We especially like the "truss rods" the builders used to keep the bottom from sagging. ANd how about those end braces? Can't you just imagine a think like this standing up to the rigors of being shunted around yards without any bracing to keep it's upper "box" from swaying?

It's "home brewed fixes" like this that make Narrow Gauge Modeling so much fun, isn't it? Sure, the A.A.R. may have caused the "broad gauge" railroads to standardize on their equipment, and sure, there's been zillions of 40' boxcars built (and modeled too.). But aside from paint jobs, they're all carbon copies of each other. Kinda like the "jelly bean" automobiles that computer technology began generating in the eighties. They may be aerodynamic to the max, but Ho Hum...

But not so The Narrow Gauge, my friend. Individualism was the "norm" on the Narrow Gauge. 'Still is. And like it or don't, Prototype Narrow Gauge Steam has outlived its' broad gauge counterparts by close to fifty years. And still counting!