Modeling an SP Class O-50-9 tank car, Conclusion

This series of posts is about modeling the last class of tank cars that Southern Pacific purchased that had circumferential rivets joining its tank sections. Designated Class O-50-9 (for Oil car, 50 tons capacity, ninth class), the cars were built by General American in 1924 and were numbered 47880–48079. (All subsequent SP tank cars were numbered in the 58,000 series prior to the 1956 renumbering.) Below is a builder photo (General American photo for SP, author’s collection).

Prominent in this photo are the original T-section trucks and K brakes.  Both were replaced after World War II, as documented in the SP Car Ledger records (described previously, at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/01/modeling-sp-class-o-50-9-tank-car-part-4.html ) on nearly all cars. Accordingly, my model has those changes also.

The model, degree of completion of which was shown in the post just cited, now needed to be painted. I used Tamiya “Rubber Black,” TS-82, a not-quite-dead black color, and painted both tank and underframe this color. Here is the model at this point, with Kadee #158 whisker couplers installed, and Athearn trucks with Reboxx “scale-width” wheelsets. The safety valves are toward the B end of the car, as they should be.

The paint scheme shown in the prototype photo above was replaced in 1946 by a scheme in which the road name was spelled out. Below is part of an SP lettering diagram (you can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish). The drawing you see here had been revised in 1952 to remove stripes above and below the name and car number, but since SP tank cars were rarely repainted, I decided to retain the stripes as indicating a pre-1952 paint scheme. (You can click on this image to enlarge it, if you wish.)

I used Tichy decal set 10053 for lettering. I did the original art work for this set, as Tichy has been kind enough to note on the decal sheet itself. The sheet does contain everything needed to letter one of these cars, following the prototype diagram, including suitable built dates, gallonage capacities, and class numbers.

Next came weathering. As I nearly always do, I used my acrylic-wash method (see links to “Reference pages” in the upper right corner of this post) to weather this car. This car also has route cards and a few chalk marks. Only remaining task is to add placards; but that’s really a separate topic, about which I’ve provided background before (see, for example: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/tank-car-placards-modeling.html ).

This has been a fun project, despite having been set aside for awhile. It adds to the completeness of my fleet of SP tank cars of the 1950s. And this one is certainly going right into service on the layout!

Tony Thompson