Murphy Radial Roof on SP B-50-15

 

crop of yard image, Portland, Oregon, 1940s, no photographer noted, Alamy (click on any image to enlarge)

This post is a follow-on to my original posts about the SP and T&NO B-50-15 and -16 single sheathed box cars as well as my thoughts about the Rapido models of said cars. Within the past 24 hours, I found and acquired an image of the Murphy radial roof as applied to an SP B-50-15. It prompted me to revisit my data and I can conclude that the roof on the B-50-15 box cars equipped with the Murphy radial roof had the tiny raised crimp in the center of each roof panel. Unfortunately, none of the models produced for the B-50-15 to date incorporate this feature. 

Crop of builder's photo of SP 15229, Standard Steel Car Co. photo, collection of D.K. Retterer

Crop of SP 14573, Michael Urac Collection

The Murphy radial roof was produced in versions that both incorporated and did not include the tiny crimp. Further confusing things, arrangement drawings did not always illustrate this feature. Both the Standard Steel Car Company and Pullman Company drawings for the B-50-15 do not show this feature, even though it is present on the cars. There are ways to add this feature to models and that is a subject for a future post....