Very few data sheets are still available for sale, and I have those, plus all the other ones that have been available over the past three years. Unfortunately, most of the data sheets were out of print before I joined BRHS and started learning about the Q so I could build a layout based upon prototype standards. I can’t get a complete list of the data sheets that were published, though I’ve asked on the list and privately many times. I have repeatedly offered to scan the data sheets to pdf to post on the BRHS web page for download or burn them to a CD-ROM disk. Apparently, the board isn’t interested in making these materials available. Meanwhile, BRHS membership declines.
I’ve accessed documents on other railroad historical society web sites that have been very helpful to me while building resin kits of other road’s rolling stock, and I think it’s a crime to refuse to reissue the CB&Q freight car data sheets as a modeling aid as well as for historical interest. If the BRHS has any hope of attracting new members that are also modelers, the society needs to provide them with some incentive to join. Refusal to electronically publish out of print documents is self-defeating, and if the board thinks that prospective Q modelers are going to buy documents from the archives, they are deluding themselves.
Nelson Moyer
