Southern Pacific’s GE 44-tonners

The General Electric 44-ton diesel switcher was sold to railroads large and small, and to industrial users, all over North America, and many survived 30 years or more in service (and a number have been preserved at various railroad museums). Powered by a pair of Caterpillar 190-horsepower diesels, they were easy to maintain, with Caterpillar parts available everywhere. Over time, Southern Pacific and its subsidiaries owned a full dozen of them.

The earliest three 44-tonners owned by SP arrived in the fall of 1942, only two years after the first 44-ton locomotives had been produced by GE. Numbered 1900–1902, they were mostly used in Oregon during the war, and later were tried many places on the SP system. Like others in the earliest production, these had side radiators, unlike the many post-1942 44-ton engines with end radiator shutters. 

(One of the magisterial Joe Strapac books on SP diesel locomotives, Volume 18 in the series Southern Pacific Historic Diesels, is about Alco and GE diesel switchers. He covers the 44-tonners owned by SP, Pacific Electric, Visalia Electric, and Petaluma & Santa Rosa, along with Pacific Fruit Express. It should be consulted for history of the locomotives on all the subsidiaries.)

Here’s a photo from that book (Gordon Spafford photo, courtesy Joe Strapac), taken at Eugene, Oregon on March 15, 1946, with SP 1901 painted in “Tiger Stripe” colors. The side shutters and plain hood end are clearly shown.

In the photo above, note the prominent rerailing frog over the front truck at right. Photos of these locomotives on the SP after the 1940s no longer show these frogs present, so they were not a permanent feature. 

What might this have to do with SP’s Coast Division and in particular, the San Luis Obispo area (which I model)? In the 1953–54 era, SP tried out a variety of diesel locomotives on different parts of the system, including Coast Division, and specifically at San Luis. 

One of my previous posts, with parts of my interview with Malcolm “Mac” Gaddis who worked there in the early 1950s, mentions trying out GE 70-ton engines, Baldwin and Alco six-axle road switchers, and others (here’s a link to that post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/08/san-luis-obispo-operations-3.html ). He mentioned the 44-tonners in another part of the interview. Neither the 44-ton nor 70-ton locomotives could do the desired job in the yard at San Luis Obispo (which is on a grade), and after short stints, they were sent elsewhere — but they did work there.

This is of current interest because Rapido Trains has just introduced a GE 44-tonner in HO scale, and they offer it in SP paint and lettering. Among the body styles they chose to do is the original design, with side radiators, sometimes called Phase I, correct for the SP numbers they have modeled. Here is a photo of SP 1902 at work on my layout, switching cars at Shumala.

The engine runs nicely, has a realistic diesel sound, and handles switching well. It’s shown below spotting a reefer at the Phelan & Taylor packing shed in East Shumala on my layout.

I’m sure the 44-tonners didn’t serve very long in this area of Coast Division, but the times when they were tested does fit my modeling era, so I will operate this one occasionally.

Tony Thompson

An old Shake ’n’ Take project, Part 2

In the preceding post of this series, I introduced my first steps on the Shake ’n’ Take project from the 2015 Cocoa Beach meeting and described the background for these projects and Greg Martin’s role. This particular build is a Rock Island 40-foot double-door box car. I showed the first project step, which was to cut out the car ends, as they had to be replaced. That post is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/an-older-shake-n-take-project.html . 

With the ends cut out, the car body is pretty floppy, so I immediately made end bulkheads from 0.030-inch styrene sheet, as suggested in the kit directions. (You can obtain these directions if you wish; the original instructions are at: https://groups.io/g/shake-n-take/files/2015%20Shake-n-Take%20RI%20161205%20Auto%20Box%20instrructions.pdf. You must sign up as a member to view and download.) Another option for instructions is the excellent write-up by George Toman on the Resin Car Works site, though George went much farther in detailing than I plan to do. Here is a link to that description: http://blog.resincarworks.com/rock-island-40-foot-automobile-boxcar/ .

The inside corners of the end bulkheads were braced with scale 6 x 8-inch styrene strip, attaching everything with styrene cement. Addition of these restored the car body to a reasonably solid configuration.

I turned my attention at this point to the underframe. I had decided not to pursue adding stringers or cross-bearers in correct location or piping for the brake gear, since that is all essentially invisible in normal operation. But the chain tubes can be seen in a side view, so I added them. Following the kit directions, I used 0.062-inch styrene rod (Evergreen no. 222), drilling holes for them located as shown in the project directions.

Note also in the photo above that I have added styrene strips on the top side (as it will be when installed in the car) to act as gluing surfaces inside the body. The C&BT Shops floor is not a snug fit in the Roundhouse body and will need to be glued. I also added two steel nuts, 5/8-11, which were glued to the floor with canopy glue to weight the model. Here’s a view from above. The chain tube length above the floor, of course, doesn’t matter.

The full set of project parts included a resin piece for the correct-profile side sill reinforcement under the double doors. Since I didn’t have that part, I decided to reconfigure what is on the body that was supplied, then add rivets after the body was primed. Here is a first cut at modifying the side sill. Note I have also removed the molded-on grab irons at this point.

Next I attached the replacement 5/5 ends to the car, using styrene cement. Their contour was adjusted a little along the top of the end to match the contour of the Roundhouse roof. Note also in this view that the holes in the roof have been filled with styrene. The floor is not yet installed. Some of the body’s molded sill steps are still present in this view, but will be replaced later.

With all the heavier work on the body done, the next steps are to add all the correct details. I will describe that work in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Model operations with SP cabooses

I recently had an interesting question sent to me, about how Southern Pacific cabooses are assigned for operating sessions on my layout. To casual visitors, it may well look like cabooses are randomly located on trains, both on the main line and on the branch. But on the contrary, assignments are specific and have been purposefully designed.

To understand how this works, I should offer a brief summary of the cabooses that can be seen on the layout, and their backgrounds. First, for any time from 1920 to the end of the 1960s, the SP caboose fleet was dominated by wood-sheathed cupola cabooses with steel underframes, built in company shops, and classed as C-30-1, -2, and -3. Altogether, there were about 750 of these cars. I won’t go into more history than that; those interested can consult my Volume 2 of the series, Southern Pacific Freight Cars (Signature Press, 2002), which is about cabooses.

But in the late 1930s, SP began to build steel cupola cabooses, again in company shops. There were only 235 of these built, classed C-40-1 and -3; they were built with steel-wheeled trucks, permitting their use at higher speeds. And after World War II, SP began to buy commercially-built cars, this time of bay-window design, classes C-30-4, -5, and -6. By the time I model, 1953, only 135 of the bay-windows had arrived on Pacific Lines.

Additionally, I’ll mention that at times of caboose shortages (not only in wartime), SP converted other car types to temporary use as cabooses, both box cars and coaches and even a 40-foot baggage car. Once the emergencies ended, many were converted back to original configuration, assigned to work train service, or scrapped, but a few remained in use, for local trains or as transfer cabooses, well into the 1950s.

Naturally there was a hierarchy of use, with the newest cars used on faster and more important trains, down through lesser trains, to locals, and transfer service. I follow that in my layout caboose assignments.

The bottom of the barrel was the temporary caboose, most of them converted from ancient Class B-50-6 wood-sheathed box cars during World War II and remaining in service for years. They were very spartan inside and it’s no surprise that crews hated them. Here is an example from my book (Al Phelps photo, courtesy Bob Church), taken at Roseville in May 1949:

I remember being surprised when working on these cars for my book, that there were so many photos of them, but probably that is just because they were unusual. Here is another nice image, taken by Guy Dunscomb at Oroville in May, 1947, with Mogul 1754 as the power:

As it happens, Al Westerfield chose to make a resin kit for these cars, and I have one of those in my fleet. It usually resides on the caboose track in my layout’s engine terminal at Shumala, usually alongside a Class C-30-1 conventional caboose, the C-30 being the car that usually goes out on the Santa Rosalia Local.

But every now and then I assign the temporary caboose to the local, and then it does move over the layout. Here it is on a train returning through Ballard with its work completed on the branch: 

I will continue this topic in a later post by discussing the other caboose classes described above.

Tony Thompson

The Hendrickson USRA box car, Conclusion

This project is essentially the completion of a freight car build begun by Richard Hendrickson and inherited by me. Doubtless I would have taken up the project long since, but the box in which the partly completed model was stored was located among a group of parts boxes. When I happened onto it, it went right to the workbench.

The prototype is one of the USRA (United States Railroad Administration) box cars acquired by the Georgia Railroad and upgraded around 1940 with new steel side sheathing to replace the deteriorated original wood sheathing. More of the background, and prototype photos are in the first post on this topic (the post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/another-hendrickson-project.html ).

Richard’s model is essentially a Tichy kit, and he had assembled the body, reworked the roof, and begun underbody work. I completed the underbody and managed the installation of numerous other details, some of them, such as the brass grab irons, which he had selected for the model. That work was described earlier (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-hendrickson-usra-box-car-part-2.html ).

One detail installation that may be worth describing is the corner grab irons on the lateral running boards. The kit supplied the Tichy wire grab for this location, but nothing for the support at the included corner, where on the prototype an attachment is present. Modelers often model this with a wire lift ring, actually intended for diesel locomotives. But such rings are badly oversize for house cars. Just for comparison, here is a prototype view (SP Class B-50-18, AC&F photo, used with permission):

This really looks far different than those diesel lift rings. What I have done instead is to glue an over-long piece of wire of the same diameter into the corner hole of the lateral running board, as you see below. Then I can trim it to length to match up with the corner grab when I install it. Note that the end supports underneath the end of the running board are not yet installed.

Detail part installation was completed with a Kadee Ajax brake wheel instead of the Tichy one, and I made the diagonal braces under brake step and running board end from scale 1 x 2-inch styrene. Then I could paint the model. I used Tamiya “Fine Surface Primer (Oxide Red)” because I know it gives an excellent finish, semi-gloss and very suitable for decals. And the color to my eye is a mid-range boxcar red.

The Tichy decals for this car were in the kit box, so I merely had to apply them. The lettering scheme does require a bunch of individual decal pieces between the diagonal braces and the posts, but this is merely tedious. I will show the as-lettered car below. For a prototype comparison, see the car photo in the first post in this series, link provided in second paragraph from top of the present post.

Next I needed to apply trucks (to replace the Tichy “work supports” shown above). In the kit box were Richard’s choice for the USRA trucks retained by Georgia on these cars, Accurail. I added Reboxx wheelsets. Finally, Kadee #158 couplers were installed. Here is the car at this point.

Finally, in line with my usual practice, the car needed to be be finished by adding weathering, using my technique with washes made from acrylic tube paint (see “Reference pages” at top right of this post). To the wash effects, I added a bit extra with  Pan Pastels, then oversprayed with a coat of flat. A few chalk marks and some route cards came last.

That these were durable cars is shown by the 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register, showing 293 cars, all in the rebuilt number series, 34 years after they were built. I am pleased to have one in my fleet, and pleased to have completed another of Richard’s last projects.

Tony Thompson

SP piggyback, Part 2: modeling PMT

In the preceding post, I presented an overview of the history of Pacific Motor Trucking (PMT), a Southern Pacific subsidiary proving both intra-city and inter-city trucking throughout SP territory, and I showed photos of some representative PMT equipment. You can view that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/sp-piggyback-part-1-pacific-motor.html . 

It is important for modeling purposes to understand the service that SP provided via PMT. What on many railroads would be LCL (Less than Car Load) package service, often in dedicated baggage or box cars, was done by PMT in SP territory, by Southern Pacific Transport Company on T&NO lines, and by Southwestern Transportation Company on the Cotton Belt (begun prior to SP control of the St. Louis Southwestern in 1932). Thus SP did not operate LCL box cars; that service was via PMT.

Naturally SP worked hard at publicizing this arrangement. Below is an example, from SP files in the Shasta Division Archives, an offprint from the Journal of Commerce issue of October 17, 1935. (At the time, PMT’s in-town service was by a separate company called Pacific Motor Transport, the successor to the original Pacific Electric Motor Transport. Pacific Motor Trucking, incorporated on April 1, 1933 to provide trucking services, absorbed the Motor Transport company in 1935).

A consequence of this fact is that modeled locations in SP territory not only do not need any provision of LCL rail service, but also means that there should be a presence of PMT equipment to represent the corresponding truck service. Here one might find anything from highway trailers, to box trucks, to local delivery vehicles. I have tried to represent all of them.

First, of course, is the semi-trailer making a road movement. Both the trailer and tractor were painted by Jim Elliott, and the tractor is in fact a Chevrolet, typical of PMT. This scene is on Bromela Road in my layout town of Ballard.

The local box truck kind of delivery is also essential to be included. Here I show one at the freight dock alongside the team track and depot in Santa Rosalia on my layout. This also is a Jim Elliott product.

Naturally there would be times when a trailer might be spotted for loading or unloading, probably at the freight house section of a depot. This is an example, pictured at the Shumala depot, of how the side door would be handy.

I don’t have a photo of a prototype PMT “step van” type of delivery truck, but the late Paul Koehler, who worked for SP and knew PMT well, told me that they did indeed own such trucks. Here’s one at the depot freight dock in my town of Ballard.

Finally, an example of a flat-bed truck, shown spotted at the freight shed in East Shumala on my layout’s team track, illustrates still another truck type. Here a very large crate is the cargo.

So the point I am making is that my layout does indeed depict railroad LCL services, just not in rail cars, but in highway equipment operated by PMT. My next post will take up the primary topic of this series of posts, namely SP piggyback operation.

Tony Thompson

An older Shake ’n’ Take project

The so-called “Shake ’n’ Take” projects originated at the annual Cocoa Beach, Florida “Prototype Rails” meeting, under the auspices of Greg Martin. Greg’s original idea, with input from Richard Hendrickson, was to identify simple projects of freight car conversion that would be easy to do, and would get modelers into the idea of modifying or kitbashing freight car kits to obtain other prototypes. 

At the beginning, this was intended to be simple enough effort that it could be worked on at the meeting, for example, replacing box car doors and running board for a kit. But almost immediately, more creative and more involved projects emerged, quickly putting paid to the idea of in-meeting projects. Ever since, they have been extensive builds, sometimes quite extensive ones.

Over the years, I have skipped a few that didn’t meet my interests, but have built most of them (I gave away two projects after realizing I really didn’t need those particular cars). Recently I worked up an appetite for digging into a project of this kind, and started picking through my stored kits and projects of all types, hoping to find an unbuilt S’n’T project, not even being sure there still was one. But I did find one! the 2015 project for a Rock Island double-door 40-foot automobile car. This looked like fun, and I started right in on it.

The prototype is a 350-car order built in 1937 for the Rock Island, cars 161000–161349. Originally all 350 cars were equipped with stowable Evans automobile racks, and the cars were assigned to AAR Class XAR. In later years, AAR introduced an additional class, XMR, to identify cars whose auto racks could be stowed to permit general merchandise loading, and these Rock Island cars were then re-classified XMR. Below is a photo taken by Col. Chet McCoid at San Diego, on December 26, 1954. The car has different lettering than the as-built cars, but the car body is essentially unchanged (collection of Bob’s Photo).

The project is based on the Athearn/Roundhouse body. This body has Dreadnaught ends with 4/5 end ribs (4 ribs in the upper section, 5 in the lower) and has cast-on ladders and, on the B end, cast-on handbrake details. The S’n’T project gives us correct 5/5 ends and no annoying cast-on details. The body luckily benefited by Athearn upgrading it in more recent years, so the doors are acceptable, a big step forward considering the old “Blue Box” boxcar doors.

I did not get the full project part set and thus have to supply the underframe, no big problem. I have a bunch of old C&BT Shops floors and underframes, given to me by Dick Schweiger when I knew him in Pittsburgh. Shown below is the Athearn/Roundhouse body, on which you can see the features described above, along with the the correct 5/5 replacement ends, the underframe, and a nice replacement wood running board.

First step was to removed the poor molding of the running board, vaguely resembling a steel-grid running board (already done in the photo above), and then to cut the ends out of the body. For this, I used a razor saw and cut inside the ends because it is a simple cut.

Then a hobby knife was used to make a cut across the top of each end, to remove it. Here is the body with ends removed.

Now I can begin putting together the components for the completed model. More on that in following posts.

Tony Thompson

Painting and lettering a brass tank car

In a previous post, I discussed some 1920s waybills from the Coudersport & Port Allegany Railroad, all of them for shipments of the Gray Chemical Co. of Roulette, PA. This company and the railroad that served it survived past my modeling year of 1953, so I wanted to take advantage of the fine decals for a tank car of this company, offered by K4 Decals (see their tank car range at: ttps://k4decals.com/collections/tank-car-decals ). That previous post can be found at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/08/waybills-part-116-early-prototype.html .

I dug around in my stash of tank cars, both kits and various brass cars I’ve collected, and came upon a nice Overland Models brass 8000-gallon AC&F car, catalog number 3130. It’s shown below. I don’t know for sure that the Gray Co. cars were built by AC&F, which this model represents, but decided to take a chance on that. The alternative, if the Gray cars were built by General American, would be an undecorated Tangent 8000-gallon car.

A more serious issue is that it is a typical riveted tank, but most if not all of the Gray Chemical tank cars were aluminum, and such tanks usually were all-welded aluminum, once aluminum welding was established. Before that time, though, aluminum-lined steel tanks were built. I decided the model could represent such an older car.

Obviously with a fully constructed brass model, no additional modeling was needed (with a minor exception I’ll come to). I will just show the steps I follow for painting and lettering a model like this.

My first step was to carefully wipe down the model to remove any oils, using paint thinner. I then sprayed the entire tank (above the bottom sheet) light gray. The strategy here was to paint the gray tank and not worry about overspray onto the frame, then carefully mask the upper tank that would remain gray, and spray the underframe, trucks and bottom sheet black. Here’s the first step.

Next came the masking. I have come to strongly prefer Tamiya tape for any modeling tape needs. It’s flexible and can be made to fit over projections and around corners; it sticks well and never allows paint to bleed underneath; and it comes off cleanly when you’re done without ever lifting any paint. I taped all of the tank above the bottom sheet, and left the ladders outside the tape.

The flat black was then applied, allowed to make a good start on drying, and the tape stripped off. Nearly everywhere, the separation line was sharp and correctly located. Of course, a few minutes work with a brush would correct any errors. In the photo below, you may notice that the brake wheel has been removed. It struck me as undersized, and that I should replace it. 

I wondered whether to paint the handrail black. Looking at Ed Kaminski’s fine book, Tank Cars, AC&F, 1865–1955 (Signature Press, 2003), and concentrating on tanks with light tank colors built during the 1930 to 1950s, handrails in body color, or in black, were about equally frequent.  I decided to stay with body color, but leave the ladders black. I can always hand-paint the handrails if a prototype photo surfaces showing that feature.

Next came decals. I used the nice K4 decals as provided, with many lettering groups already assembled on the decal sheet. Only issue I could mention is that the company emblem seems oversize; it barely fits on this 8000-gallon tank car, which was indeed the prototype size. An option would be to also buy an N scale sheet for a better-size emblem. Below you will also see the new, unpainted brass Cal-Scale brake wheel attached to the brake staff. (You can click on the image to enlarge.)

This completes the main tasks with this model. Kadee couplers were then applied, and the car was weathered. This was by my usual method of washes made from acrylic tube paint (see “Reference pages” at the top right corner of this post). I included some spillage on the done. Note also there is an “empty” placard on this side of the car.

Now to make some waybills for the Gray Chemical Company’s acetic acid, and this car can begin work on the layout.

Tony Thompson