Does anyone know of a book, article series, web site, whatnot... that clearly outlines the differences in the variety of car roofs, ends and box car/reefer doors (hopper/gon details too)? When I read and see side-by-side comparisons it's easy enough, but I can't seem to retain the information and spend (IMO) too much time refreshing it.
My head is spinning at trying to figure out how to gain some variety in my car fleet by accurately affecting the major components of cars operated by certain roads. Since there's no one producing N scale car parts I'm looking @ butchering cars to gain the different types of details and casting them to build duplicates. I know MT has some separate parts; IM boxcars & reefers can be somewhat easily deconstructed for a limited selection of doors, ends & roofs; and certain Atlas cars have separate doors, but there will have to sacrifices for other details to be cast.
I'm curious too, if any of you familiar with etching have ever tried etching roofs or box car doors? Given the roundness of most car end details, I assume one wouldn't be able to etch those.
