More thoughts on realistic operation

Back in January I presented a clinic at the 2025 renewal of the annual Prototype Rails meeting in Cocoa Beach, Florida. My topic: what constitutes realistic operation of a layout, even a small one, and how to achieve it. As I usually do, I provided an on-line handout for the talk, which remains available at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/01/handout-for-realistic-operation-clinic.html .  

The primary purpose of this handout was to provide citations of every magazine article, book, and on-line resource mentioned in the clinic. This is helpful for anyone wanting to delve further into the topics I discussed. But partly for space reasons, I didn’t provide a summary of what was in the talk. Although not a summary, I have posted three background blogs on the topics of the clinic. These are listed below.

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/11/realistic-layout-operation.html

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/12/realistic-layout-operation-part-2.html

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/01/realistic-layout-operation-part-3.html

In spite of this extensive background material, I have received suggestions that a broader summary or commentary would be welcome. That is the purpose of the present post. I will try to avoid repetition from the posts just linked, but some overlap is inevitable.   

So what’s the core idea? For me, as I’ve stated several times, the core of realistic operation is following the prototype. Okay, what does that mean? I divide it into three parts: the first is in some ways the most obvious to observe, and yet the least important of the three, and I’ll explain why. This first point is realistic appearance. 

Now wonderful appearance is only one dimension of this topic. I would go a bit further on this point and mention that any experienced operator who has visited multiple layouts knows full well that most layouts, even some of the great ones, have some incompletely scenicked areas, sometimes areas not even begun. And in a few cases, as I can attest myself, a layout with no scenery can offer an excellently realistic operating experience.

To me that means that scenery and overall appearance, stunning as it may be, is not the core of realistic operation, great an assistant as it may be. By this I don’t mean that you don’t need to bother with appearance, just that you shouldn’t stop there. We all put a lot into this aspect, but don’t believe it’s all you have to do.

My second point for realistic operation is realistic paperwork. Now I know well that many modelers feel faint at the mention of paperwork, and on the scale of the prototype, which before computers employed armies of clerks to manage all the paper, it is indeed a sobering and really rather off-putting topic. Still, there is a lot we can easily do to capture the essence of it.

My first recommendation is a timetable. I often suggest that people just beginning operation start with a simple line-up that indicates nothing more than the sequence of trains. But once operations have been conducted that way, one can readily refine details and create a prototypical-looking timetable. It is easy to copy the familiar look of a prototype employee timetable, as in this example from Rich Remiarz’ Great Northern layout;

And I would extend these comments to all the paperwork that may be used in an operating session. As many readers know, one of my own enthusiasms is prototypical waybills, and I have been happy with using paperwork that mimics prototype appearance. Here is a typical pair of load/empty bills.

But important as the preceding points may be, I think the most important part of realistic operation is my third point, procedures. By procedure I mean how things are done on the layout: how trains are run, how switching is conducted, and so on. Here, following the prototype brings us into the details of everyday railroading, often not very well known by us as modelers. Still, we can, and I believe, should aspire to learn more about how railroads actually work, or did work back in the day we have chosen to model.

Just as a single example, below is a well-known photo of an SP dispatcher at work, with the classic tools: train sheet, standard clock, microphone and speaker, even his bag lunch on the shelf (Philip R. Hastings photo, CSRM).

That most of us have only a limited knowledge of day-to-day railroading of course suggests that this is the area where you have the opportunity to learn more. The clinic handout, linked in the first paragraph, above, contains numerous examples of sources of prototype operating information.

I think that we should try to include as much realistic complexity, in the form of specific tasks, such as changing locomotives and cabooses at division points, as can reasonably fit into a layout operating scheme. Each of those added tasks can make operation more realistic. So yes, you have to learn prototype operations, and in particular, you need to learn the operations of the specific prototype you model or have free-lanced from— if, that is, you wish to operate realistically.

So, one more time: follow the prototype, in layout appearance, paperwork, and procedures. I believe this is at the heart of any realistically operating layout. 

Tony Thompson

WOOPS 2025

As perhaps only Westerner model railroaders know, “WOOPS” stands for “Western Oregon Ops,” an event held in alternate years. This year it took place during June 6–8. Though literally only in the northwestern corner of Oregon, there are a number of fine layouts, and a fair crowd shows up every time. Below is their emblem, including iconic Mt. Hood, a visual presence throughout the region. 

I reported on a WOOPS event once before, in a blog post, and if interested you can view it at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/06/woops-2019.html .

I was only able to attend for two days this year, but enjoyed two really nice, large, and interesting layouts. The first was Charlie Comstock’s Bear Creek and South Jackson, with a challenging operating scheme. I worked at Bear Creek Yard, and was kept moderately busy all day. 

I was especially intrigued to see the ground throws that Charlie uses: they are the Caboose Industries N-scale throws, though the layout is HO scale. This works because his hand-laid switches have a near-prototype spacing of point and stock rails, so the smaller throw distance of the N-scale device is sufficient. It’s quite visible here at an unpainted switch.

The layout is scenicked nicely in a number of areas, while not yet done in other areas. The completed ones were quite well handled, such as this scene at Junction City, Oregon. It’s very sharp depot model, and some good industrial buildings (the one at right is a computer-printed paper). Notice at left he is experimenting with photographs for the streets that head straight into the wall. And every station has a schematic map on the fascia to help orient crews.  

The other layout was Bill Decker’s Cascade Division of the SP, set in the early 1970s at the moment (he plans to backdate in the near future). The layout is HO scale, and models from Eugene, Oregon and environs, then up the long climb to cross the Cascades at Cascade Summit. Again, I managed to snag a yard job in the big and rather busy Eugene Yard, and had a lot of fun doing it, busy most of the day.  This photo looks railroad west along the yard. 

In addition to mainline trains climbing or descending the grade, there are several busy locals. Below you see Steve Menker (left) and Jim Radkey (right) working the Springfield Local. 

As has happened every time I’ve attended, it was a fun weekend with really enjoyable layouts. If you get a chance to attend a future WOOPS, don’t miss it!

Tony Thompson 

Southern Pacific’s railroad in Mexico

Recently I received an email question that I thought was interesting enough to merit discussion here. The question was, what were the freight cars of the SP railroad in Mexico, did cars go back and forth over the border with the U.S., and when did that all stop?

The background is covered in a number of books, perhaps best in the one authored by John Signor and John Kirchner, The Southern Pacific of Mexico (Golden West Books, San Marino, CA, 1987). The story began in 1882 with the completion of the Ferrocarril de Sonora  in the Mexican state of Sonora, from the U.S. border at Nogales, Arizona to the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of California. This was built under the auspices of the Santa Fe, which operated it until 1898.

In 1898, the SP’s little-used line from Mojave to Needles, California was traded to the Santa Fe (to forestall further Santa Fe construction westward) in return for the Sonora Railway. SP soon acquired also the railroad properties of the Cananea, Rio Yaqui and Pacific, and in 1905 began to build southward past Mazatlan, eventually to reach Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. The name given to the combined railroads (FdeS, CRYyP, and the new construction) was the Sud Pacifico de Mexico or SPdeM. 

Much of the new railroad’s rolling stock was handed down from the SP in U.S. or leased. In the 1930s, to cite an example, SPdeM owned only 29 of its 112 locomotives and 657 of its 1251 freight cars. The SPdeM, as emphasized in the Signor and Kirchner book, was remarkably like the parent SP, not only with its hand-me-down rolling stock and locomotives, but in use of the SP rule book, timetable and train order operation (with telegraph communication only),  and many familiar features of SP practice. 

Photographs of yards and trains in the 1940s and up to the sale of SPdeM to the Mexican government in 1951 show that most freight cars, certainly all the modern ones, had SP initials, interchanged into Mexico. In principle, SP cars made empty in Mexico were not permitted to be reloaded to further destinations in Mexico, only back to the U.S., but this regulation was not stringently enforced. The same applied to PFE cars. Moreover, significant numbers of empty SP and PFE cars were interchanged into Mexico for SPdeM use.

One consequence of these cross-border movements of cars has to do with waybills and how they were handled. I have described earlier the basics of the situation (see this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/10/waybills-part-75-non-us-freight-cars.html ), and followed that discussion with several further examples of both Canadian- and Mexican-origin shipments (in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/10/waybills-part-76-more-on-cross-border.html ).  

Let’s look at some rolling stock. Below is a photo (Library of Congress) taken during the Mexican Revolution of 1911, showing insurrectionists atop a train. The caboose is an SP design, Class CA, and the box car (number not readable) is one of the early Harriman-standard double-sheathed box cars, likely Class B-50-5 or -6.

 To show one of the few cars built new for the SPdeM, below is a builder photo (AC&F, Al Westerfield collection) of a member of Class B-50-6. 

Another example of these cars in service is this view (Southern Pacific) of the Redo Sugar Co. mill at El Dorado, Sinaloa, with several box cars in sight. These too appear to be Harriman Class B-50-6 cars. 

After the sale of the SPdeM to the Mexican government in 1951, the railroad was renamed Ferrocarril del Pacifico (Pacific Railroad), initially with reporting marks FdelP, but soon changed to FCP. I have described the changes of the former SP rolling stock to the FCP ownership in an earlier post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/08/ferrocarril-del-pacifico.html ). Since I model 1953, I need to focus on the FdelP, not the SPdeM.

On the modeling front, I have shown my creation of one of the re-lettered former SP cars in a post a few years ago (here’s a link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/09/resin-box-car-build-part-3.html ). A photo of my completed model, a former SP Class B-50-14 from a Sunshine kit, is below, including the “patched” change of reporting marks. 

So that’s an overview of “SP’s railroad in Mexico,” and a few of the aspects that can be part of model railroading.

Tony Thompson 

Some additional SP advertising

I’ve recently posted a number of examples of the “institutional advertising” that Southern Pacific published in the 1950s, bright, eye-catching graphics from their advertising agency of the time, Foote, Cone & Belding. This is defined as advertising not to those who were necessarily actual customers or potential customers of the railroad, but the public at large, and was placed in general circulation magazines such as Time.

I began with a number of these “institutional” ads that to me are interesting because they promoted the image the railroad wished the public to have, a progressive and modern railroad. That first set of ads was contained in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/sps-public-advertising.html . 

In a following post, I showed more of the same kind of ads, but also included a few of the advertising efforts SP made toward their actual customers. that post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/other-sp-advertising.html . Lastly, I returned to more of the public ads, along with an interesting example of SP advertising to companies who might be considering a new plant location in SP territory, Here’s a link to that post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/more-sp-advertising.html .

Now let me show a few more of the vivid Foote, Cone  & Belding examples, with one simply intended to draw attention to the “Golden Empire” as a possible plant location. As mentioned previously, this is from the latter part of the 1950s, because it has the later-era addition of the Cotton Belt to the Golden Empire logo. You can click on the image to enlarge if if you wish to read the text.

Next is another example of SP emphasizing how much of certain agricultural and mineral products were produced in the Golden Empire:

In this period, SP also liked to publicize various modernizations that the railroad was achieving. This one is a good example. President Donald J. Russell was eager to promote SP to the financial community as progressive and modern.

Next  is an ad that actually may have reached out to railroad customers, once again including publicity for SP’s trucking subsidiary, Pacific Motor Trucking, and the related piggyback service. Note also the inclusion of one of SP’s largest and most profitable freight categories of the time, lumber. That was the main reason the the SP freight car fleet contained 10 percent flat cars, while the national average was just 3 percent.

Beginning in 1956, SP experimented with “dual-fuel” arrangements for diesel locomotives, promoted here using the traditional engineer’s glove. The two fuels were conventional diesel fuel, and cheaper “residual” fuel oil, so thick it had to be heated to flow. Dual fuel would be abandoned in the early 1960s.

Lastly, they decided to publicize the enormous project of replacing the Harriman-era Great Salt Lake trestle with a fill, with a dramatic comparison of the volume of material used. The project was carried out from 1955 to 1959.

All these ads have, naturally, a similar style that the agency created, and as this series of posts demonstrates, they covered a wide range of aspects of the railroad that could be promoted to the general public. 

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

Small project: another Chateau Martin wine car

Back some six years ago now, I described a few minor upgrades to bring an ancient Laconia Industries kit up to my layout standards (or into that vicinity, anyway), keeping in mind the fine historical character of the kit. Recently another of these cars came to me from Jim Radkey, who was passing it on as a survivor of a dismantled layout. That previous project is described in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/02/restoring-chateau-martin-wine-car.html . 

Back in that day, Laconia did offer this kit, as with many of their kits, in multiple car numbers. This newly acquired car happened to have a different number than the one I previously restored, so I decided I could keep it. But it does need some restoration and a little upgrading, including the longitudinal streaking on the roof.

My first step, as was the case in the previous post about one of these cars (see link in first paragraph, above) is to fix the exposed edge of the cardboard sides at each end. This exposure is evident in the photo above. This requires matching a paint to the color of the car sides. As it happens, there is an acrylic point  from Acrylicos Vallejo or AV, their no. 70.945 in the Model Color series, that is called “magenta.” This is what I used on the other car, and used it again here.

Painting the exposed edges made a noticeable difference, as you can see below. Also, here at the B end of the car, the end sills were missing, as was the rod to the hand brake. The end sill parts were in the kit box in which I received the assembled car, so these could be added. And the No. 4 coupler box lid, and coupler, were missing too. I will simply add new Kadee couplers in their own boxes at both ends. Shown are the original trucks.

Next, the grab irons, sill steps, and ladders had some wear in the black paint, as you can see in both photos above, exposing brass metal, along with some funky weathering, so these were all touched up with black. Lastly, the roof was repainted a grimy black mix, and still needs to be weathered a bit, as you can see below.

The nice thing about having a second Laconia Chateau Martin car like this, with a different number from my first one, is that switch crews working the Zaca Mesa winery in my layout town of Ballard may now have the experience of picking up one loaded Chateau Martin car, and replacing it with a second one.

I have always found the Chateau Martin wine cars and wine business interesting (see, for example, this post about the wine business: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/02/wine-as-industrial-commodity.html ), and these two cars add to that. I look forward to seeing them in an operating session.

Tony Thompson

The Richard Hendrickson gondola, Part 2

Recently I showed the partially completed gondola that was rescued from Richard Hendrickson’s workbench after he passed away. The body of the model was the Model Die Casting white-metal 40-foot car. As I illustrated, Richard clearly intended it to be a C&O gondola from their 44000 series cars with the high, rounded ends. That first post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-richard-hendrickson-freight-car.html . 

The model needed some detail work, namely the grab irons and hand brake on the B end of the car, but before doing that, I wanted to solve the coupler box problem. The original MDC cast underbody has a nearly scale width coupler box, but this is too narrow for a Kadee coupler. Rather that try to cut off and remove this coupler box, I hunted around in my scrap box and found a pair of Chinese knock-off copies of the Kadee design, which work all right even if not as well as an actual Kadee coupler. Then I could add styrene coupler box covers.

Next I needed to complete the B end detailing. I added grab irons with brass wire, a brake step, and an Ajax brake wheel and gearbox(see the prototype end photo in the preceding post, linked in the top paragraph, above).

With that work completed, I painted the model. I have been wanting to try a Tamiya color I hadn’t used before, “Rubber Black,” (TS-82), a slightly grayed black. Since this is a flat finish, as soon as it had dried, I added a coat of Tamiya “Semi Gloss Clear” (TS-79) on the outside of sides and ends, for decal application. I have found this semi-gloss to be fine for decaling, while avoiding that “mirror gloss” which can be hard to reverse.

For lettering, I dived into Richard’s decal stash, and used Champ set SHS-276. I followed the prototype photo from the preceding post in this series, which I’ll repeat below (a C&O photo). The decals didn’t have the exact size and spacing shown in this photo, so I got as close as I could with what I had.

When the decals were all applied and given a protective coat of clear flat, the model looked like this. It still needs to be weathered inside and out, but that’s a separate topic, to which I’ll return.

 I’ve enjoyed completing this project of Richard’s, and soon it will be at work on my layout.

 Tony Thompson

SP piggyback: Part 6, trailers

This is part of an ongoing series about the beginnings of Southern Pacific piggyback service. That service on the SP began in 1953, the year I model, so I am interested in the characteristics of the operation at its outset. In previous posts, I have discussed both the highway equipment, owned by SP subsidiary Pacific Motor Trucking, and the SP flat cars that carried the trailers. The most recent of these posts, Part 5, can be found here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/02/sp-piggyback-part-5-3d-printed-flat-cars.html . 

In a previous post, I showed the model trailers that had received a coat of white primer (Tamiya “Fine Surface Primer”). That post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/10/sp-piggyback-part-4-progress-on-3d.html . My next step was to airbrush them with Daylight Orange, using the excellent Star Brand version of this color, STR-27 (I have discussed this color: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/06/pfe-orange-one-more-time.html ). 

Since in the final paint scheme this color is only on the upper parts of the trailer, most care was taken with coverage in those areas, but each entire model truck body was painted. Otherwise there could be risk of uneven color in the coat of Daylight Red to follow, on the lower parts.  

The next step was to mask off the upper part of the trailer, using the excellent 18-mm Tamiya tape. This tape performs beautifully on the glossy surface of the orange coat, above. Then I could paint the lower body, and the underbody, Daylight Red, using Star Brand STR-34. Here the masking line will be in the upper part, above the “belt rail” on the trailer, because it will be hidden by the black stripe, as is visible seen in the prototype photo, below.

This image is repeated from a PMT history post, which can be found at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/sp-piggyback-part-1-pacific-motor.html . Background: this is a 1940s publicity photo, posed to emphasize the truck–rail connection, shown here as a box car at a freight platform (SP photo, courtesy Steve Peery). The tractor here is a GMC, typical of SP’s long closeness with Chevrolet and GMC motor vehicles, pulling a 22-foot trailer.

The lower trailer bodies, and underbodies, were airbrushed red, and of course the tires will subsequently be painted black by hand as a final painting step. Here are the trailers at this point:

I might mention that there has been some disagreement over the years as to whether the underbodies were black or red. It is a minor point, since one can’t really see the underbody of a trailer on a flat car or on the highway. But SP photos of the trailer tie-down process, several of them reproduced in Chapter 13 of my book, “Automobile Cars and  Flat Cars,” Volume 3 in the series, Southern Pacific Freight Cars (Signature Press, 2004), seem to me to show a color like the bottom section of the trailer sides. 

Lettering follows the prototype photo shown above. Luckily, a Microscale Decals set of some years ago remains in production and in stock, set MC-4027. I used those sets (each of which can do one trailer) for these models. By the way, I should mention that examination of about a dozen photos of these trailers shows all PMT 22-ft. trailer numbers in the 3100 and 3200 number series.

My decaling approach has been to first stand the trailer on its flat end, and drape over the front a piece of stripe, containing the PMT initials at center front. Once that’s well dried, I start adding all the other lettering, along with a second length of stripe around the back, and the back end lettering. Here is a prototype rear view to illustrate (SP photo). And I should mention that locations of some of the lettering varied over time and for slightly different trailer bodies.

With the entire lettering applied, one can see what an attractive paint scheme this is.

I can hardly wait to finish the flat cars and start putting these trailers onto them! Thanks one more time to A.J. Chier for creating these fine 3D-printed models.

Tony Thompson

More SP advertising

In a previous post, I showed a number of examples of Southern Pacific’s “institutional advertising” of the 1950s, meaning promoting the company itself to a general audience, not its specific products or services. Many were striking and colorful ads, produced by Foote, Cone and Belding, SP’s ad agency then and for some time afterward. That post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/sps-public-advertising.html .

Another in a substantial series of these ads is the one below, simply promoting the idea that SP was a progressive railroad, and as usual, including the “Golden Empire” graphic. You can tell when these ads were from the latter part of the 1950s, because they then included a Cotton Belt “add on” to the Golden Empire. (You can click on the image to enlarge it, if you wish to read the text.)

Another example, this one touting the railroad’s progress in dieselization, interestingly notes that dieselization should be complete by 1958. In fact, the last steam operations were in the fall of 1956. The emphasis on horsepower is interesting too.

An additional interesting example promotes SP’s perishable shipping, including a refrigerator car, though not mentioning Pacific Fruit Express or PFE’s co-owner, Union Pacific (the same as a PFE brochure I showed previously; see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/other-sp-advertising.html ). The paint scheme on the car chosen for illustration is actually imaginary, since PFE mechanical reefers were never painted this way, but instead had both SP and UP railroad emblems. And I find the ice block combined with the mechanical reefer amusing too.

But not all these ads were entirely institutional. SP also advertised in business publications, such as Fortune and Business Week, promoting the “Golden Empire” for plant locations. In the 1950s, there was substantial growth in on-line industries in SP territory. (Again, you can click on the image to enlarge it.) Inclusion of both steam and diesel power shows the ad dates from the late 1940s.

Last, occasionally one of the colorful Foote, Cone & Belding ads did promote passenger trains. The one below, in fact, promotes West Coast routes, and specifically the overnight trains, Lark and Cascade.

I find it quite interesting to see what aspects of itself the railroad wished to publicize, to the public readership of general circulation magazines. And the striking quality of the advertisements is certainly noteworthy. One of many characteristics of a vanished era.

Tony Thompson

Small project: a Sunshine “mini-kit”

Back when Sunshine Models was in business, at the annual Naperville meeting (then conducted by Sunshine’s Martin Lofton), Martin would not only have the year’s new kits for sale, but would also offer what he called “mini-kits.” These were, in some ways, the predecessor of the Cocoa Beach “Shake ’n’ Take projects:” essentially simple kitbashes or kit modifications to achieve other prototype cars. 

I’ll confess these mini-kits didn’t greatly interest me at the time, as they often were aimed at particular prototype cars or railroad fleets in which I had little interest. But my good friend Richard Hendrickson did like them, and usually bought all of them on offer in a particular year. When Richard passed away, back in 2014, most of them were auctioned off, along with his resin and styrene kits. (For those who don’t know or have forgotten who Richard was, you might enjoy reading my tribute to him, which is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-memoriam-richard-hendrickson.html .)

But I did keep a few that I thought might be interesting. These were carefully put away “in a safe place,” about which I naturally soon forgot, and it was only recently that I re-discovered the stash of mini-kits. I decided to build one of them recently, for a 1937 AAR box car built for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Below is an American Car & Foundry builder photo of a car from the 5000–5683 series, built in 1942, and truncated that year at 684 cars by the War Production Board.

The photo is from Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Volume 35, by Pat Wider, one of two impressive and complete volumes about the 1937 AAR box cars.  (For more about these volumes, see my post discussing them at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/02/an-appreciation-railway-prototype.html ). The photo happens to show a short-lived GM&O paint scheme with the “Rebel Route” banner, which was dropped a few years later.

The kit directions called for an undecorated Red Caboose 1937 box car kit, which I didn’t have, but I did have an Innovative Model Works (IMWX) kit for the same car, tooling for which formed the basis for the Red Caboose kit, so I used that. I assembled the kit,adding a bit more underbody brake rigging and painting the roof black before installing it. Here is the car at this point (riding on “shop trucks”):

Next came the issue of paint scheme. The Sunshine decals included with the mini-kit were for the scheme with the banner, but I decided to model the subsequent scheme, which omitted the banner. Below is a Paul Dunn photo, taken in 1952, showing the later scheme. I confess to liking these simpler schemes.

At this point I applied the decals from the mini-kit, the usual excellent RailGraphics product supplied by Sunshine. In addition, I installed Kadee #158 couplers and suitable trucks with InterMountain wheelsets. The car then looked like this:

Weathering was next. I followed my usual procedures, using washes made with acrylic tube paints, as described and illustrated in the “Reference pages” linked at the top right of this post. A protective coat of clear flat followed. Then I could add chalk marks, route cards, and patched reweigh numbers and date.

This was an interesting small project, and a chance to use the old, undecorated IMWX boxcar kit that I have had in my stash for years. This GM&O box car now ready for service on the layout.

Tony Thompson

Freight car bogosity

This post may, I suppose, be seen as not entirely serious, but I hope it does contain a serious point buried somewhere within it. It was occasioned by a slide I found, taken on my old layout in Pittsburgh quite a number of years ago. The photo showed a mainline train operating on my modeled segment of Southern Pacific’s Coast Division, and though the photo isn’t very sharp or well-lit, I noticed something in the shot that made me smile — maybe in a rueful way.

What I noticed in that train was a piggyback flat car, a model that has mostly been in “dead storage“ in the intervening years, an old Ulrich flat car for piggyback service. Why was it bogus?

First of all, the flat car: it’s a steel fishbelly sidesill design, but different from any actual SP flat car. I did number it within an SP 40-foot flat car class (Class F-50-10, cars built at Sacramento General Shops in 1927), but those cars had straight side sills, not the fishbelly of the Ulrich model. More importantly, SP’s Pacific Lines, which I model, never had any 40-foot piggyback flats. To be sure, the T&NO did operate such cars, but they would not have operated in California in the earliest days of SP piggyback, 1953, the year I model.

Moreover, the Ulrich model has a trailer support “post” that works well with the Ulrich 35-foot trailers, such as you see above. But without the trailer, the appearance is, shall we say, less than realistic, despite the nicely rendered bridge plates and rub rails.

But there are even more important reasons than the above for concluding that this model is bogus. SP began its piggyback service handling its own Pacific Motor Trucking (PMT) trailers exclusively, and in the 1950s did not accept anyone else’s trailers for movement. So the very idea of a Pacific Intermountain Express (PIE) trailer on an SP flat car in 1953 (as in the upper photo, above) is completely incorrect.

All this history and more is contained in Volume 3 of my series, Southern Pacific Freight Cars (Signature Press, 2004). Further history that places SP operations in context with the rest of North American railroads is David DeBoer’s Piggyback and Containers (Golden West Books, 1992). It was not until late 1959 that SP gave up on its “in-house” piggyback with PMT only, began to purchase conventional 85-foot piggyback flat cars, joined Trailer-Train in 1960, and began handling trucking company trailers. So it’s clear that a commercial trailer on an SP flat car on my 1953 layout is way wrong.

But I have a confession to make. Every now and then, I have slipped this car into a mainline freight during an operating session, and wait to see if anyone notices. So far, no one ever has. Or maybe was too polite to comment . . .

Tony Thompson

Other SP advertising

 In the preceding post to this one, I showed a number of examples of Southern Pacific’s versions of “institutional advertising,” which is advertising of the company rather than creating demand for its products (since only a rather small fraction of the audience in mass-circulation magazines is in a position to select the service). Here’s a link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/05/sps-public-advertising.html .

In the present post I want to give some examples of much more directed advertising, that is, directed at customers. I will start with examples from the introduction of SP’s new piggyback service, which though graphically resembling the institutional ads shown in the preceding post, nevertheless certainly pitched SP’s ability to move freight on the road and on the rails.

SP also distributed brochures to actual customers, presumably a far more relevant and potentially responsive audience. Below is the cover of one such brochure. The interior described train times and delivery service via the SP subsidiary, Pacific Motor Trucking (PMT). This brochure, obviously, does not show the creative handiwork of Foote, Cone & Belding, SP’s ad agency in the 1950s, who did make the ad shown above. You can click on the image below to enlarge it if you wish.

Another component of the SP service was its perishable shipping via Pacific Fruit Express. PFE distributed brochures at various times, publicizing newsworthy events like the delivery of a new class of refrigerator cars. They also distributed brochures about service. I show one such brochure below, which though it publicizes a PFE service, carries only the emblem of SP, since the El Paso facility was on SP rails, though of course PFE was jointly owned by SP and UP.

Below is the outside of the brochure; it was folded along the vertical center line to make the brochure. Thus what you see below is the brochure front at right, and the back at left.

The interior likewise would have shown the vertical fold, with the photo of the El Paso ice deck extending the full width of the brochure inside pages. There is additional interesting material in this brochure, that I would like to discuss in a future post. For now, it’s advertising by an SP subsidiary.

Both these brochures, about piggyback and icing service, inform customers, but they are quite different than the “institutional” ad at the top of this post, and those shown in the preceding post. Obviously SP, like any railroad, needed to keep its customer, present and possible future ones, informed about capabilities, and like the institutional ones, clearly show railroad priorities.

Tony Thompson