Mundane models

 In a recent conversation with an acqaintance, the topic of my blog came up, and during the discussion he asked, essentially, “Are all your model projects complicated ones, like the Hendrickson one?’ (He was remembering the Santa Fe automobile car of Richard’s that I had completed; the concluding post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/11/hendrickson-auto-car-part-6.html ). 

Like most modelers, my answer was “no.” I do lots of projects that can only be called “mundane,” thus the title of this blog. But reflecting on this point, I thought I would show some examples of such projects, always remembering, of course, that I am definitely a “freight car guy.” (For background on that term, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/10/whats-freight-car-guy.html .) 

The topic of mundane models returns me to something I’ve often mentioned, usually just in passing. It’s my idea to separate mentally, what I call “mainline models,” by which I mean cars that will look all right in a passing train, but might not look so good up close during switching, from better models. I talked about the philosophy of all that in a previous post, too (it can be found here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/08/layout-models-and-all-that.html ).

But today’s post is to illustrate a few models, and perhaps clarify what a mundane model is. It need not be a “mainline model,” but may be quite a nice freight car, just not anywhere approaching contest quality or even worthy of a detailed description of its construction in this blog. I have felt from the beginning that following kit directions needn’t be posted here, but some models so built can turn out quite well.

I’ll begin with a automobile car finished recently. This was kind of a silk purse affair, in that I started with a C&BT Shops kit, kits known for their poor detail sprues. But replacing most of them, and in particular adding wire corner grab irons on the roof, and an etched metal running board, can make a pretty decent final result. There was a distant view of this car in a post last year (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/forty-foot-automobile-cars.html ).

 A second box car in work is more mundane than the car above; it is simply a Branchline kit for a postwar 40-foot box car. I happen to have won it as a door prize at a Prairie Rail operating weekend, and so far it has its internal steel nuts for weight added, underframe complete, and starting to add body details. Roof not yet attached; it will receive an etched metal running board. Shouldn’t be long till it’s done.

Awhile back, as part of purchasing several of the very nice Broadway Limited 6000-gallon high-pressure tank cars, I received one lettered for the Ethyl Corporation. The car came with a dome platform and railings, but a prototype photo I have shows an EBAX  car with only short dome walkways, no platform. I removed the platform and ladders (used them on another project), and am preparing to add the walkways and new ladders. A small project, to be sure.

This car will likely only operate in mainline trains, because I have no industries on my layout that would either ship or receive Ethyl Corp. cargoes, but such a restriction won’t be on account of model shortcomings.  

Finally, I’ve just completed an Accurail box car, chosen in honor of Paul Weiss’s Central Vermont layout (and could be used to receive cargoes from industries on his layout). This is of course an extremely simple kit, with minimal number of parts, though I added A-Line sill steps and a Cal-Scale brass brake wheel soldered to the brake staff. It hasn’t yet been weathered.

All these cars are mundane in construction, but all have roles to play, and in fact none of them would be relegated to the “mainline” category because of quality shortcomings. Cars like this can be the majority of any freight car fleet, as they are in mine. 

Tony Thompson 

Improving that Athearn steel reefer

In a previous post, I showed some restoration work on one of the old (pre-1960) Athearn refrigerator cars, built from a metal kit. I provided some background on these models, and showed an MDT example which I own. That post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-athearn-metal-reefers.html .

Among the shortcomings of this generally well-done model is its running board. Much like the ones Athearn would later produce in styrene, it is intended to look like a metal grid running board, but has, if anything, even less three-dimensionality than the later plastic ones. You can see the relative flatness of it in this overall view. You may also notice that there are no corner grab irons on the roof.

Among the things I wanted to improve was this roof, because we see our models, at least in HO scale, very predominantly from above, so that an underframe blunder of some magnitude is invisible, while minor errors or omission on the roof are quite evident. 

I began by removing the Athearn white metal running board, which you see below in the foreground, leaving behind sizeable holes in the roof. This running board is about six scale inches thick, well oversize, but at least it’s thinner than the plastic ones Athearn would go on to produce for years. 

The holes are readily closed with small circles of thin styrene (made with a hole punch), and secured with canopy glue. I chose to use a Plano etched stainless steel running board for this mode, and attached it too with canopy glue. Now the grid is far closer to a correct thickness, and is open, not solid. Corner grab irons have been added. This photo also shows the “original” Kadee couplers, with a mechanical trip pin.

Next came painting the roof (it may be evident above that the ice hatches are not quite the color of the rest of the roof). I don’t have a paint that is an exact match to the Athearn boxcar red, but since it will get weathered, I am not concerned about the roof looking different.

One might wonder why an MDT reefer would be part of a fleet on a California layout. There are two reasons: when cars were in short supply (essentially June to October), reefers of any other owner were pressed into service. Even PFE’s huge fleet, approaching 40,000 cars, could only supply two-thirds of the cars needed in peak harvest season. And we know (see the PFE book, sidebar on page 25) that MDT cars were among the “foreign” reefers used in that season.

But there is an additional reason. SP documents of the 1950s direct that empty MDT equipment be sent to San Jose to carry canned goods (being used as insulated box cars). So when you see this MDT reefer being spotted at my wholesale grocery warehouse, Peerless Foods, it may well not be carrying produce, but cartons of canned foods. 

Here is an example waybill. Note that this is a freight waybill, not a perishable bill (which would be pink), and carries the notation, “do not ice.”

This reefer model joins two other MDT cars in my layout’s fleet of reefers, and as you saw above, is active not only at peak harvest season, but at other seasons for canned goods shipment.

Tony Thompson 

More about Speedwitch Media kits

I received a question via email a few months back, and it’s been bumping around in my head every since. It touched on the fine freight car kits from Ted Culotta’s Speedwitch Media. I have in fact posted a couple of times about these kits, once about a kit I built (concluding with this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/01/building-resin-box-car-part-3.html ), and once about a kit that was built for me by Pierre Oliver (described here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/09/class-50-4-auto-cars-new-update.html ). But that’s all I’ve posted.

I decided I could describe a little about other Speedwitch kits that are in my fleet.  I’ll write today about Speedwitch kit no. 105, for an MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas, nicknamed “Katy”) single-sheathed box car. The prototype cars were built in 1923 and early 1924, 1500 cars in the 76001–77500 series, and in 1925, 1000 cars from Mt. Vernon Car Co. (95000–95999 series). As Ted pointed out, these cars were the backbone of the Katy boxcar fleet until the late 1940s, when the railroad began to purchase 40-foot steel box cars to supplant them.

The cars were originally painted conventional boxcar red with white lettering, but in 1937, the Katy introduced what became a famous paint scheme, chrome yellow with black lettering. Box cars continued to be so painted until about the end of 1947, when the railroad returned to boxcar red, but cars remaining in the yellow scheme were only slowly repainted, and were photographed into the late 1950s. I naturally could not resist having one of the cars in yellow.

Here is a photo (from Speedwitch’s book, Volume 1 of Focus on Freight Cars, by Richard Hendrickson), showing one of these single-sheathed cars in its original boxcar red paint (the reweigh date on the car is January 1936). Note, incidentally, the railroad’s initials on the door. 

The kit instructions include a poorly reproduced but informative undated photo of one of these cars in yellow, credited to Big Four Graphics. The paint scheme reflects that shown above, just in reverse contrast.

As usual, the Speedwitch kit includes very complete and helpful instructions. I don’t always need all the detailed guidance, but it’s reassuring to have it in front of me. And the one-piece body casting is a big help. 

As with most kit building projects, the first step is the underframe. Here is what the instructions direct us to do: 

My model’s underframe is quite similar, an easy process following the directions. You will notice a little overspray of yellow onto the underbody; I decided this might well be prototypical, and left it in place. It’s not noticeable in normal operation, in any case.

After lettering was complete, I weathered the car fairly well, being a car obviously not repainted for several years at least. The completed model is shown below. 

This was a kit that produced a very nice result, as one expects from Speedwitch Media. The final result is a box car that I enjoy owning and operating, not least because of its nearly unique color scheme for box cars in my modeling year of 1953. The car is an active participant in many of my layout operating sessions.

Tony Thompson 

Freight car kitbash, Part 2

In the preceding post, I showed the prototype for my modeling goal, building a 50-foot automobile car with a Viking roof (because I had a nice molding for that roof). I also showed the Branchline post-war 50-foot box car model that I chose as a basis, then stripping the factory paint and adding steel nuts for weight and installing the doors to stiffen the body. The post is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/06/a-simple-freight-car-kitbash.html .  

An immediate problem with the Cannonball Car Shops(CCS) ends is that they are too tall. If you measure a typical HO box car of 10-foot inside height, the exterior height of the end, beneath the roof, is about 9 scale feet. Post-war cars, usually 10' 6" inside height, are more like 10 scale feet end height. But the CCS ends are 11.5 scale feet high. Certainly not clear what they were intended to model, but I recall fighting with the height of the Red Ball white metal versions of the same end as a teenager.

Since the CCS ends are styrene, one possible solution is to “scribe and snap” to remove one rib of the end, which removes close to one scale foot of the height, then re-assemble when attaching the end to the car. With the first cuts made, here is what you have — of course the cuts need to be cleaned up and the joints fitted to match, and the coupler box frame at bottom removed. Original end at left.

This method, however, turns out to remove more than I wanted, so I had to file down the narrow “middle” piece quite a bit for the end to fit.So I decided to try something different on the other end, simply removing the desired amount only at the top of the end. This works more simply, but helps reveal that the ribs on the end are a little bit too big. Anyhow, here is that modified end, attached to the car body. 

This size issue reminds me of a belief of Richard Hendrickson’s, that early HO scale manufacturers were not sure the HO would win out over OO scale, so made parts that were intermediate in size, between the two or sometimes just a little oversize for HO, such as the earliest Silver Streak kits, which have this oversize character. Maybe the early Red Ball parts were also intended for OO scale, or to lie in between the two scales. But I have made the ends fit.

Next I simply added the kit detail parts to the body. With a model like this, with ends not intended for use with the kit, I like to begin with the ladders. Side ladders are fitted as the kit intended, then the end ladders can be added so that the rungs align with the side ladders (a prototype requirement). In the illustration below, a replaced rung is oversize; it was replaced with smaller styrene rod.

Continuing with the body details for the project at this point just involved following kit instructions, so I won’t go into that. I will continue with other parts of the project in a future post.

Tony Thompson 

The Athearn metal reefers

In several posts over the years, I have commented on (and in some cases restored) some of the old Athearn metal freight car kits. You can readily browse these past posts by using “Athearn metal” in the search box at right. Today I want to address the refrigerator cars sold by Athearn as metal kits up to at least 1957.

One place one can readily see Athearn catalogs and similar information is the HO Seeker website (at: https://hoseeker.net/athearn.htm ). I show below a page from Athearn’s 1948 catalog, containing the reefers then offered (note additional road names at the bottom).  The same cars were listed in Athearn’s 1952 catalog. By the 1957 Athearn catalog, most freight cars were offered in plastic, but the metal reefers were still in the catalog.

A few years ago I showed my restoration work on one of these metal cars, a Western Fruit Express car, and the underbody and other features were illustrated (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/12/restoring-ancient-athearn-metal-model.html ). Clearly shown were the stamped metal underframe parts and side and end details.

Today I want to talk about another of these cars, this one lettered for MDT (Merchants Despatch Transportation). I show the model below. The original model had black ladders on both sides and ends, black brake hardware on the B end, and black ice hatch covers. Some of these parts have been painted boxcar red on roof and ends, but the brake rod is missing.

What do we know about the prototype? There exists an excellent book on the subject, Roger Hinman’s Merchants Despatch (Signature Press, 2011). Chapter 19 of the book describes the steel MDT cars, and includes this photo (Sirman collection). This is the first of 475 cars, built at Despatch Shops during July to September 1947, numbered 9000–9474.

Note here that the cars as built had white side hardware, except for black ladder rungs, door latch, under-door kick plate, and horizontal parts of grab irons. Small blocks of dimensional data are placed in the lower corner of each end of the side.

The end shown above is a typical postwar Improved Dreadnaught end, and remarkably, Athearn took a shot at making such an end in pressed metal: 

This isn’t a very good version, since the relief on all the ribs is minimal, particularly the intermediate ribs, but clearly they were intended to be represented. The brake wheel is pretty poor, though not as poor as the plastic version Athearn would later produce in the millions. At least it looks like an Ajax. And note also the excellent sill steps, used on nearly all of the Athearn metal models.

Give the historic character of the model, I decided simply to add ice hatch latches (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/07/maintaining-refrigerator-cars.html ), replace the missing brake rod, and leave most of the other hardware alone. It’s nice to have a representative of the MDT steel fleet on my layout, and especially nice to have a model designed 70 years ago still running.

Tony Thompson 

Maintaining refrigerator cars

I have a very specific piece of maintenance for model refrigerator cars to mention today, namely ice hatch latches. These are very visible on a model, being located on the roof, so missing latches are quite evident, and of course should not be missing. But their location also means that they are quite vulnerable to being brushed or knocked off and lost in the weeds. So something like the view below, showing my model of PFE 64739, is not what we want. (You can click to enlarge if you wish.)

Replacement latches may be found in extra parts sprues from previous kit builds, though these are often rather too big, especially in thickness. A far better solution is the etched stainless steel latches from Plano Model Products, their part number 12079 in HO scale. The fret is shown below. Obviously there are six sets of four. These may not match the latches of every reefer owner, but they suit my PFE cars.

I pre-paint these, usually some variation of boxcar red, since most of my reefers have that color roof and ends. I usually cut them from the sprue with a hobby knife, then I apply these nice latches with canopy glue. Here they are attached to PFE 64739. This model is built from Sunshine parts, given to me by Frank Hodina, and assembled with the high hatch coamings sometimes seen on rebuilt cars.

These latches can also enhance models of somewhat lower detail level. Years ago I posted a description of the efforts I’ve made to upgrade Athearn steel reefer models, particularly removing the gross “hinges” on the ice hatches (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/08/ujpgrading-old-models-athearn-reefers.html ). 

The Athearn ice hatch latches are also considerably oversize, so replacing them with the Plano parts is a definite improvement. Note also below that I have replaced the kit running board with etched metal, replaced the Athearn brake wheel, and added wire grab irons, placard board, and fan shaft, along with decal re-lettering. 

I continue to need to replace latch bars that have been knocked off of reefer models in operating sessions, so I expect to keep on needing those Plano 12079 sets. Appearance of this detail part speaks for itself.

Tony Thompson 

Completing a Richard Hendrickson reefer

When Richard Hendrickson passed away, I inherited several projects that were partly completed on his workbench. Among them was a steel refrigerator car. Even a cursory examination showed that it was an SFRD car, with its five-foot doors and reverse ice hatches. Richard had completed the body, including ice hatches and running board, and had added supports for ladders (small white styrene pieces).  

(For those who don’t remember or never knew who Richard Hendrickson was, you might like to read my eulogy for him, which is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-memoriam-richard-hendrickson.html .)

In the photo above, you can see the narrow inset or notch at the joint between the side and end of the car. This is a signature of Santa Fe’s first all-steel reefer class, RR-21. This is well documented in the authoritative book of which Richard was a co-author: Refrigerator Cars, “Ice Bunker Cars, 1884–1979,” Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series, Volume 2, C. Keith Jordan, Richard H. Hendrickson, John B. Moore, and A. Dean Hale, Santa Fe Modelers Organization, Norman, OK, 1994.

Below is a prototype photo from the book (Loren Martens collection), showing the right side of an RR-21 car in service at Los Angeles in the late 1930s. This was before maps and slogans were applied to SFRD cars, which began in January 1940. Note the air reservoir, mounted longitudinally in contrast to most Santa Fe freight cars, which typically had them mounted transversely.

When these cars were built by General American in 1937, 500 cars numbered SFRD 34000—34499, they were distinctive in receiving Duryea underframes (the most visible aspect of which is an extended coupler box). They also had the “recessed” Dreadnaught ends that are visible in the photo above. Richard had already added the underbody brake gear and a representation of the Duryea underframe (the white members). He had also chosen the truck frames he wanted to use.

I decided to go ahead with this project and complete it. Because the underframe had complete brake rigging (though not piping, which I would likely omit anyway), I really only needed to complete modeling of the upper body. But before doing so, thought needed to be given to painting strategy.

These cars, as is visible in the prototype photo above, were painted with black ends, roof, and underframe, along with black side hardware. They had a yellow-orange color for the sides. This kind of two-color scheme, then, will require masking whichever color is painted first, for painting the second color. One doesn’t want to paint black first, then have to achieve coverage with the yellow-orange.

But if detail parts were added before painting the yellow-orange sides, there would arise the challenge of having to mask car sides with ladders in place, in order to paint the black. I felt it would be easier to paint the sides before adding the side detail. Then detail parts on the roof and ends can be added, the sides masked, and the ends, underbody and roof then painted black. Finally, side detail, all of which will be  black anyway, can be added.

A color recommended by Richard Hendrickson for Santa Fe reefer sides is Maine Central “Harvest Yellow.” Tru-Color Paint makes such a color, their number TCP-103. Following the strategy outlined above, I airbrushed the car sides “Harvest Yellow,” in preparation for adding roof and end detail parts. 

I will return to this interesting project in a future post.

Tony Thompson 

Another 3D-printed freight car

More and more, we are seeing distinctive freight cars, unlikely to be produced in resin, let alone in styrene, created by 3D printing. I’ve just received yet another one, this on from Robert Bowdidge (who once sold kits of such models under the name Dry Creek Models; see my post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-new-dry-creek-sp-work-cars.html ).  

Robert’s latest effort models the famous dump cars built by Southern Pacific in 1902, nicknamed “the battleships” and notably used not only for the Harriman-era fill for the trackage across Great Salt Lake, but in closing the Salton Sea breach in 1905, and in clean-up after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (each of which is illustrated in Volume 1, “Gondolas and Stock Cars,” in my series, Southern Pacific Freight Cars, Signature Press, 2002).  

These cars were 30 feet long and had a 50-ton capacity, dumping through a single, large side door on each side, over an A-frame interior supported by a gigantic 36-inch-high I-beam. Below is the SP drawing for this car type. The car numbers shown are from a later time; the original 300 cars were numbered 11665–11964.

The cars were arranged for air-powered movement of the side doors, and the end dumping gear is well shown in this view (SP photo) from the Great Salt Lake project (showing “sinking of track” — before enough fill had been placed). Note also that side grab irons are attached to the dump door.

As the years wore on, the cars took the usual beating of all ballast cars, and by 1950 all had been scrapped — except for a few that had been converted to MOW use as “roadway ballast” cars. There are four that we know of, converted in 1935 from cars SP 11811, 11697, 11798, and 11899, which became, respectively, SPMW 309, 313, 315, and 317. By my modeling year of 1953, only SPMW 315 had been scrapped.

But the cars were significantly changed as MW cars, with the air-dumping mechanism removed. Below is a photo of SPMW 309 at Bakersfield on December 3, 1955 (Chet McCoid photo, Bob’s Photo collection); the plain end is evident. Side dump doors were also shortened to permit a fixed side section for attachment of side grab irons, and divided into two doors.

Another known car, SPMW 317 was photographed in 1961 at an unknown location (Ken Harrison collection),  and like the car above, its lettering is simplicity itself.

Here is the 3D-printed HO version, with details obtained from the American Steel Foundry Co. drawing copies at the California State Railroad Museum. This is the original car body, including that 36-inch I-beam, and with full-length dump doors. The spaces under the A-frame could readily accept lead weight to permit the car to be operated empty. 

I will turn to the challenges of modifying this car body for my 1953 modeling era in a future post. For example, the end detail of the air-activated door levers is very nice, though unfortunately  I will have to remove it. And there are other changes that I will address.

Tony Thompson 

A simple freight car kitbash

Awhile back, when leafing through Ted Culotta’s excellent series, Focus on Freight Cars, I had one of those experiences where two entirely independent thoughts suddenly coalesce into something else, and I had an idea for a kitbash. I had recently noticed, as I do from time to time, that I had in my stash a couple of styrene 50-foot Viking roofs (I think from Des Plaines Hobbies), and that recollection surfaced when I looked at a photo in Ted’s Volume 5 (“Steel Automobile Cars”) and I suddenly focused on this image (page 77):  

This car, a 1937-built automobile car, has a Viking roof and sharp-corner Dreadnaught ends. And I have some 50-foot Branchline box car bodies. Let’s see if I have the parts that can go together. Below are the intended parts: a Branchline D&TS body, the Viking roof resting in place, and the Cannonball Car Shops 4/5 sharp-corner ends, parts #31511 (styrene moldings made in the former Red Ball molds originally used for white metal castings). These all fit.

The decorated car body you see above is as it came from the box. My first step was to strip the paint, using an elderly bottle of ScaleCoat stripper that still has enough oomph for a job like this. Otherwise the somewhat thick white lettering can be physically if not visually evident through a coat of good model paint.

Next I added weight to the car, using 5/8-11 steel nuts, attached with canopy glue. These will bring the weight of the model toward the NMRA recommended weight for a 50-ft. car. Note also below that I have installed the underframe and coupler boxes, essential to be in place before attaching the ends.

My next step in a model like this is to attach the doors, which will greatly stiffen the car body. An advantage of doing so at this stage is that additional styrene cement can be applied inside the body to the door contacts with the car body. The doors in this kit happen to be post-war doors, but they at least resemble the pre-war doors on the prototype 1937-built automobile car. The model thus shades toward a stand-in for the CNW prototype.

The stand-in nature of the project is amplified by the side-sheet patterns. The 1937 prototype has four side sheets to the left of the doors, six to the right, called a 4-6 pattern. The Branchline postwar body has the pattern typical of later cars, a 5-8 pattern. But in HO scale, side sheets aren’t very visible, so I chose to let this go. 

Here is the model at this stage, ready for installation of the Viking roof. 

My next steps will be to add the roof and ends. The Cannonball Car Shops ends are the correct sharp-corner “original” Dreadnaught style, but will require some trimming and fitting to line up properly with the roof and underframe. I will illustrate those steps in a future post.

Tony Thompson 

SP piggyback, Part 7: finishing the flat cars

I am continuing with the project to complete the very nice 3D-printed Southern Pacific piggyback cars made by AJ Chier. In my last post about the flat cars, I showed completion of the body details (grab irons, sill steps, brake wheels), shown at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/02/sp-piggyback-part-5-3d-printed-flat-cars.html . I should repeat that because I model 1953, the first year of this service on the SP, my models reflect the very earliest practices of SP piggyback. 

First I needed to prepare the models for trucks and couplers. I used a bottoming tap to tap the bolster and coupler pocket holes 2-56. 

For lettering, I used the Protocraft set for SP Class F-70-6 and -7 flat cars (Rick Leach artwork). Each set is intended for lettering a single car. I used the set, but was a little disappointed in the low opacity of the white lettering in the smaller sizes. Here is the model as I lettered it with the Protocraft set.

Below is the central part of a builder photo (AC&F) of the last car in Class F-70-7 (they were numbered 140500–142549). You can readily see, in comparison to the above model photo, what I mean about the appearance of the smaller lettering (you can click to enlarge). But in layout operation, no doubt this will go unnoticed.  I did omit the AC&F builder emblem, as these are not visible on any of SP’s piggyback cars.

Next I turned to installation of trucks and couplers. This involved making a styrene sheet cover plate for the coupler pocket, what’s sometimes called a “one-minute job.” Then Kadee No. 158 couplers were added. 

Trucks are an interesting problem. These 70-ton flat cars of course had 70-ton trucks, and most modelers aren’t sensitive to the differences between 50-ton and 70-ton trucks: 5' 8" wheelbase instead of 5' 6", and slightly beefier sideframes; both aspects essentially invisible in HO scale. But several HO scale truck makers do offer 70-ton trucks, and I chose to use those.

The SP prototype cars had Barber S-2 trucks, of the early A0 (A zero) variety. Most commercial Barber S-2 trucks are S-2-B (so marked by the rare truck maker who actually designates such details, such as Kadee). Can we tell? Actually, yes. Below is a view (AC&F photo) of an SP Barber S-2-A0 truck.

 Here you can see the distinctive Barber bolster end, with its friction-wedge corners, and a pair of truck springs outermost (there were five such springs in the spring package). For more on this, for those interested, I would direct you to Bob Karig’s superb truck chapter (Chapter 6) in Coal Cars, University of Scranton Press, 2007.

(For background, on model trucks, I recommend Richard Hendrickson’s HO scale truck document, available on Google Docs at this link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bz_ctrHrDz4wcjJWcENpaDJYbUU/edit?usp=sharing .)

Commercial HO scale trucks, such as the very nice Kadee 70-ton Barber S-2-B, are visibly different, having three outermost springs visible in the spring package, a very noticeable aspect of a truck. I show the Kadee S-2-B below.

I chose the Rapido 70-ton truck (no. 102059), which does have the Barber bolster end and a pair of outermost springs, thus looking like the SP Barber trucks. You could also use the ExactRail 50-ton Barber, which is close to the SP prototype.

The completed flat car is shown below, loaded with a pair of the Pacific Motor Trucking trailers, which I described in the previous post (available at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/sp-piggyback-part-6-trailers.html ).

I look forward to seeing this car in a mainline train during a layout operating session, a single car being appropriate in the earliest days of SP piggyback. And thanks, one more time, to AJ Chier for making these very nice 3D printed models.

Tony Thompson 

More on crates as open-top car loads

I have posted several times about using both commercial and scratch-built crates as open-top car loads, which have the virtue of being easily handled and not delicate. This series of posts began back in 2012, near the beginning of this blog, with this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/open-car-loads-crates-and-machinery.html .

Years later, I added a couple of posts about crates I built myself, and included the kinds of shipper graphics I put onto these crates: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/05/open-car-loads-crates-part-2.html . That was Part 2. In Part 3, I showed more examples of ways to label these crates: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/06/open-car-loads-crates-part-3.html .

Most recently, I presented still another way of making one’s own crates for loads, this time using wood blocks, again with labels when completed: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/12/more-crate-and-box-loads-part-2.html . But it’s occurred to me, after browsing among prototype photos of loads, that many crates loaded to open-top cars don’t have shipper graphics on them. This of course means that they can be used in layout operation for a variety of shippers.

A familiar name among makers of commercial crate loads, at least in HO scale, is Chooch. They have long offered a series of large and small crates, apparently resin moldings and painted to be ready-to-use.  A variety of sizes and shapes have been produced, including heavily braced crates or pairs of crates. I’ve shown some of my efforts to label a few of these crates in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/06/open-car-loads-crates-part-4.html . 

Shown below are two of these Chooch sets. These are often available in hobby shops, and are also stocked by Walthers and a variety of on-line hobby sellers. Note the variety of sizes, shapes, and crate bracing, among these sets. Sometimes the color is not to my liking, and usually I repaint using Tamiya “Wooden Deck Tan,” XF-78.

 

In my own case, I add some blocking to suggest how the individual crate is restrained, as in the photo below with the crate on the right.

I have also added labels to some of the crates, while reserving most to be used in a plain condition. The plain ones can serve as shipments themselves, identified as to content only by consulting the waybill, or as “accompanying” crates of spare parts or parts not installed before shipment. For an example of the latter use, here is my Euclid scraper load (described in an earlier post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/05/vehicle-loading-on-flat-cars.html ), with such a plain crate included.

For the other case , the unlabeled crate load, such as shown below on my layout being switched by 0-6-0 SP 1284, the content of the crates on CNW flat car 42453 can only be discovered by looking at the waybill.

The waybill for the load illustrated above is shown below, incidentally conforming to the Car Service Rules.

Of course any of these Chooch crates can equally well be given a label to identify its owner or shipper. Below is one of these, photographed in a passing mainline train on my layout. It happens to be loaded into a General Service or drop-bottom gondola, illustrating the versatility of such cars. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)

I continue to use commercial products when they fit my need, though I have constructed a number of scratch-built crates also, as described in some of the posts linked in the first three paragraphs of the present post. Both are welcome in operation and continue to be useful.

Tony Thompson 

Weathering: a couple of open-top cars

As I often mention, I have put together a pair of what Google calls “Reference pages,” linked at upper right in this post, with a fairly specific description of the weathering method I usually use, along with examples of numerous car types to illustrate what is done. The method is based on washes made with acrylic tube paints. But there are some excursions beyond even those relatively complete descriptions. 

An example is open-top cars, which can exhibit a wide range of appearances. Certainly if the cars are gondolas, wood floors can exhibit the kind of wear and damage and color changes typical of flat cars, and various kinds of debris, dunnage, and trash is often left in gondolas. Metal loads such as pipe can leave a residue of iron rust, as can wire or steel banding used to secure loads. The prototype photo below is one illustration (Dick Flock photo). Notice both the colors and the rubble on the floors.

How rare it is to see model gondolas that look like this! Still, there are those who have labored to achieve this kind of appearance in models. One I’ve recognized before is the late Bill Neale, mentioned in posts such as this one: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/11/gondola-interiors.html . Here is a repeat of one of my photos of Bill’s gondola interiors.

I wanted to head in this direction too, although perhaps not as far as Bill went. I have two open-top cars awaiting weathering of their interiors, which happen to be cars about which I’ve recently posted. Both are fairly ancient HO white metal models. One is an Ulrich N&W hopper car (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/03/restoring-ulrich-hopper-car-part-2.html ).

The other car is the Roundhouse C&O gondola project of Richard Hendrickson’s (completion of which was described in this prior post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-richard-hendrickson-gondola-part-2.html ). 

My standard method of weathering with washes of acrylic tube paints is my approach, well described and illustrated in the “Reference pages” linked at the top right corner of this post. I’ll begin with the C&O gondola, the completion of which was described in two recent posts (concluding with the post linked in the previous paragraph). I wanted it to show some rusty tint, though maybe not as complete as the Bill Neale cars shown above. With additions of chalk marks and route cards, here is the car:

The other car is the Ulrich hopper. Here again, I wanted some rusty tinge on the interior, plus a few chalk marks on the sides.

I may go back and add more color to the interior of the gondola, will wait to see how I like it in a couple of weeks. But I continue to feel that getting car interiors right is worth some extra effort.

 Tony Thompson