Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer

Serendipity seems to make frequent visits to my hobby. Something I will be working on will make its way to the various lists that I follow, wholly unrelated to any activities or prompting by me. Such was the case within the last couple weeks. I recently purchased a bottle of the Tamiya primer shown in the photo above and within a couple days there was a discussion about primer and priming models on the Steam Freight Car list (my thoughts on that debate below). It is a rather thick surface preparation mixture, similar to the Mr. Surfacer products from Gunze-Sangyo (I am a raving fan of these products). When I looked at the bottle shown here, it noted that it could be thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner. I decided to give it a shot. I thinned it heavily with Dupont Lacquer Thinner, a premium thinner that I had purchased in a gallon container many years ago from an auto body repair shop. The ratio I used was about 60% thinner to 40% primer. I used it to prime an undecorated Rapido NP double sheathed box car. It sprayed beautifully, with excellent coverage and a flawless surface finish. It will be a go-to primer for my efforts.

On the subject of priming models, I fall decidedly into the yes category. A coat of primer does two things for me. It creates a neutral base that eases the coverage of the final color, be it freight car red or brown, some flavor or reefer yellow or orange, or even plain black. The other benefit is that it makes all details "pop" or stand out. This helps to reveal any and all surface defects and imperfections that need to be addressed prior to applying the main color(s).

Wordy Wednesday - Shell Filling Station

Shasta County, California. Filling stations close up as the tourist trade decreases, June, 1942, Lee Russell

As I begin my preparations for construction of a modest switching layout, I have been taking increased note of things that will be valuable references. It is little surprise that anything that will aid in my construction and detailing of structures and the scenes in which they’ll reside gets attention. I stumbled across this photo on the FSA-OWI photo site hosted by the Library of Congress. It is a defunct filling station in northern California (extreme northern, relatively close to Oregon, where I am modeling). Granted, the gasoline sales portion of the station and the accompanying equipment appeared to have been removed by the time this photo was recorded in 1942. Note that in the background at left is what to all appearances is a functioning gas station.

Nonetheless, there is still a great deal to be gleaned from this photo. Architecturally, the photo illustrates a large portion of the structure of the overhang that sheltered patrons while pumping gas. Details include the embellishments at the junctions of the roof line, support post beams and other areas. These were not only attractive features, but also served to tie together and strengthen the structure at critical points. As was quite common, the roof line of the shelter (and the shelter itself) was oriented to bisect the 90-degree angle created by the intersection of the streets.

Details abound. The large SHELL sign atop the shelter would be a great touch to add to a model, including the support wires, extending to the roof eaves. The Quaker State lube service sign is another add-on to accent the scene. Finally, while every window in this scene has one, likely due to the “hibernation” of the station’s gas dispensing operations, the signs promoting the Russell Bros. Circus in Redding (California) on June 27 are a great detail that adds “life” to this scene, and could be similarly replicated on a model, albeit in maybe one or two signs.

The great thing is that there are numerous commercially available 1920s vintage gas station kits that follow this general design, but that could be easily and minimally modified using a photo such as this one to make it “one’s own” so that visitors to the layout will appreciate its uniqueness rather than mentally noting that the gas station is the same one seen on many layouts. 

Completing the Kadee Santa Fe Class Bx-57 40' PS-1 Box Car

The first installment on the Kadee Santa Fe Bx-57 illustrated some of the changes effected to replicate the differences on the prototype. It is worth reiterating these major details. Of note, the Bx-57 class employed US Gypsum expanded metal brake steps and running boards, while the model was equipped with Apex Tri-Lok running boards and steps (Kadee has since produced the correct US Gypsum parts, resulting in a “drop-fit” replacement for the running boards; the brake step is a Plano etched metal part using the Kadee supports after carefully removing the Apex Tri-Lok step.) The Bx-57 also used the “upside-down” version of the Improved Youngstown door, while the model uses the more common version; a Southwest Scale door was substituted, along with scratchbuilt placard and route card boards. 

Kadee did replicate a few quirks of this class. Counter to usual Santa Fe practice, the Bx-57s did not have transverse-mounted brake reservoirs. Also, this class had the “SHIP AND TRAVEL Santa Fe all the way” slogan on the left side and the name train slogan on the right (Super Chief on this car) which was counter to Santa Fe painting and lettering practice. Kadee replicated these details faithfully, as well as the Royal Type F brake regulator, Ajax power hand brake, and ASF A-3 Ride Control trucks.

A note about the body color and paint matching is in order. As I replaced the door, I had to closely match the Kadee body color. I used three Tamiya colors to arrive at a satisfactory match. The mix is 50% Red, 25% Hull Red, and 25% Red Brown from the Tamiya acrylic line. As an aside, I love the ease with which Tamiya paints airbrush so this mixture will be my go-to Santa Fe Mineral Red-Brown for all future projects.

The brake test stencil on the reservoir

I replaced with wheelsets on the trucks with Kadee 0.088” tread width replacements. As I was modeling a car approximately 16 months old, I lightly weathered the car with a single application of Bragdon’s light gray powder, which mostly disappears under a clear flat coat (Tamiya). I added chalkmarks (a combination of pen and ink [a forthcoming post will cover this technique] as well as Speedwitch decal set D135) both before and after the weathering. I also applied a fresh paint patch over the repack stencil and added a late 1951 repack stencil. The door latch hardware (to the left of the doors) was salvaged from the original doors. I had to scrape off the ‘L’ and ‘R’ stencils to accommodate the door hardware so I added new ones from a Santa Fe box car decal set prior to weathering. I added a brake test stencil to the reservoir (even though I replaced the brake equipment, the original reservoir lacked this detail, too.)

After all of these subtle enhancements, I painted the angle cock/air hose parts black and gray. I added a final flat coat over everything. I polished the treads on the wheelsets, replaced them in the truck sideframes, and attached the trucks. Lastly, I added bits of paper for route cards. With that ATSF 31382 was ready for service. The PS-1 from Kadee remains one of the finest models ever produced in any scale. I look forward to adding a couple more from other roads to the fleet.

Wordy Wednesday - Union Starch & Refining - General American 1917-design Tank Car GATX 6719

Bob's Photo

General American 6719 is an interesting study. It was a General American 1917-design tank car built in January, 1921. It features many of the traits typical of the design, most notable the five “radial” courses to the tank. However, this car is different since it was modified to incorporate several changes. As expected, it was equipped with AB-schedule air brakes, replacing the KC-schedule brakes. Additionally, the expansion dome was fitted with a replacement safety manway and frangible disc vent. There is what may be a fitting or plug on the side of the dome. There are also what appear to be two patches, either as repairs or to strengthen parts of the bottom sheet of the tank. Finally, there was a chalkmark on the side of the tank noting, “syrup” which was undoubtedly a common load given that the car was leased by Union Starch & Refining, a producer of corn products, including corn syrup.

This car could be converted from a Tangent model using a safety manway from another manufacturer (Tangent, Tichy, Intermountain or others) and a frangible disc vent from Owl Mountain.

Photo by yours truly

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wordy Wednesday - New Haven 0-8-0 3430 at Hartford

This photo has always been a favorite of mine for a few reasons. Given my affection for freight cars, the nice string of interesting cars is an immediate draw for me. However, as compelling for me is the location. I grew up in the Hartford area so I have always had an attraction to its railroad-related history. Of particular interest has always been the large Morgan Street freight house and the tracks near it. This train is making its way from Hartford towards its crossing of the Connecticut River and its duties in East Hartford. I will post an exceptional photo of the Morgan Street freight house and yard in a future installment. That photo alone should provide all the motivation one needs to replicate it as a switching layout. The photo is reproduced below with numbered callouts to aid in identification of the subjects. Interestingly, the locomotive and every identifiable piece of rolling stock with the exception of the MILW gon, P&LE box car and the flat car was or is available in HO scale (references noted in parentheses) 

1 — New Haven Y-3 0-8-0 — The New Haven had 10 USRA versions of the 0-8-0 followed by an additional 25 copies purchased after the war, nos. 3400-3434. (W&R brass or Proto 2000)

2 — Chicago and North Western Emergency box car with Youngstown doors and Viking roof (Sunshine Models or Intermountain)

3 — Milwaukee Road composite gondola; class not known

4 — Pittsburgh & Lake Erie  ‘late’ tall New York Central USRA-design steel box car

5 — Santa Fe Bx-38 Emergency box car (Sunshine Models or Intermountain)

6 — Delaware Lackawanna & Western rebuilt steel automobile car (Yarmouth Model Works)

7 — Seaboard Air Line G7 composite gondola (Sunshine Models)

8 — Southern Railway 1937 AAR box car (IMWX, Red Caboose or Intermountain)

9 — unidentified flat car with tractor load

10 — Canadian Pacific Fowler box car (Westerfield)

11 — New York Central USRA-design steel box car (Westerfield or Broadway Limited)

12 — American Refrigerator Transit wood refrigerator car (Sunshine Models)

"Personalizing" Scrap Loads

Ever have that moment when you are at a layout and you see that same load that is on every other layout you've visited? Me too. I decided that I would try to minimize my reliance on the same cookie cutter loads that everyone else has. I want a scrap load, but the options are limited. How to be different? Personalize your load. I have been gathering scrap material for several years to complete a "stock" scrap load. The bag shown above illustrates this material. It is the spiral material from drilling resin, which simulates scrap material from large machining of metals, sprue bits that look like raw metal, wire and other various shapes that also resemble scrap metal. In the aggregate, these can all be added to the top of a commercial scrap load to make it unique. Give it a try.

The load above, which I made years ago, could use some toning down, as well as signs of oxidation. However, it effectively replicates scrap metal from machining operations such as milling. I didn't do such a good job "containing" the silver overspray. My next effort will be much better. I will show the results here. The car is a Westerfield model of a PRR GRA.

Wordy Wednesday - Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch ARA-inspired refrigerator car SFRD 24132

These two photos were finds on ebay several years ago. They were undoubtedly recorded to document the shifting of the lumber load on the adjacent flat car, either by a curious photographer or for actual railroad purposes.

The Santa Fe purchasd large quantities of ARA-inspired refrigerator cars (based upon the ARA design for the double sheathed wood box car, which the Santa Fe ordered in classes Bx-8, -9, and -10.) The first group was assigned to class RR-5, 900 cars built in 1927 by American Car & Foundry and Pullman Car & Manufacturing, car nos. 23451-24350 (there were 100 nearly identical cars with divided ice baskets in class RR-6, nos. 24351-24450). SFRD purchased an additional 1,900 similar cars between 1928 and 1931, classes RR-7, -8, -9, and -11, nos. 24451-26350. 

In the period immediately prior to the US involvement in World War Two, many of the cars received improvements, including AB schedule air brakes and new Murphy rectangular panel roofs. Not all cars received these upgrades. Note that SFRD 24132 shown here still had a staff-type hand brake to go with its AB brakes and new Murphy panel roof.

Most of these cars were rebuilt into all-steel cars between 1950-1953, classes RR-49, -50, -51, and -53, but that is a different story...

References: Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series -- Volume Two, Refrigerator Cars, Ice Bunker Cars 1884-1979, Jordan, Hendrickson, Moore, and Hale

Kit stash musings

"Looking south in the 'C' Yard of the Southern Pacific yards," Los Angeles, ca. 1960, B. J. Mahoney, U.S. President's Railroad Commission photographs, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University

A couple weeks ago, there was a discussion on the Resin Freight Car Builders list about the quantity of unbuilt kits in peoples’ stashes. One extremely valid point raised is that for many of the resin offerings, it is wise to buy when kits are available as there is no guarantee they will continue to be available. Sunshine Models is a case in point. However, the opposite perspective is, when does one have enough kits? Many of us keep collecting long after rational thought dictates applying the brakes. I have devised a solution that allows me to stick to a game plan and ignore all of the shiny new objects, except those odd ones that truly strike my fancy. All others are strictly off limits.

My solution was to create a spreadsheet and identify at the highest level how many of each car type I thought necessary to meet my plans. I began by creating categories for box cars, automobile cars (1-1/2 and double door cars), gondolas, flat cars, refrigerator cars, tank cars, hoppers, and covered hoppers.

If you are following my lead, you may have already diverted (ore cars, anyone?) However, if you are still following you will likely choose a different path now. At this point, I assigned high level quantities for each car type. My choices are/were dictated by my selection of railroad and region, as yours will be, as well.

I followed the decision about overall quantities of car types with allocation by railroads and/or leasing lines. Given my choice of the Southern Pacific in southern Oregon in a timber and agricultural region (which I wrote about previously), I selected significant numbers of SP box cars, automobile cars, flat cars, and gondolas, as well as Pacific Fruit Express reefers.

With my home road car selections filled in, I moved on to the primary interchange lines’ and regional partners’ cars. These included major players such as Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Union Pacific, as well as Spokane, Portland & Seattle and Western Pacific.

Next, I moved on to the “monsters” that had to be addressed. These included Pennsylvania Railroad box cars, automobile cars, gondolas, and flat cars. Ditto for the New York Central. I also had to include Baltimore & Ohio house cars.

With these selections made, I then began to fill in the gaps by judiciously arriving at the cars I wanted from all the other roads. While some of these warranted multiple cars for the same road, this was also where I could exercise my whims and choose those shiny resin cars as well as the signature cars. However, the counterpoint is that I often had to limit my choices to one or even zero cars from roads in which I was interested. However, this discipline is what keeps the shelves more “modestly” stocked (I am aware that 390 cars would seem immodest to some; had I not gone through this exercise, the total could easily be double that number). It also allows the flexibility to add that must-have car when it comes along (the must-haves shouldn’t be every monthly release from Kadee, as that defeats the purpose of this exercise!)

One thing, of course, is that this entire process is not set. If the landscape of available freight car models changes, I can adapt accordingly. However, having a plan keeps me from straying too far in my purchases.

Additionally, different cars will see different levels of utilization. Many of the SP and PFE cars can be used in every session, since they will be ubiquitous and not stand out among the field of cars. Other cars, such as the ITC 36’ single sheathed, Rutland double sheathed, and Soo ‘Sawtooth’ box cars, Oscar Mayer and Grand Trunk reefers, as well as the McKeesport Connecting gondola and Owens-Illinois ‘Duraglas’ covered hopper, should be run more sparingly as operators will naturally remember them as they are more unusual prototypes.

I hope that my process can help you arrive at some realistic (and finite) goals for your fleet.

Below, see the .pdf of my roster spreadsheets for reference. A keen observer will note that some reporting marks are merely placeholders for to be determined prototypes/models and other prototypes are listed where there are yet to be produced models (I do have plans for those).

Rapido Northern Pacific 10000-series Double Sheathed Box Cars

The Rapido Northern Pacific 10000-series double sheathed box cars have been eagerly anticipated by HO scale modelers since they were announced a couple years ago. Their arrival is yet another example of a signature car being produced in injection molded styrene, although this is the most esoteric, with previous cars such as the B&O Wagontop and Milwaukee Ribside box cars representing highly recognizable prototypes. The NP cars are no less significant, but are certainly more subtle. The fact that they even exist in a medium other than resin reminds of moments when my late friend Richard Hendrickson would say, “these are the good old days.” We are being confronted with riches we never imagined.

The roof is the finest version of the NP style produced to date

Certainly the most distinctive feature of these cars and for that matter, most NP house cars of the 1920s, was the trademark radial roof, with extremely narrow seam caps. Rapido has quite faithfully and delicately replicated this characteristic. Accentuating the roofs are finely rendered "wood" running boards (note: I prefer styrene over wood, particularly laser cut wood).

The lumber door detail is captured nicely on the model

The car body is no less well-detailed. Rapido expended great effort to correctly simulate the grooves on the double sheathed wood siding. The result in convincing. The doors, including the top tracks for the hangers and the guides are nicely recreated in scale, as well. The Murphy ends with seven corrugations in the top panel over eight in the bottom are nicely detailed. The lumber door in the A end is faithfully replicated.

Note the spring-like tensioning device that was common on NP brake arrangements

The difference-maker in a car at a $50 price point is the detailing. The cars feature wire grabs, with the lower ones on the side and end ladders incorporating the hybrid “straight-drop” configuration of the prototype. The two grabs at the left of the side and the hybrid grabs appear to be of a different material and are also about 0.002" thinner diameter wire, approximately 0.011"-0.012" vs. 0.013"-0.014".

The Miner 'Ideal' lever style hand brake is extremely well done. The pipe from the pressure retaining valve is large

The Miner ‘Ideal’ lever hand brake is a thing of beauty that I hope will be made available as a separate part. One area of criticism (and it is common with most manufacturers’ models) is the pipe for the pressure retaining (“retainer”) valve. It should be about 0.008". It is significantly more pronounced on the model, no doubt in the interest of durability and moldability. It is an area I will improve. The sill steps are exceptional, being fashioned from metal, and following the shape and contour of those on the prototype.

Note the finely rendered sill step and the hybrid "drop-straight" grab iron

The trucks are the only other area where I can express reservations. While they include separate brake shoes and generally follow the prototype, the detail is a little soft in comparison to the offerings of Tahoe Model Works, Kato, Kadee or Tangent. I would like to see this area improved on future Rapido offerings. The truck mounting is also a little "wonky". Even with the screws fully tightened, the trucks had a loose quality. Perhaps the integral screw-washer arrangement as well as the mounting post mitigates this in operation. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem all that "tight". I hope that my concerns are overcome in practice and operation by clever engineering. One other nit: I would encourage manufacturers to lead the push to 0.088” tread wheelsets. They operate the same as code 110 sets. Make the change!

The AB brake system as added to these cars circa the 1940s is faithfully replicated. While the styrene piping and rodding are compromises, they are rendered as delicately as can be expected. A nice touch is the NP tensioning mechanism visible as a spring-like device in the detail photo included above. Rapido has done a good job at capturing the layout of the prototype. Kudos here!

Rapido is to be commended for producing a fine model of a significant prototype. If online comments are any indication, they are already sold out. I hope it is an indication of success.

I purchased a pair of undecorated models and am waiting for decals (one model to have and a just-in-case extra). I will highlight the finished model in a subsequent post after I paint, letter, and weather it. I will also document the changes and enhancements I make. Yes, there are a few to be made...