Greetings all,
I'm currently developing a series of freight car books in
conjunction with Signature Press similar to the popular Squadron "In
Action" series of aircraft, armor, and ships with a tentative working
series title of "Freight Cars in Service." For those of you
who aren't familiar with the Squadron books, they are landscape
format books, typically 48-64 pages long and focus on a particular
type/model/class of aircraft, armor, and ship from initial
development throughout their service life, covering different
variants and paint schemes. Additionally, Squadron publishes a
similar "Detail and Scale" series that are longer books
(96-128 pages) which contain extra information of interest for the
modeler, including scale drawings and multi-scale kit reviews.
The focus for the first book(s) will be the USRA double-sheathed
boxcar. Cars will be presented by road in the following format:
Original as-built cars
Rebuilt boxcars
"Clones"
Each road's cars will be presented with representative photos tracing
the life of the cars from USRA allocation through rebuilding (as
applicable) to retirement. We're looking for information for
cars from all roads ? specific Q car series are:
CB&Q 120500-120999, 500 cars, 113 cars remaining in 1/1950 ORER.
A modeling section will be included at the end of the book that will
cover available kits in all scales.
A secret to the success of the Squadron "In Action" and "Detail
and Scale" series is the participation of the scale modeler
community - they get many photo submissions from modelers and
historians to enhance the photo coverage of their books. Color photos
would be nice but are not required. For the modeling section, we'll
need volunteers to write kit reviews for all scales, as well as
photos of completed models. Completed models must match major
details and have the appropriate lettering and number series for the
modeled prototype.
Thanks in advance!
Ben Hom
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