Updated as of 07 Apr 2024...

I've been honored to receive a number of items from my readers for what I call the "UMTRR Research Accumulation." I've also been asked over the years by UMTRR Gang Members and by others whether there's any information or specific items they could provide that would be useful. The UMTRR being "free and worth at least that much," anything that I accumulate is on my dime-- and that dime is getting harder to come by with one child in college and the second due to start right after the first one finishes. (And I'm sure long-time readers remember when they were born!) So yes, every little bit helps... although some of the bits aren't so little, unless I get lucky, which I have from time to time either in person or online.

Yet, there are some items which remain elusive to this byte-slinger, and knowing that I can't possibly attend every train and railroadiana show out there, and can't monitor every item offered in cyberspace, the following is a modest (I hope) "Wish List" of items I am most interested in for the Research Accumulation.

Should you happen to come across any of the below, or know where I can pick these up at a reasonable price (I'll bet we've both seen those 'Vintage! Out of Print! Rare!' listings for items at many times MSRP!), please feel free to drop me an e-mail. (It's on the "Subscribe to the UMTRR" page, here. I will of course update this list as appropriate. Thanks in advance!

What was #1 on the Hit Parade by a long way was a reasonably priced copy of a current Official Railway Equipment Register. At this writing, the latest issue has now been updated to October 2020. I would like to get a new issue every 18 to 24 months or so. I suspect that there are fewer and fewer hard copies of the ORER being printed these days which makes these harder to find and far more costly than issues from the 1970s through the 1990s. I also think that they're out there, somewhere. On prototype railroads, copies of the ORER were circulated as they aged, going from busy locations down to outposts as newer editions became available. What we need is to find the ones that are going out the door and catch them before they do.

I had never heard of the magazine Railroad Car Journal until I stumbled across a copy in 2012 or 2013. The magazine's first issue was published in August 1971 and contained black and white photos and descriptions of cars that found their way into many N Scale manufacturers' productions, including the then Kadee Micro-Trains Line. I've been able to pick up Issues 1 (Boxcars), 3 (Open and Covered Hoppers), 4 (Cabooses), and 5 (Gondolas). I've since found out that Issue #2 covered Refrigerators (including Plug Door Boxcars based on the cover). I have no idea whether the series went beyond #5.

Similarly, the series Classic Freight Cars has a large number of photos that were used directly by Kadee and Micro-Trains to develop freight car releases. Already in the Research Accumulation are Volume 1 (40 Foot Boxcars), Volume 2 (Colorful Tank Cars), Volume 3 (40 Foot Refrigerator Cars), Volume 4 (40 Foot Open and Closed Hopper Cars), Volume 5 (Northeast Work Equipment), Volume 7 (More 40 Foot Boxcars), Volume 8 (50 Foot Boxcars), Volume 9 (Mechanical Refrigerators and Insulated Boxcars) and Volume 11 (High Capacity Covered Hoppers). I presume that means I'm missing only Volume 6 (Loaded Flats and Gondolas) and Volume 10 (North American Work Trains). I don't know whether there were any others beyond Number 11.

Believe it or not (and even I don't), after combining my late father's Morning Sun Color Guides, more properly known as the (insert railroad) Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment in most cases, it appears that I'm only missing a few for a complete set. That doesn't mean I'm independently wealthy-- actually, it means I'm running out of bookshelf space! Since the combination of libraries, though, these new Color Guides have been released:
- X-Cars Color Guides, All Volumes (Yikes, there are Five Volumes!)
- Piggyback Color Guides
- Auto Rack Color Guides
- Incentive Per Diem Color Guides

In addition, Morning Sun has released softcover a 'Freight Car Portfolio' Series, with six volumes to date, and freight car and caboose "e-books." There are now hundreds of Morning Sun Books, and while I have some that are not Color Guides and there are others I'd like to add to my library someday, they are really "out of scope" for the UMTRR Wish List since their focus is not specifically, well, freight and passenger equipment.

Much farther down on the list, necessarily because they are not inexpensive, are the various publications devoted to the freight car rosters of specific railroads. These are often much more than "picture books" and contain vast amounts of prototype information. They are also multi-volume in many cases. In addition, a number of historical societies have published exceptionally well-done volumes devoted to a single railroad's equipment, or sometimes even a single type of a single railroad's equipment. I don't expect to ever be able to accumulate even a non-trivial fraction of these, and I'm very lucky to have a small team of "Special Correspondents" who do focus on one or two railroads to whom I can post a query. However, should you happen to trip over one of these at a garage sale or flea market and would like to give it a good home, please feel free to contact me!