Western Pacific’s famous “Feather” box cars

Among the most famous box car paint schemes of the transition era was Western Pacific’s silver scheme with a full-length orange feather (for many years, WP publicized its “Feather River Route” slogan in various ways). I have no idea how many model versions of these silver “feather” cars have been produced, in all scales and on a wide variety of non-prototypical box cars, but it is surely in the tens of thousands. 

The famous silver-feather cars were actually only 20 in number at the beginning, the first 20 of 1951’s 600-car order of PS-1 40-foot box cars from Pullman-Standard, WP 20801–21400. They were an experimental application of the then-new P-S “Compartmentizer” load-divider system. WP’s customers included a number of shippers of canned goods, a product notorious for generating claims for denting and other damage in transit. The load divider was intended to mitigate that problem.

Soon after delivery, WP decided to number its 20 compartmentizer cars separately as WP 19501–19520. The load dividers were an immediate hit with shippers, and soon WP sent 22 more of its new PS-1s back to Pullman-Standard to be equipped with compartmentizers. When so equipped, those 22 cars were reneumbered to 19521–19542. Here’s WP 19527 at Council Bluffs, Iowa in January 1954 (Lou Schmitz photo). 

What may be hard to recognize in this photo is an indication that WP was already having problems with the silver paint scheme, as the paint didn’t adhere well to the car cement coating on the roof and ends. When the second group of 22 cars was repainted into the silver scheme, as you see above, the roof and ends were painted black.

There is a fascinating account available on-line, of the early days of using load-divider cars to ship canned goods. It is a 1954 MBA thesis by Burnis J. Sharp at Boston University. Here is a link to the PDF:  https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/142051966.pdf . Part of the document contains Sharp’s comparison of performance of GAEX DF loader cars, with the Pullman-Standard “Compartmentizer” equipment, as installed in the Western Pacific “Feather” box cars. (My post about the GAEX cars is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-gaex-box-cars.html .)

Back in the 1990s, I wrote an article for Railroad Model Craftsman magazine about modeling the 1951 order of WP’s PS-1 box cars (September 1994, pp. 56–59). I did do one silver car, but also did a boxcar-red car representing the other 580 cars of the 600-car 1951 order. Third, I wanted to model the WP scheme which replaced the silver scheme, which had been found to show dirt much too well: the “small feather” scheme on a boxcar-red body but keeping the “Rides Like a Feather” slogan (I’ll show it below).

For modeling, more fully described in the RMC article, I used the McKean PS-1 model, as it was the best PS-1 car body available at the time, having correct P-S ends, sill steps, and almost the right P-S roof. I replaced the kit’s 6-foot door with a correct 7-foot door from C&BT Shops, and applied Overland Models etched-metal running boards. Microscale Decals supplied the large-feather and plain schemes, and Champ Decals the small-feather scheme. I also included a bibliography of prototype information in the article.

Here’s the original silver scheme, though without the correct Chrysler FR-5 trucks.

The “small feather’ scheme that followed is colorful too and I enjoy operating this car on my layout, often in canned-goods service.

Then there is the plain scheme with silver lettering, worn, after all, by the great majority of this car group. 

Lastly, let me show one of the many “foobie” versions, applied to practically every imaginable steel box car body: Athearn’s metal car kit with pre-war Dreadnaught ends, conventional straight-panel roof, and six-foot door (and black ladders).’Nuff said.

These schemes are part of freight car history, especially for the western U.S., so they are fun to have in the fleet, and of course to include in layout operating sessions.

Tony Thompson