Why no Northern Pacific R-40-25 from Speedwitch?

 

Interestingly, this exact car was also photographed by Will Whittaker at a different time and place!

I get that question a lot. It's a valid query since they are the same car, right? Well... at first blush, the NP cars were a lot like the PFE R-40-25. They had the same welded underframes and details, same Murphy diagonal panel roofs, same Improved Dreadnaught end type, and other corresponding details, as well...

... however, the Northern Pacific cars were equipped with push pole pockets as seen inside the red highlighted squares above (click on the image to see a larger version.) That resulted in a couple changes to the lower corners that made the lower corners virtually identical to those of an R-40-23. In a cascading fashion that resulted in these R-40-25 clones having different sill steps, different attachment for the bottom of the ladder stiles, and different lower corners all around, as compared to the PFE R-40-25. In the aggregate, these differences result in a different, albeit subtly, but different nonetheless, end, that I have yet to offer. That will change in the not too distant future, though.

The Northern Pacific cars did have different bolster tabs than the PFE R-40-25s. On the NP they appear to be more akin to those on a PFE R-40-26. That is not out of bounds given that the R-40-26 underframes were virtually identical to the R-40-25, save for details like the bolster tabs. 

Note that the brake step is silver, like the roof... an interesting detail for sure