Modeling an acid tank car

A couple months ago, I reviewed John Riddell’s fine new book, Canadian Car & Foundry, and included in the review several builder photos. They weren’t entirely chosen at random; each had some modeling interest or specific freight car history content as well. (You can read that review at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/08/an-excellent-new-freight-car-book.html .)

One of the images was a 1931 photo of a brand-new acid tank car. It was built for Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada, headquartered at Trail, British Columbia, site of what was at one time the largest lead/zinc smelter in the world. That photo is repeated below. 

So why would a smelter company own acid tank cars? The sulfur dioxide by-product of smelting is not only environmentally damaging if released, but if recovered, can readily be converted to sulfuric acid and sold as an additional revenue stream. Cominco (as the company was often known) owned 14 of these acid cars, numbered CMSX 1–14.

I should mention that the car shown above is readily recognized as an acid tank car because of its dome. Acid cargoes were normally unloaded by suction up through the dome, rather than draining through a bottom outlet, so this is not an expansion dome. The AAR code for cars without bottom outlets, a suffix letter “A” for acid, means that this was an AAR Type TA car.

These cars are listed in the Official Railway Equipment Register as 5900-gallon capacity; those are Imperial gallons, which convert to 7085 U.S. gallons. Tangent Scale Models offered a very nice 7000-gallon  acid tank car some years back. I acquired several of them; I reviewed one at the time (see my post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-terrific-new-tank-car-model.html ). They follow an AC&F prototype, but look quite similar to the CC&F car shown above.

I knew that Black Cat Publishing (Winnipeg, Manitoba) had a decal set for this lettering scheme (set CMSX1); you can see their line of decals at this site: https://www.blackcatdecals.com/product-category/ho-decals/private-tank-cars/ . One of the Tangent models I purchased was undecorated black, for future decal application. Yes, one handrail on the dome platform needs to be replaced; I used brass wire.

This model does have a dome platform, which the CMSX cars originally did not, but some car owners did apply these in later years. I don’t know whether or how many of the CMSX cars were so modified, but here is the model photo included on the Black Cat Decals web page, with credit to Lyall Falk included. On this basis, I chose to leave the dome platform in place, though this looks more like a high-pressure valve bonnet than an acid dome.

Decal application was straightforward. Every Black Cat set I have ever used was high quality and easy to work with. Incidentally, the white diamond provided in the decal set for the side of the dome is incorrect. That diamond denotes an “approved manway,” which acid cars did not have. Here is the model, still awaiting placards and weathering (separate topics, in some ways). 

To operate this car on my layout, of course, it needs a waybill, and here is an example of what an inbound bill might look like. 

This is an interesting tank car, being as it is from western North America, and I expect it to show up from time to time in my operating sessions.

Tony Thompson 

Reworking a Broadway Limited chlorine car

Back in 2017 when the Broadway Limited HO scale high-pressure cars were released, I purchased more than I needed, including one of their “variety” four-packs to get a paint scheme I wanted. (If you’re interested in my 2017 review, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-new-broadway-limited-tank-cars.html .)

One of the cars that I didn’t need for operation was an Ethyl Corp. car, from which I stole the platform and ladder for another project. Recently I disassembled the EBAX model, and this is how it looked at that point. The valve bonnet part has become separated, and trucks are off. This is how the model languished for many months.

Much more recently,  I came across the K4 decals for Diamond Alkali chlorine cars. This inspired me to repair the EBAX car, with new side ladders and walkways, so I could repaint and re-letter it. 

I made walkways from scale 1 x 10-inch Evergreen styrene strip, attached with canopy glue, then added drop grab irons from A-Line underneath each walk. Ladders will come later.

At this point I could repaint the tank, which as you see above, was now separated from the underframe. The K4 decals I have are for Diamond Alkali, in the older scheme, which had either aluminum or gray tanks. I chose gray, and used Tamiya “Corsa Gray” (PS-32). 

The underframe and trucks were black, which the BLI model already has, so I reassembled the tank to the frame. I decided to have the handrail and ladder as body color, as was increasingly common in the 1950s. When freshly lettered with the K4 decals, set K4-DAX-87 A, it looked like this. 

I now added a ladder on each side at the car center. First, I painted a ladder from my parts stash, then created ladder sections by cutting to fit, and attached them with canopy glue. I also painted the bare metal wheel faces with a dark gray-brown mix. 

Next came weathering, following my usual procedures using washes of acrylic tube paints (see the “Reference pages” linked at the top right of this post). Finally, I added a few touches of Pan Pastels.

This completes my modification of the original Broadway Limited paint scheme on this model, to that of a different chemical company, still with the car matching its design character as a chlorine car.

But to enter service on my layout, the car needs one or more waybills. I checked Tank Car Tariff 300-H and found that Diamond Alkali had both 3000-gallon and 6000-gallon chlorine cars. Unfortunately K4 Decals chose the decal number for the smaller size series. I decided to ignore this discrepancy, as the model is definitely a 6000-gallon car.

The Diamond Alkali company was located in Painesville, Ohio (as the car lettering notes) and was located on the Fairport, Painesville & Eastern Railroad (FP&E). The FP&E, about 8 miles long, had interchanges with both the NYC and Nickel Plate but seems to have favored NYC. The NYC Shipper Guide seems to indicate that Painesville was a reciprocal switching district, thus no interchange location with NYC need be indicated. This produces a waybill like that below.

I look forward to seeing this model in service for an operating session on my layout.

Tony Thompson  

What about “mundane” freight car kits?

Following my lengthy saga about kitbashing an Erie 50-foot automobile car from a Branchline kit, with replaced roof and ends, and a detour considering it as a C&NW car (about which I put up five posts, concluding with this one: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-erie-50-ft-auto-car-conclusion.html ), I received a question. I’ll paraphrase it like this: “These big, complicated projects are fine, but do you ever do a plain old simple kit?” As a matter of fact, I do, and so I’ll show one. 

I think most modelers would agree that Accurail kits qualify as simple kits. Recently I built one of their USRA double-sheathed box car kits, a Great Northern car that models one of the 1500 box cars of this design that GN received in 1919. They were numbered in the 23494–24993 series, and were GN’s first box cars with a steel underframe instead of truss rods. Below is a GN photo of one of these cars, freshly repainted at St. Cloud shops in March 1925 (GNRHS collection).  

These cars were very durable. By my own modeling date of 1953, there were still 1222 of the original 1500 cars in service. and they continued in use through the 1950s. Below is a photo of one in 1958 (Virl Davis photo, Richard Hendrickson collection), with the original USRA Andrews trucks and 5-5-5 corrugated end visible.

(For a condensed history of the GN box car fleet, along with the rest of the GN freight cars, I recommend the chapter by Richard Hendrickson and Staffan Ehnbom in Patrick Dorin’s book, Great Northern Lines East, Second Edition, Signature Press, 2001) .

The Accurail kit is, of course, straightforward. It could be upgraded by replacing the molded grab irons with wire ones, but for me this is a layout model, and can serve in original condition. However, there are a few changes to the kit as supplied that I do make. 

To begin, I cut the steel weight in half, glued the two halves together with canopy glue, and glued the pair in the center of the floor. This leaves truck screw holes completely open, and I tapped them 2-56. Mechanically, I put InterMountain wheelsets in the kit sideframes, and Kadee #158 whisker couplers in the kit coupler boxes. Here is that weight application.

Next, I replaced the vulnerable plastic brake wheel with a Cal-Scale brass one, soldered to a brass wire staff. And third, I added roof corner grab irons with the Tichy wire parts. 

Then, after a protective coat of flat finish, I weathered with acrylic tube paint, in the form of washes (see “Reference pages” linked at the top right of this post). The GN emblem here is the 1941–48 version. Finally, I added decal paint patches for fresh reweigh and repack stencils, along with route cards and chalk marks.

This kind of straightforward freight car kit is fun to build and quickly gives a layout-quality result. It will go into service on my layout right away.

Tony Thompson 

My Erie 50-ft. auto car: Conclusion

In preceding posts, I described a somewhat meandering project to build a 50-foot automobile car from a Branchline kit, and add a Viking roof (because I had one in my stash). My first plan was to do this for the Chicago & North Western, as described in the initial post in this series (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/06/a-simple-freight-car-kitbash.html ).

But upon discovering that I already had a 50-ft. C&NW auto car with a Viking roof (memo to self: check fleet before dreaming up projects), I decided to pivot to doing an Erie car, even though it meant removing the Dreadnaught ends I had already applied to the Branchline body (that is presented in the third post in this series, which can be found at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/04/my-50-foot-automobile-car-part-3.html ).

I replaced the Dreadnaught ends with inverse Hutchins ends from Chad Boas, and continued onward to finish the body details, then painted the model with boxcar red sides and roof and black ends, as was common on Erie cars of the decade after World War II.  That work is shown in Part 4 of this series (you can see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-50-foot-erie-auto-car-part-4.html ).

In trying to understand the Erie 50-foot automobile cars, I turned to the April 1940 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). There I found several groups of such cars. First was series 68100–68199, cars with paired 6-foot side doors, and series 62200–68224, almost identically dimensioned cars except for paired 8-foot doors; and cars 68225–68299, again, cars with 6-foot doors. 

Since my Branchline car body has 8-foot doors, my choice of number series was obvious. Luckily I was able to obtain a nice photo of a car from this series, which is shown below. You can just see that it does indeed have a Viking roof, and though the black ends are not very visible, what is visible is consistent with the Hutchins ends. And this is the paint scheme I wanted to apply, with the six-foot herald. Incidentally, in this photo, only the right-hand door is open.

In the year I model, 1953, there were 24 of the original 25 cars in the series Erie 68200–68224. Of those, 16 had auto loading racks and thus had AAR mechanical  designation XMR, while 8 of them had racks either disabled or removed, and were AAR designation XM. That includes the car shown above, 68220, and the car number I chose to model, 68214.

You can click on the image above to enlarge it. If you do, you may note that the capacity of this car is somewhat surprising, only 70,000 pounds, a value confirmed by the ORER.  

The photo above shows clearly the arrangement of side lettering. It also suggests what the end lettering arrangement is, but a better view is in the Magor view shown in Part 4 (link above). Here is just the end portion: 

I dug around in the decal stash I inherited from Richard Hendrickson, and found Champ set HN-63, and also a set HB-3 with the large Erie emblems. Dimensional data were pieced together with elements from two Champ data sets HD-2. Below is a view of the model with lettering applied; I did apply the 70,000 pound capacity. Next comes trucks and couplers, the running board, and then weathering. 

As mentioned earlier, I applied a Kadee 50-ft. running board, attached with canopy cement, along with Kadee #158 couplers and the kit truck frames with InterMountain wheelsets. I then used my ordinary process of weathering, based on washes of acrylic tube paints (descriptions and illustrative example in the “Reference pages” linked at the top right of this post).  Last, I added a few chalk marks and route cards. 

This was an interesting if somewhat circuitous project, with the false start on a C&NW car; but in the end I created a car I wanted to have on the layout. That is tops among my criteria for freight car projects.

Tony Thompson 

Reworking a PFE car kit

In response to a recent question I was asked (“Why don’t you write more about PFE cars?”), I will describe recent work on a Red Caboose HO scale kit for a PFE reconditioned reefer, kit RC-4121-3, for a car of PFE Class R-30-12-9. There are a number of things I will choose to do for this kit.

I’ll begin with the kit as it comes from the box. It’s nicely decorated (as they always say in magazine reviews), but it is the 1936–1942 paint scheme, with single railroad emblems on each side. It’s shown below.

The car body above is molded in orange plastic. This is both good news and bad news. It means, on the good side, that lettering can be removed without affecting the background color; but on the bad side, the plastic is translucent, and needs to have the car interior painted a neutral color like dark gray to kill the translucence.  

This paint scheme was rare on wood-sheathed cars by 1950 and essentially absent by 1953, because newer paint schemes after World War II, and very large volumes of shop work in the postwar years, meant that a wood-sheathed car like this would undoubtedly have been repainted by my modeling year of 1953. 

Here is the scheme that is far more suitable for my modeling year, in a George Sisk photo from the Charles Winters collection. As is documented in the Southern Pacific Freight Car Painting and Lettering Guide (SP Historical & Technical Society, Upland, CA, 2016), authored by Dick Harley and me, page 141, this is the 1950 PFE scheme, with all side hardware orange, along with sill steps, and both railroad medallions black and white. Dimensional data and other lettering details differ from the kit lettering, so all kit lettering needs to go.

Since there is no significant part of the lettering worth saving, nor is it particularly well rendered, I removed all of it with Scalecoat stripper, on both sides and ends. I then fired up the airbrush and added a coat on the car sides of Star brand STR-27, “Daylight Orange,” (a color adopted by PFE eight years before the more-famous SP “Daylight” trains). The same paint was airbrushed onto the sprues of side hardware parts (sprues D and G), provided in the kit in black, so they would be ready to be applied to the body. 

Next I assembled the kit. For the most part, this is simply following instructions. But there are a few things that require explication. Some have been presented before, in a report on a similar car kit (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/01/reconditioned-pfe-car-part-2-model.html ).

For features of the prototype PFE cars that were reconditioned — being formerly cars of Class R-30-12, they were re-classed when reconditioned as Class R-30-12-9, then after World War II this was simplified by omitting the original -12, making them simply Class R-30-9 — one can consult Chapter 7 in the PFE book (Thompson, Church and Jones, Pacific Fruit Express, 2nd edition, Signature Press, 2000). A number of details are provided about the 7694 cars of this class, PFE’s largest.

As I do when car weights are not supplied in a kit, I glued two 5/8-11 steel nuts inside the car body, using canopy cement. This gives plenty of weight, and canopy glue is perfect for joining dissimilar materials, as is the case here. 

One last point relates to the roof. In the last group of R-30-9 cars, steel ice hatches were applied and ice hatch platforms removed, cars PFE 95737–98718. And note in the prototype photo above of PFE 98444 that wood running boards were retained; all these cars were reconditioned during 1937–1940, when this was usual practice. I will do the same, as I’ll describe in a future post.

Tony Thompson 

Western Pacific’s famous “Feather” box cars

Among the most famous box car paint schemes of the transition era was Western Pacific’s silver scheme with a full-length orange feather (for many years, WP publicized its “Feather River Route” slogan in various ways). I have no idea how many model versions of these silver “feather” cars have been produced, in all scales and on a wide variety of non-prototypical box cars, but it is surely in the tens of thousands. 

The famous silver-feather cars were actually only 20 in number at the beginning, the first 20 of 1951’s 600-car order of PS-1 40-foot box cars from Pullman-Standard, WP 20801–21400. They were an experimental application of the then-new P-S “Compartmentizer” load-divider system. WP’s customers included a number of shippers of canned goods, a product notorious for generating claims for denting and other damage in transit. The load divider was intended to mitigate that problem.

Soon after delivery, WP decided to number its 20 compartmentizer cars separately as WP 19501–19520. The load dividers were an immediate hit with shippers, and soon WP sent 22 more of its new PS-1s back to Pullman-Standard to be equipped with compartmentizers. When so equipped, those 22 cars were reneumbered to 19521–19542. Here’s WP 19527 at Council Bluffs, Iowa in January 1954 (Lou Schmitz photo). 

What may be hard to recognize in this photo is an indication that WP was already having problems with the silver paint scheme, as the paint didn’t adhere well to the car cement coating on the roof and ends. When the second group of 22 cars was repainted into the silver scheme, as you see above, the roof and ends were painted black.

There is a fascinating account available on-line, of the early days of using load-divider cars to ship canned goods. It is a 1954 MBA thesis by Burnis J. Sharp at Boston University. Here is a link to the PDF:  https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/142051966.pdf . Part of the document contains Sharp’s comparison of performance of GAEX DF loader cars, with the Pullman-Standard “Compartmentizer” equipment, as installed in the Western Pacific “Feather” box cars. (My post about the GAEX cars is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-gaex-box-cars.html .)

Back in the 1990s, I wrote an article for Railroad Model Craftsman magazine about modeling the 1951 order of WP’s PS-1 box cars (September 1994, pp. 56–59). I did do one silver car, but also did a boxcar-red car representing the other 580 cars of the 600-car 1951 order. Third, I wanted to model the WP scheme which replaced the silver scheme, which had been found to show dirt much too well: the “small feather” scheme on a boxcar-red body but keeping the “Rides Like a Feather” slogan (I’ll show it below).

For modeling, more fully described in the RMC article, I used the McKean PS-1 model, as it was the best PS-1 car body available at the time, having correct P-S ends, sill steps, and almost the right P-S roof. I replaced the kit’s 6-foot door with a correct 7-foot door from C&BT Shops, and applied Overland Models etched-metal running boards. Microscale Decals supplied the large-feather and plain schemes, and Champ Decals the small-feather scheme. I also included a bibliography of prototype information in the article.

Here’s the original silver scheme, though without the correct Chrysler FR-5 trucks.

The “small feather’ scheme that followed is colorful too and I enjoy operating this car on my layout, often in canned-goods service.

Then there is the plain scheme with silver lettering, worn, after all, by the great majority of this car group. 

Lastly, let me show one of the many “foobie” versions, applied to practically every imaginable steel box car body: Athearn’s metal car kit with pre-war Dreadnaught ends, conventional straight-panel roof, and six-foot door (and black ladders).’Nuff said.

These schemes are part of freight car history, especially for the western U.S., so they are fun to have in the fleet, and of course to include in layout operating sessions.

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 

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 

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

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