series
FMS	751300-751383

When	Who	How Many
Unknown	New York Central	Unknown
Apr 1973	Penn Central	1+
Jul 1975	Penn Central	30
Oct 1977	Conrail (PC)	9
Jul 1978	Conrail (CR)	7
Apr 1979	Conrail (CR)	6
Oct 1982	Conrail (CR)	3

So, armed with this new information and previous research on customers and commodities showing that U. S. Engineering could be a customer of coiled steel, I ordered one of the car kits.   Stay tuned for future updates when (?) I get around to building either it or anywhere to operate it.