Layout operations in peak harvest season

In my most recent post, I described renovation of an old Athearn metal reefer, which happens to be an MDT car. In that post, I mentioned not only SP’s use of such “foreign” or off-road reefers for canned goods, effectively using them as insulated box cars in the days before such box cars were significant parts of the national car fleet, but also their use in peak harvest season (that post is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/08/improving-that-athearn-steel-reefer.html ). 

Mere hours after that post went up, I received a question by email, asking if I would say more about the peak harvest issue. I am happy to do so, since it’s a topic I find interesting.

Some years ago, I posted a report of part of my analysis of an SP Coast Division conductor’s time book, which happened to include entire trains of empty reefers being moved to Salinas for loading, during 1948–52. This book showed that only 76 percent of the reefers were PFE cars, with the remaining cars to be loaded made up of foreign cars. (Here’s a link to that post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/02/modeling-freight-traffic-coast-line.html ). 

That value of 76 percent is in line with other records of PFE operations in peak harvest season. I commented on that in a later post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/08/foreign-reefers-in-pfe-territory.html ). 

Also, as mentioned in the post just cited, we know that the major sources of these foreign reefers were American Refrigerator Transit (ART), Fruit Growers Express (FGEX and associated fleets, such as BREX and WFEX), and Merchants Despatch (MDT), along with BAR cars borrowed in the non-potato-harvest months of the year.

Here’s one example: a photo (by Dallas Gilbertson) of the Guadalupe Local returning toward San Luis Obispo, with ten loaded reefers in vent service. Eight are PFE cars, but two are ART cars. Note also, by the way, the considerable range in dirtiness of these cars.

To choose just one additional example on the Guadalupe Subdivision, below is a detail from a Richard Steinheimer photo, showing either the Guadalupe local or the Surf Turn in February 1956, when Baldwin road-switchers had supplanted steam. The train today happens to be 10 cars, the rear 9 all reefers. Interestingly, the first two are a FGEX and a BREX, while there is an ART car third ahead of the caboose (barely visible at right).

For the reasons apparent in these prototype photos, I love to carry out an operating session on my layout set in the peak harvest season, because a bunch of foreign reefers need to be present. As some readers doubtless remember, on my layout, each operating session is conducted as though it was the current date, but in 1953. So if I were operating today, the idea would be that it’s August 25, 1953. 

I do plan an operating session in the next month or so, and among the models in that session will be the BREX car that I inherited in a partly completed state from Richard Hendrickson (completion of which was shown in an earlier post; see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2017/07/upgrading-accurail-reefer-part-3.html ). It’s shown below at the Coastal Citrus shipping warehouse in my layout town of Santa Rosalia.   

Another example would be an ART car, probably the most common foreign reefer used by PFE. This model is shown as a load being picked up by the Santa Rosalia Local at the Guadalupe Fruit shipping dock in Ballard on my layout.

And finally, a relatively new BAR reefer is about to be spotted by the local switch job as an empty for loading at the Phelan & Taylor packing house at Shumala on my layout.

This kind of inclusion of a real seasonal pattern for an operating session is fun for me, and I try to convey it to my operators so they can appreciate what they are seeing and doing.

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 

Operating on the Sandy River

You mean the two-foot gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes? Didn’t it close down in 1935? Well, yes, it did, but we modelers construct time machines, and so yes again, a week ago, I did indeed operate on the SR&RL. It’s the outdoor version built by Jim Providenza, in progress lo these 20-plus years, and this was to be the very first actual operating session.

I certainly don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of scale and gauge that looms before a person who chooses to model this railroad in large scale. Several large scales exist to take advantage of LGB track, a major assist in putting together an outdoor railroad. But one fault in this track, when addressing a railroad like the SR&RL, is that the rails are pretty large for that prototype; and a second  point to be made is that the various  equipment for 3-foot gauge prototypes that exists is largely not going to work in 2-foot gauge.

As Jim quickly discovered, all this meant that a great deal of scratchbuilding was going to be called for, as was the challenging work of creating freight car trucks and, even more challenging, locomotives. This is kind of, but not exactly, what’s known as F scale (1:20.3), but this version is called Proto 20.3n2. To get into the vicinity of the right rail size, O scale nickel-silver rail was used. 

For a great deal more about these issues, you may wish to read Jim’s article in Garden Railways (available on line at: https://www.trains.com/grw/how-to/large-scale-layouts/the-sandy-river-and-rangeley-lakes-in-proto-20-3n2/ ). Jim’s SR&RL was also featured in Railroad Model Craftsman, in the issue for November-December 2014.

Then of course there were the challenges of outdoor railroad construction, where the sun can be damaging, it can rain quite energetically (and erosion happens), and various insects and small animals regard this as their territory too, problems encountered far less often in basements. But after these years of work, his backyard does indeed contain quite a lot of Strong, Maine, and enough trackage for fairly long runs, as well as switching. He decided to try an actual operating session. 

The first step is that the railroad has to be prepared. Outdoor conditions, as mentioned above, are rarely beneficial to scale structures, so these are kept indoors until operating. Below, Jim and Bill Horstmeyer are bringing out the “Doc’s House,” a familiar landmark in Strong.  

Then we went to work. My first job was to run the morning “motor,” as the Sandy River termed it, which was simply railbus No. 3, with a trailer. Here it is crossing Jim’s higher bridge. 

Of course there were occasional obstacles, such as the Providenza’s retired guide dog, Radley, shown here delaying the motor while napping. Presently he moved his head so I could pass. Again, this is a problem less common in basements. 

Then after the morning mixed train had run, I was called as conductor for the afternoon mixed, using locomotive No. 9, a Bachmann model above the mechanism, with shortened axles by John Rogers. Behind it here at Strong is one of the Sandy River’s log racks, used for both hardwood and softwood logs. 

To my delight, I was issued an actual Form 31 order, something long gone on the Southern Pacific at the time I model (1953), so a new and interesting experience. And yes, both I and my engineman had to sign it. 

Switching in a larger scale like this is a little different than the HO-scale switching skill set. You don’t quite have that inclusive “airplane view” of the world, but have to plan a little differently. It was fun, and all in all, actually went pretty well. In the background below is brakeman Horstmeyer, and in the foreground, the Strong turntable, which we used. 

There were naturally a few glitches in the session, as there are in practically any first operating session — that’s the point, to find the problems — but the equipment was a lot of fun, as was the different perspective, operating at this size of models and track layout. I hope Jim continues with operating sessions on the Sandy River.

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 

A new Achievement Program

Most modelers will at least be aware, if not entirely familiar, with the long-running Achievement Program of the NMRA. (I myself recently achieved the Master Model Railroader (MMR) position, as I described in a recent post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/10/personal-master-model-railroader-772.html ). This post is not about that.

Instead, in this post, I want to describe a new program being put forward by the Operations Special Interest Group (OpSIG) of NMRA, a program aimed at achievements in operating, whereas the parent NMRA program is primarily about model- and layout-building skills. It’s true that the NMRA program has a category called “Dispatcher,” but it doesn’t really demand literal dispatching skills. OpSIG has set out to offer a broader program about a whole range of serious operating skills, and contributions to this part of the hobby.

If you visit the OpSIG website (at: https://www.opsig.org/ ), you can scroll down to “What’s New” and you will find a mention of the Achievement Program; or you can see the scope of the program directly, by going to the website which has been set up for the program (it is located at: https://opsig-ap.org/ ). You can watch an introductory video if you wish — it’s quite informative about the goals of the program — but is some 20 minutes long. You might wish to begin by browsing the screens of the website before sitting down with the video.

There are at present 12 areas of achievement, with a 13th under development, such as Host (of operating sessions), Author (of published materials about operation), and Boomer (about participating in operating sessions on layouts other than your own). None of these achievements require any subjective judgement by officials of an applicant, but simply a presentation of accomplishments. 

As shown on the website, several accomplished model railroaders have consented to serve on a Board of Trustees (I was asked to be among them), and they have contributed to the development of this program. The chairman of the program is Paul B. Weiss, also a current member of the OpSIG Board.

I’ve submitted my documentation for several of the categories. When you are approved, you get rather promptly a certificate, shown below. (I might mention, as an MMR, that this is in stark contrast to the NMRA process, in which acknowledgement and certificates wind through several individuals and can readily take months. ) Here’s an example of a certificate. 

You also receive, in what some may find odd or amusing, a button for each category. I know that there was some debate behind the scenes about this when the program was developing. Even though some would feel that wearing a button like this in public is terminally uncool, there are plenty of others who would be proud to do so. I think it will be interesting to see whether the wearing of buttons does become something you see at operating sessions. Here’s the button for the category above. It’s about 1.5 inches in diameter.

I personally feel that this program really is an overdue recognition that operation is the hobby that follows building a layout (answering the question, “Now, what’s it for?”), or for the enthusiast of real railroad jobs and operations, or even for the model builder who now gets to see those models in use. 

For too long, it’s kind of been the “underground” part of the hobby for those who don’t participate in it, because the magazines we all read can’t portray it very well. They love to show the spectacular scenery, and rarely even mention operation, when presenting layouts. It’s understandable, they are a visual medium, but it means that operation has often “flown under the radar” in model railroading.

I think it’s possible that this new OpSIG Achievement Program can help change that. As a person who greatly enjoys operation, and would like more modelers to discover it, I certainly hope so. I’d urge you to check out the website (again, it’s at: https://opsig-ap.org/ ) and see if it appeals to you.

Tony Thompson 

Waybills, Part 123: improving 4-cycle bills

I have mentioned several times in this long series of posts on waybill topics, that my approach to creation of more prototypical waybills need not follow my own choices, for example, the use of baseball card sleeves, but can be applied more broadly. Today’s post arises from a reminder of an effort I made some years ago for a friend who wanted to keep his familiar four-cycle car cards and waybills, but wanted them to be more prototypical.

The ideas behind this system appear to go back to Don McFall in the 1980s; see his articles in Model Railroading, in the Fall 1982 (Vol. 13, no. 1) , and April 1987 (Vol. 17, no. 5) issues. Pre-printed forms soon became available from Old Line Graphics (which is apparently no longer in business), and something quite similar can now be purchased from Micro-Mark. 

I’m sure most modelers know this system well, but for clarity, one folds up the bottom of the blank car card and tapes it to form a pocket. The “return to” place on the car card can be billed in with a specific yard or staging point. The blank waybill at right (with cycles 3 and 4 on the back) can then be filled out as the modeler desires. Completed waybills are then inserted into the car card to direct car movement.

 The car card-waybill system, whether or not it is operated in the four-cycle manner, can readily be specialized for use. Lots of computer applications can create new versions of these forms, or adding text into digital copies of these forms; I use Photoshop. 

My friend, the late Otis McGee, originally used this four-cycle system on his layout. He had specialized the waybills with simplified destination and contents information, but color coded by the routing. This is a step forward.

Incidentally, I later designed a new, prototypical waybill for Otis’s layout to replace this four-cycle system, printed all the bills, and put the system into use. This process was described in a post some time ago (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/08/waybills-10.html ).

I should also mention, without identifying anyone, that some users have gone to the opposite extreme and really avoided any specifics in their use of the system, though certainly it still directs car movement. 

On the other hand, some users have shown that it is quite possible to place realistic information on one of these waybills. If I remember correctly, this one was donated to me from Chuck Hitchcock’s old layout.

This is much the approach I recommended to my friend who wanted help, as mentioned in the first paragraph of this post. Here is one of the examples I made up for him to consider (his layout was to be located in Oregon).

These examples, I hope, indicate how a much more prototypical waybill can be made for use in the four-cycle system. I continue to dislike the rigidity of the four cycles, but realize it’s a simpler system than my own, and can be implemented by those who have waybill boxes and other requirements of the four-cycle system already in place on their layout.

Tony Thompson