Santa Fe Bx-34 Modified 1937 AAR Box Car

 

August 5, 1947, PRR siding, Division St., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Bob Charles Collection, Kalmbach Memorial Library

I thought a fitting addendum to my previous post would be one highlighting the prototype that was announced, the Santa Fe's Class Bx-34 Modified 1937 AAR box cars. The Santa Fe was the largest owner of Modified 1937 AAR box cars (10'4" to 10'6" inside height and 5/5 Dreadnaught ends, almost exclusively round corner.) The first 1,801 cars, delivered in 1940, were equipped with the Duryea Cushion underframe, like the vast majority of new Santa Fe box and refrigerator cars built in the mid-30s to 1940. The cars were assigned to number series 139500-141300.

Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

The cars received the map scheme, with the first group of cars carrying the "curved" map and the remainder painted with the "straight" map (ATSF 140793 at top sports the curved map while ATSF 140377 directly above carries the straight map*; I could likely be more specific, but my copies of Dobyne's Santa Fe box cars and Hendrickson's Santa Fe freight car painting and lettering books are in boxes somewhere in the house - if you have that info and can post a comment, I will update in the body of the text here. thank you.) The first 1,200 cars received American Steel Foundries spring plankless trucks while the remainder used National Type B-1 trucks. Youngstown doors with Camel fixtures, Ajax power hand brakes, Apex Tri-Lok brake steps, and wood running boards rounded out the main specialties. The roofs were treated with slate granules while the paint was still wet, giving them a pronounced dark grey to black appearance.

This later repaint circa 1959 displays lowered placard and route card boards of a different style than as built, as well as a more modern scheme

These cars (and many other Santa Fe AAR-design cars) featured other unusual details that collectively resulted in distinctive cars. The placard and route card boards on these cars had beveled (or perhaps rounded) top and bottom edges and used brackets with mounts that incorporated "ears" or tabs with holes for rivets to attach to the doors or ends. The top of the right stile on the side ladders was shorter than the left, presumably as a safety feature when a carman swung his foot/leg around when at the top of the car. While these cars had push pole pockets on the ends at the lower corners, they did not have short angle sections below the ladders, as most cars with push pole pockets did; rather, the sill steps mounted to the bottom of the side sill and corners. These cars did not use bracket-type grab irons either, unusual by 1940. Likely due to the four pairs of crossbearers of the Duryea (as opposed to the typical AAR underframe) they used a shorter side sill support section under the door. In the aggregate, the underframe plus these other features make for distinctive prototypes worthy of detailed models.

*images I have of ATSF 140185, 140177, 140809, and 141106 all carry the curved map

New Product and Speedwitch Goings On

Santa Fe Bx-34, Otto Perry photo, Denver Public Library

It's been awhile since I have posted anything about the state of affairs at Speedwitch (or posted much about other things, as well.) Since late last autumn and continuing as I type this, there has been no shortage of things that have limited my ability to do much of anything. The house in Brooklyn has been sold after a ton of work to get it ready (I relinquished my workspace there back in late November.) There has been a steady back and forth between there and the upstate house with a full carload each time. I have been spending most of my weeks upstate, but weekends have been back and forth to Brooklyn. My workspace upstate is what I would call nomadic at best since it is temporary and occupied on and off by a neverending stream of plumbers, electricians, builders, etc., doing work on the house. I spend my days dodging them and trying my best to work on patterns and become adept (enough) at resin casting. My better half still works in NYC, so we had to move her to an apartment over the past few weeks. Oddly (for me) I had several illnesses over the past six months that have sidelined me for the better part of three weeks. I have been frustrated at times, but persistence overcomes resistance...

Santa Fe Bx-34 Duryea Cushion underframe

All that said, there are things coming. I am starting slowly on the resin casting front, with a few parts sets to get my casting chops established. They include the most detailed Duryea underframe I am aware of (regardless of scale) for the Santa Fe's Bx-34 modified 1937 AAR box cars (details via this link) and a significant upgrade for the Intermountain/Amarillo PFE R-40-25, including correct ends and enhancements for details including the ladders, underframe, side sill supports, hatch cover rests, bunker drains, and other details. The last set is upgrade parts for the Bowser Pennsy X32 50' "round roof" cars. While these parts sets include plenty of "extreme" detail, in the parlance of Bill Welch, there are some suggested shortcuts to make them quicker and easier to build, if that is your desire.

Santa Fe Bx-34 end

On the full kit front, I will share a separate post in a few weeks detailing those plans. Much is dependent upon how quickly I feel comfortable with the casting process. While I am thoroughly enjoying the resin casting process I don't want to get too far ahead of myself lest I have to eat a giant helping of crow, but I am having fun (it is much like being in the darkroom... you do a few things that seem to involve process as well as voodoo and magic and end up with really cool results!)

Branchline Trains Yardmaster 1937 AAR Box Car Anomaly

I have been at work on a pilot model for an upcoming Speedwitch kitbash parts set. I had an undecorated Branchline Trains Yardmaster 1937 AAR box car kit in the stash and decided to use it as the foundation for the project instead of the Intermountain car. The BLT YM kit has separate ends (which are being replaced in the kitbash,) the correct single stringer on each side of the underframe and one of the best renditions of the Youngstown door that's been done in HO, albeit with the placard and route card boards integral to the door. It's an attractive base to start with, even knowing I would have to carve off the ladders and grabs on the sides.

However, as things progressed, I discovered an anomaly that I thought worth sharing. One side of the car is "higher" than the other! It is as if one entire side has been raised approximately 0.015" relative to the other. It is a very strange tooling error, but left me scratching my head until I realized what it was. The first underframe image with no "lip" is correct (right side on the model when viewed from the B end,) while the second with the "lip" is incorrect (left side on the model when viewed from the B end.) I am working around it, but it is definitely good to know it's there if you are planning to use one of these cars as fodder for a future effort. I will share a post very soon about the Speedwitch offering as I am almost ready to announce it.

Clearing Up a Misperception

Santa Fe Caswell design GS gondola ATSF 171033 from class Ga- 5, Reading Yards, Rutherford, Pennsylvania,  June 19. 1947, Bob Charles Collection, Kalmbach Memorial Library 

There is a perception that GS gondolas (GS = "An Open Top Car, having fixed sides and ends and drop bottom, consisting of doors hinged at center sills to dump outside of rails," per the Official Railway Equipment Register) were West Coast cars and if you model the Northeast, Southeast, mid-Atlantic, etc., you don't have need for these on your layout*. I understand that notion. However, it is not correct. Granted, if you model western Massachusetts, for example, you should not have a gondola fleet comprised of 50% GS gons. That said, in a roster of solid bottom ("GB") gondolas, you could and would see GS gondolas from a variety of roads and should have a few in your fleet to mix into operating sessions. I have included some photos of GS gons in locales that support my contention (one shared by Richard Hendrickson and that I discussed with him on more than one occasion.)

C&EI 90108 was also of Caswell design, although it had received steel sheathing in place of the wood by the time it was photographed on February 10, 1952 in Columbus, Ohio, by Col. Chet McCoid. The doors were held in the "up" position using Wine door locks. Bob's Photo

Numerous fine models of GS gons have been offered over the years in both styrene and resin. The reason for and timing of this post is that I am working on a new pilot model for a styrene offering that one, is a GS-type gon like described in the previous paragraph, e.g. "western" GS gon, and two, is a fine example of contemporary HO scale technology, with fine tooling and separate details. Stay tuned for more about this model in the coming days...

Chicago & Illinois Western 1247 (ex-IC gon) was photographed in Aberdeen, North Carolina on October 30, 1951 by Col. Chet McCoid. Bob's Photo

The Burlington had a large fleet of composite GS gons that employed composite, Murphy or Dreadnaught ends. They also used Wine door locks. Note that there were not doors in all locations; from left, panels 2 and 4 had doors in the corresponding floor locations. Reading Yards, Rutherford, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1947, Bob Charles Collection, Kalmbach Memorial Library

*one caveat is that I am referring to and advocating for GS gons of the upper Midwest, Northwest, Mountain West, Southwest and West Coast; if you model western Massachusetts as the example I cited, you would quite likely see GS gons from the B&M, MEC or CN, as well, as they (and not too many other Eastern roads) did have modest fleets of GS gons 

Interesting Armour Refrigerator Line Car Detail

ca. 1936, San Francisco, courtesy Bill Welch

Armour had a sizable fleet of refrigerator cars for the transportation of meat (in different stages of processing.) There were many cars like the one shown above, with steel center sill underframes with truss rods or pressed steel crossmembers. Armour also leased cars from Mather to augment the fleet and in the late 1940s, Armour added 2,000 all steel cars from AC&F to begin the shift to more contemporary design standards.

However, the purpose of this post is to highlight an unusual detail of these 11000-series cars. All of the other Armour wood reefers were equipped with typical sill steps that were attached to the bottom of the side and extended straight down from there although the right step usually had two rungs, like that shown here.) The rather interesting detail on the cars in the 11000 series is that they had two sharp 90 degree bends to nest around the bottom of the lower corner strap angle and side sheathing, as well as the common half twist, as can be seen. Crops of both sill steps are shown below to illustrate this feature. Yet another nuance to add to your Sunshine Models kit when you build it... 

Something a Little (maybe not so little) Different

 

Al Armitage photo, Ron Morse Collection

One of the nice things about Springfield is catching up with friends.  I had a chance to see Scott Kritzky and Terry Van Winkle. Awhile back, I had offered mostly encouragement, but also a bit of prototype reference material to Scott for one of his projects. He shared the fruits of his labor with me at Springfield. He and Terry have produced a beautiful set of O scale ends for the Southern's 'SU' thirty-six foot truss rod box cars. Having them eliminates the most difficult obstacle to modeling one of these numerous cars. Well done and I can't wait to see what they conjure up next, perhaps even in a smaller size... maybe 1:87.1?!

Some of these cars also enjoyed a renaissance on the Lancaster & Chester in the postwar years

All blemishes, smudges, scratches, etc., are my fault entirely and not a reflection of the quality of these parts!

Frisco Double Sheathed Auto Cars

"Heading Down Winding Stair," Frisco 1332 pulling a 35-car freight train down the south side of Winding Stair Mountain near Talihina, Oklahoma, June, 1948, George Preston photo posted February 8, 2025 by Richard Crabtree on the Facebook group: Frisco Rails Across Oklahoma. Note that the car side appears smooth, but there are no notations of steel-sided cars in this group, meaning this would be double sheathed siding

By the Transition Era, double sheathed auto cars were very much a rarity, with the Rio Grande's 50-footers being the most obvious exception. Another interesting example making it into the Transition Era was the Frisco's 40-foot prototype built by American Car & Foundry before World War One and improved over the years. I saw the photo included above on the Facebook group, Frisco Rails Across Oklahoma, and was immediately curious about the first car behind the tender, as it was clearly not a standard forty-foot auto car. I recalled some chatter about Frisco auto cars on the groups.io Steam Era Freight Cars list (search "SLSF 152203 DS auto car" in messages) from a few years back and searched the archives. I have synthesized and augmented that information below.

Two AC&F builder's photos from Westerfield AC&F CD containing lot listings and builder's photos

"Amphibious DUKW cargo truck being unloaded from one of the hundreds of thousands of freight cars which carried victory cargo to San Francisco Port of Embarkation" from the book Gateway to Victory profiled by John Barry at his blog

Around 1937, the cars were rebuilt to incorporate Dreadnaught steel ends (4/5 square corner on the B end and 3/5 end doors on the A end,) Youngstown corrugated steel doors with Union Duplex fixtures, and "Hutchins Dry Lading Riveted" (trade name for the Murphy rectangular panel roof used on these cars, not to be confused with a Hutchins "Dry Lading" roof, very common in the 1920s.) Also, note that the height was increased by the addition of a side plate section above the existing car side, of undetermined shape, although likely zee bar. This section was further bolstered by diagonal shapes with a triangular opening "inside" the angle formed by the two surfaces they supported. These improvements are shown in the image above.

There were a little over 200 cars still in service in late 1951, at which point they were rapidly retired, with only 96 cars listed in the January, 1953 edition of the Official Railway Equipment Register.

West Bottoms, Kansas City, circa late 1940s

detail from previous photo, showing two of the cars in question

Circling back to my original thought: double sheathed auto cars were rarities in the Transition Era. Modeling such cars in HO scale presents an opportunity to include something different in the fleet. I am at work on completing the effort begun by Bill Welch to create patterns for the 50-foot Rio Grande cars, so that box is nearly checked. These Frisco cars would be a compelling "scratchbash" candidate and a complement to the Rio Grande cars. There are parts out there to address many of the components, although there are issues with most. The roof is easy as there are many options. The side plate and braces (or whatever ids actually is can be scratchbuilt.) The ends are a little more difficult, but can be kitbashed from a variety of sources, but the 3/5 end door A end would require "surgery" of an existing part, either the resin end from Yarmouth or a bash from a Proto2000 car. The doors are also a challenge as Union Duplex fixtures are still not offered for many Youngstown configurations/sizes. The sides could easily be scratchbuilt from Everegreen siding. The underframe would be a complete mystery absent drawings, but who would know what's right and wrong on a model? The center sills are straight, making things a little easier. It would be a fun and very challenging project....

Much of the story was compiled by Eric Lombard and shared on the groups.io list referenced above. There are still gaps in information so any solid leads, photos, etc., that can be shared can be added to this post.

Refrigerator Car Roof Surfaces

Collection of the late J. P. Barger

Having crews work on "bare" roof surfaces presented a seemingly risky endeavor, especially when the surfaces were smooth and wet, such as those on steel-roofed, ice-cooled refrigerator cars. One means to make things a little less perilous was to apply something rough and/or textured mixed with the paint applied to the roof. A common additive was crushed slate granules. This added (and noticeable) texture provided a more sure-footed surface for crews. These two photos illustrate that to good effect. The photo above is the roof of a PFE R-40-20. The texture is quite evident (click on the image to see a larger, more detailed view.) Contrast the surface texture of the roof and most of the hatch cover with the more smooth rectagular-shaped surface in the middle of the Equipco hatch cover (the stencil notes that, "THIS HATCH COVER MAY BE LOCKED FROM INSIDE OF CAR.")

The roof and hatch covers on Santa Fe rebuilt refrigerator car 9161 from class RR-43 are similarly textured.

Santa Fe photo, courtesy of the late Richard Hendrickson

While it may be difficult to effectively capture in HO scale, it is definitely noticeable compared to the other surfaces on the car. Happy modeling!

Coupler boxes, draft gear or whatever you choose to call them

My in progress PRR X41B has been equipped with the new prototype-sized draft gear

Yes, it's been awhile since I last posted, due to a variety of factors including illness, the holidays, work, moving stuff upstate, fostering an elderly pit bull and myriad other things. That doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything, although truth be told, I haven't done as much as I'd like. However, a little over a year ago, I made a pattern for a new scale-sized coupler box. Aren't there many of those already, one might ask? Yes, but none has satisfied my want for something a lot narrower than what the market has offered. [click on any photo to view in a larger format]

Note how narrow the opening is. These will operate down to "small" radius curves, especially if easements are used to form the curves. P.S. - I messed up on my X41B - the stringers should be 2 scale inches closer to the respective side sills; I (mis)located them too close to the center sills and they are "crowding" the middle section of the underframe!

I made a pattern that is essentially the narrowest box that I could create to accommodate the Kadee 158 whisker coupler and still have it be reasonably easy to duplicate via resin casting (and operate, of course!) At least for my wants and needs, I believe I have succeeded. The parts fit inside the boxes of the other scale and semi-scale coupler boxes. The caveat: these are not intended for hands-free magnetic uncoupling. I cannot state that they won't work with magnetic uncoupling tools, but my focus is for operators who use manual uncoupling tools, such as skewers or other similar tools. They do pivot easily and if assembled properly and not overtightened, will self center reliably.

The assembly is held in place with a single 00-80 screw

The draft gear installed on the (in progress) pilot model for the upcoming ATSF Bx-34 box car conversion parts including Duryea underframe

The draft gear for the Duryea underframe extends prototypically far (compared to standard draft gear) beyond the end sills

A third view on the Bx-34 pilot model

These will be available directly from Speedwitch in one dozen pair packs in the near future and if demand warrants, five pair packs, too. Pricing will be announced when these parts are available