Another Dry Creek ballast car

Around a decade back, Robert Bowdidge initiated a line of 3D-printed HO scale SP freight cars, under the name Dry Creek Models. The business is has been in suspension for awhile, but I recently got around to finishing the second of two models of the Hart Convertible gondola design of the Rodger Ballast Car Company, as produced by Dry Creek. For anyone interested, I did a review of the kits when they were first introduced (that post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-new-dry-creek-sp-work-cars.html ).  

As part of that description, I showed the two body styles offered in the kits, one with the center-dumping doors open, and one with the them closed, the latter arrangement making a flat-bottom gondola. Below is a repeat of a photo from that post, illustrating the two body styles; the one I built at that time is the lower body, with center-dumping doors open.

In describing my build of the center-dumping car, I mostly showed how it looked when completed, as one only has to add grab irons, sill steps, vertical-staff handbrake, brake cylinder, and trucks and couplers (you can see that post here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/09/building-dry-creek-ballast-cars.html ). 

In turning to the flat-bottom car, one might wonder how a car without ends might be used. Robert may have been inspired, and my goal was to model, something like the prototype photo below. It depicts unloading of rail from a Rodger gondola during the 1910 upgrading of the San Francisco Peninsula trackage from 70–pound to 90–pound rail (Southern Pacific photo).

It is interesting to note how many lengths of rail are visible in the car. In this and a second photo, at least 78 rail ends can be identified; two are on the ground and two more are being pulled from the car. Since this is 90–pound rail, we know that a 39-foot length of it weighs 1170 pounds. The nominal capacity of these 50-ton gondolas would therefore accommodate 85 lengths of rail, and this means that the photo was taken as unloading was beginning.

Work on the Dry Creek car body was simple, as described above. I used Westerfield grab irons and A-Line sill steps, along with a Cal-Scale K brake cylinder and a Cal-Scale brake wheel on a brass wire staff (as I described in a previous post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/05/small-project-replacing-brake-wheels.html ). 

The model was washed with soap and dried, then painted with Tamiya “Fine Surface Primer — Oxide Red.” I added Kadee #158 whisker couplers in their own boxes and Kadee Vulcan trucks. Though the cars had Andrews trucks when new, in later years a variety of replacement cast-steel trucks were installed, such as Vulcans. Here’s the model at this point, awaiting lettering and weathering, plus creation of a load of rail.

My next step was lettering. I chose to locate the car number and initials on the side, as was often done after World War II, with only the capacity and other data on the side sill. Once lettering was complete, and a coat of clear flat had been applied, I weathered the car with my usual acrylic wash technique (for both a description of the technique, and a range of examples, see the “Reference pages” linked at the top right corner of this post).

With the car now ready for use in an operating session, I only (!) need to make the rail load. I will return to that in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Making a stand-in streamlined diner

Some years back, I adapted an E&B Valley kit of a streamlined Pullman-Standard diner to serve as a Southern Pacific streamlined diner. I mentioned this car in a post about using mainline passenger equipment on a small layout, with a very brief description of what was done (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/05/mainline-passenger-cars-on-small-layout.html ).  Because I often get queries, either as comments directly to posts, or as private email messages, about how I do such projects, I thought it would be useful to describe what was involved here, particularly where information comes from and how it can be used.

Because this project is a dining car, the first source I would consult is Volume 4 in the superb series, Southern Pacific Passenger Cars, covering dining service cars (Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, Upland, CA, 2010). I looked at photos and floor plans to find something similar to the E&B Valley model. I soon realized that the closest SP class to the E&B Valley model was Class 83-D-1.

Let’s start with the floor plan, shown below with the forward end of the car at left. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.) Notice that the kitchen is at left, with a passageway alongside it, and the dining area for passengers is at the right. The kitchen has a loading door in about the middle of the car.

Photos of this same class show the arrangements. Below are Pullman builder photos of both sides of Class 83-D-1, taken in the fall of 1949. In both photos, the dining area is toward the camera; the lower photo shows the passageway side. The cars were painted in SP’s standard Two-Tone Gray for assignment to the San Francisco Overland, but received no train emblem. The same paint scheme was used for cars in pool or stand-by service.

Clearly this is similar to but certainly not identical to the E&B Valley model. The SP prototype shown above has one more window in each area (dining and kitchen), than the E&B Valley model (below). This might be because the E&B Valley model has a vestibule, which the SP diners did not. In addition, the E&B Valley floor plan is flipped relative to the SP version, with the kitchen on the north instead of the south side.

And one more detail, the E&B Valley model has deeper skirts, typical of older cars, compared to the postwar SP diners shown above. But since this is a stand-in anyway, and will only be seen in passing trains, I decided I could accept the discrepancies, relying on the paint scheme to identify the car. The kit I built was undecorated, so paint was my first challenge.

In applying the paint scheme for this car, I tape-outlined and painted the stripes, rather than wrestle with decals (I did that once: never again.) After the paint scheme was applied, I needed to add proper diaphragms to the car. Though built with full-width diaphragms, as can be discerned in the builder photos above, it was not many years before SP began to remove these from passenger equipment whenever they were damaged or the car was in the shop for other work. 

For an example of how SP cars that originally had full-width diaphragms looked after removal, here’s the diner end of a Shasta Daylight articulated coffee shop-kitchen-diner, photographed at West Oakland in October 1961 (detail of Don Munger photo).

I made my own styrene face plates to mimic the above appearance, as I’ve described in several of my previous posts (for example, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/06/passenger-car-diaphragms-part-3.html , the post in which the above photo was included). I’ve added some rust to the model face plate, below.

So now I can include this pool-service diner in my deadhead passenger extra trains in layout operating sessions, as you see below, in a train passing the Shumala depot. This is the passageway side of the diner.

I enjoy being able to include some of my passenger models in op sessions, even though my limited staging track length prevents me from operating realistic-length full passenger trains, This stand-in diner is just part of that story.

Tony Thompson

Operating “high-wide” loads

Prototype railroads operate special trains for loads that are very wide or very high or very heavy, compared to conventional equipment, though of course such loads must still pass under all bridges and within the width of tunnels. Particularly when these are very heavy loads, they usually ride on special railroad cars. And as a possibly interesting complication to layout operation, they usually run at considerably reduced speed.

I have wanted to try and add such trains to my operating sessions occasionally. For this purpose, I have already created a few loads that would qualify. One of them merely comprised assembling a Class One Model Works load, which I described in a post last year (you can find it here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/05/building-classone-model-works-car-load.html ). The load was then placed on a Class One flat car. I repeat a photo from that post below.

A second example is a truly large crosshead for a hydraulic press. I described preparing this load for service in a post awhile back (see the post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/06/blocking-for-big-loads.html ). It’s shown below riding on one of Southern Pacific’s 200-ton flat cars, a Funaro & Camerlengo model; construction was described in a series of posts (the concluding one is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/05/sp-200-ton-flat-cars-part-5.html ).

Another example is a 3D-printed heat-exchanger vessel I purchased from Dimensional Modeling Concepts, as I related in a previous post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/07/another-impressive-load.html ). This can be carried on a suitable 70-ton car. For example, I have loaded into a 65-foot mill gondola. The gondola is a Precision Scale brass model, with some added detail and weathering by Richard Hendrickson. Here Consolidation 2575 powers the one-car train leaving Shumala westward.

A rather long-term project, on which I’ve slowly advanced for a number of years, was stimulated by finding at a train show (and purchasing on impulse), a very old Fleischmann 16-wheel heavy-duty flat car. This model had been modified to accept horn-hook couplers, but was otherwise stock, including typical European end buffers. My first job was to remove the couplers and their complex mounting, and to saw off the buffers. I could then insert Kadee no. 158 whisker couplers in their own boxes.

Next I needed to letter the car. Since it isn’t actually a U.S. prototype as far as I know, I had some freedom in doing this. I used some large-capacity data from an SP heavy-duty flat car decal set, and gave it reporting marks for General Electric (GEX), though not a number of an actual GEX car.

One version of the model as sold by Fleischmann had a large turbine included as a load. That was the version I acquired. The timber cradle for the load is visible above. I did want to change the label on the turbine, which originally read “Brown Boveri,” a perfectly appropriate European name, but not what I wanted. I needed to replace that sign.

A major American manufacturer of turbines for many years has been General Electric; their classic logo is readily found by Googling it. Signs were made and then applied to each side of the turbine. And speaking of signs, “DO NOT HUMP” signs were obtained from a Jaeger HO Products placard set and applied to the car at all four corners of the car.

From what I have read, equipment like this turbine could be bolted to the railcar using the attachment points that would be used when the turbine was installed for service. Accordingly, no hold-down straps or extra blocking was used, beyond the side support timbers. With all work completed on both car and load, here is the car in action on my SP main line. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)

In the photo above, the car is being operated as a “high-wide special,” with the load being wider than the railcar, though not especially tall. In the view below, the power is Baldwin DR-6-6-1500 no. 5212, a re-detailed and custom painted Stewart model with aftermarket decoder and sound, shown passing the engine terminal in my town of Shumala.

As a contrast to other mainline trains, a “high-wide” special occasionally makes a contrast in an operating session. I expect to continue to operate them.

Tony Thompson

Reprise on model photography

I recently received an interesting question by email, asking about the model photographs I include in my blog posts and in my articles for the “Getting Real” column in Model Railroad Hobbyist. I replied to the questioner with links to some of my past blog posts on the subject, but thought it might be useful to add the same links and a few comments here.  

Back in 2015, I posted a series of short articles about model photography. My introduction was a general description about the problems of photographing anything that is small, emphasizing that it is essential to understand how your camera works. The basic principles are these: minimum lens aperture; solid (usually tripod) support for the camera; and good lighting. (To see that post, you can go to: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/02/photographing-railroad-models.html .) 

I continued with further comments of the same kind, including numerous recommendations of published books and articles that are helpful. Among these is a link to a still-available super on-line article, actually from the FineScale Modeler magazine. That post can be found here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/02/photographing-railroad-models-part-2.html ). 

Part 3 was about what is called “table-top photography,” usually close-ups of individual models, parts,  or components (that post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/03/photographing-railroad-models-part-3.html ). I showed my usual set-up at the time for photography of my own models in this mode. Using outdoor sunlight, one can get good results with a hand-held digital SLR. Ample light means high shutter speeds, which minimizes the need for a tripod.

Today, I still do much the same, but for support, often use a chair that’s handy instead of the portable table, shown above, that I originally used. And solid color art paper, available at any art store, helps to vary the background look of the individual photos. This is a case where the depth of field of the SLR is really valuable.

A little later, I added a Part 4, to show how I then did photography on my layout, using my digital SLR, tripod, and floodlights. It’s somewhat old-school, but certainly can give excellent results, once you learn the drill. Here’s a link to that post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/04/photographing-railroad-models-part-4.html . I rarely do this any more, though the SLR does offer really excellent depth of field at minimum lens aperture. It’s still a good way to manage photography of scenes with appreciable depth.

Like most people, I find myself relying more and more on the camera in my cell phone for all kinds of photography. Because I had seen what excellent model photos others had taken with their phones, I set out to see what I could accomplish, and wrote a summary of it. (You can see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/03/layout-photography-with-cell-phone.html ). 

I later followed up with additional experiments of the same kind, as shown here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/02/experiments-in-layout-photography.html . Today, I often use the cell phone for all kinds of layout photos, usually hand-held, but helping layout illumination with a 500-watt flood on a stand. That way, the location and direction of shadows can be controlled. The phone can be hand-held in nearly all cases.

[Some readers will note that I have not mentioned image-stacking software. I feel like that’s a separate subject, and will turn to it in a later post.]

So I continue to rely on my SLR for many photos, but don’t hesitate to use the cell phone where it can do the job. But the fundamental requirements (adequate and uniform illumination, as much depth of field as possible, careful composition) are as essential as ever.

Tony Thompson

Adding an 8-1-2 Pullman

As many modelers will know, Pullman sleeper floor plans were described with a shorthand notation giving the interior accommodations. The most numerous heavyweight Pullmans were the 12-1 type, 12 sections and 1 drawing room. The present post is about the heavyweight 8-1-2 configuration, 8 sections, 1 drawing room, and 2 compartments. Here is a typical floor plan (you can click to enlarge). 

I have written a little before about the prototype and a method of modeling it, starting with the Rivarossi 12-1 Pullman body (see this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/02/my-pullman-projects-part-2.html ). 

I also wrote an article for Model Railroad Hobbyist about Southern Pacific’s heavyweight Pullman sleepers purchased from Pullman in 1948, in the issue for January 2023, and here is a link to a description of that article: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/01/my-new-column-in-model-railroad-hobbyist.html .

This particular floor plan returned to my attention while I was attending this year’s Prototype Rails meeting at Cocoa Beach, Florida. A few remnants of meeting founder Mike Brock’s rolling stock fleet were offered to attendees, and I selected a Branchline HO model of the 8-1-2. Surprisingly, it had no car name, presumably allowing the modeler to choose one, but Mike had not done so. Here is the bedroom side of the car.

I was pretty sure that SP had acquired a bunch of cars of this floor plan in 1948, so was confident that I could use this model. But its letterboard has the Pullman name, which by my modeling year of 1953 would surely have been replaced with the SP name, and it should receive a car name too. 

As I already knew, plenty of background on these cars, along with a table of all the names of the 16 cars of 8-1-2 plans received by SP are available in the excellent Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society Volume 2, Sleepers, in the series, Southern Pacific Passenger Cars (SPH&TS, Pasadena, 2005).

From that volume, here is an excellent prototype photo of one of SP’s 8-1-2 cars, De Young, photographed at Davis, California in 1961 (Bruce Heard photo). This is the aisle side of the car. Of the 16 cars of 8-1-2 arrangement acquired by SP, six had the “De” prefix names like De Young.

I wanted to get close to this appearance. The well-known Thin Film decals for SP heavyweight and Harriman cars, set HO-160, provide what is needed. I began by painting out the word “Pullman” on the letterboard, using Tru-Color Paint TCP-135, “SP Dark Olive Green.” It’s not an exact match to the Branchline car color but is fairly close. I made irregular blotches over each letter, rather than neat rectangles of paint, to minimize the visibility of the patches.

Next, I masked the window band on both sides, using the excellent Tamiya masking tape, the 10-mm width. This would allow me to add a coat of semi-gloss for decaling, since the Branchline model has a flat finish. I used Tamiya “Semi-Gloss Clear,” TS-79, for this. When that was dry, I added the Thin Film decals. Once they were well settled, I again masked the window band for a final coast of flat, using Tamiya “Flat Clear,” TS-80. (As I’ve often mentioned, these Tamiya paints are not at all traditional “rattle cans,” but have high-quality nozzles that deliver paint the way you want.)

Once that had been done, the car was ready for service. In my layout operating sessions, I often include a deadhead passenger move, typical of how SP moved equipment between its two main West Coast passenger terminals at Los Angeles and San Francisco/Oakland. Cars like this one are perfect for such a move. 

In the view below, you see the aisle side of the newly-added De Forest, flanked by the Division Superintendent’s car, Coast, at right (see this final post of a series: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/08/operating-sp-business-car-conclusion.html ), and a pool streamlined dining car (a repainted E&B Valley model).

This has been a simple change to one of Mike Brock’s Pullmans, and an enjoyable tasks to convert it to an SP car of the era for my layout. I’m glad to be able to run one of Mike’s cars on my layout.

Tony Thompson

Operating sessions 98 and 99

This last weekend I hosted a pair of operating sessions on my layout, intended as a kind of “dry run” for the upcoming bi-annual BayRails operating weekend here in the Bay Area. These happened to be sessions no. 98 and 99 on the present layout. As I wanted to happen, a couple of modifications to the operating scheme worked well; as I didn’t really want to happen, a couple of electrical glitches popped up, but of course better now than with out-of-town visitors.

I used my usual set-up approach with freight cars in various locations, to be switched in various ways in accord with the waybills and other paperwork. Here is a view looking toward the Shumala depot (middle distance), illustrating what the first crew at Shumala faces when they begin work.  The foreground track is the main line of Southern Pacific’s Coast Division.

What you see is a mixture of cars headed up the branch to Ballard and Santa Rosalia, along with cars to be switched within Shumala, and some ready for pickup by the Guadalupe Local, a train that will pass by toward the middle of the session.

The crews for session 98 were Mike Stewart, Bob Fisher, Dan Miller and Robert Bowdidge. The photo below shows Robert at left, and Dan holding the throttle, while they were working at Ballard.

For session 99, we had a last-minute cancellation by one attendee for health reasons, so we operated with three people only. I volunteered to be engineer, but Mark Schutzer said he actually would prefer to do the entire job by himself, so he proceeded to do so. With all the years of experience under his belt, he worked efficiently and every bit as fast as a two-person crew. Here he is at Ballard.

The other crew was Seth Neumann and Jon Schmidt, shown below during their stint at Shumala. It looks like Seth (at left) was the engineer at this point, as he's holding the throttle.

These were valuable sessions for me, as a set-up for how I will structure my BayRails sessions, though I confess it is hard to wrap my brain around having had 99 sessions on the layout in its present form. But it must be true; I have records of all the sessions. Never thought about getting this far. But the best news was that everyone had a good time and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Tony Thompson

More on house-car placards

Placards for warning or information about cargoes are very familiar with tank cars, which may carry a wide variety of loads that can be dangerous in different ways. I have written a number of posts about tank car placards, beginning with the prototype, as far back as 2012 (see the post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/tank-car-placards-prototype.html ), and also several posts about modeling placards and their use (for example, this one: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/12/tank-car-placards-more-on-modeling.html ).

The present post, however, expands on the use of placards on house cars, particularly box cars. This topic too has been touched on before, and as I prefer to do, began with some information about the prototype (such as this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/11/placards-for-house-cars-prototype.html ). That was followed up by an introductory post about modeling (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/11/placards-for-house-cars-modeling.html ).

I didn’t show them in the earlier posts, but I used several of the images of prototype placards (see previous paragraph for links) to make HO scale versions of them. Shown below are a few of them, printed out on a high-resolution color printer at a local copy shop.

However, I’ve never shown examples of applying these placards, so one is shown on a model in the photo below (original model by Richard Hendrickson). You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish,

Another nice source of placards is a cardstock set marketed long ago by Jaeger. In the modeling post mentioned above, I did show some of the Jaeger placards in use. Here is one of their “unload other side” placard applied to a box car:

Here is another Jaeger example, a “handle with care” placard for furniture. The car obviously, from its door stripe, is equipped with auto racks, but these could be latched up to the ceiling inside to accommodate other cargo, such as furniture.

But of course you don’t really have to have readable legends on something with type this small. You can just as easily use a sharp pencil to suggest that something is present on the placard (feel free to click on the image to enlarge it):

If you look at lots of in-service prototype photos of box cars, you will find placards present on a fairly small minority of the cars, and I have followed that lead with my freight car fleet. House car placards are applied sparingly. But when present, I think they add to the realism of the model.

Tony Thompson