Comparison of 12-Panel Box Cars - Southern Pacific and Great Northern

Many years ago (longer than I can believe) I built the model shown above* and patted myself on the back for having made an SP class B-50-25 12-panel 10'0" inside height postwar AAR box car. Truth be told, it's an acceptable outcome. However, it is many years later and I am now an SP modeler and this B-50-25 model no longer scratches the itch. Why? Well, there are numerous differences between the GN 12-panel box car (the basis for the Intermountain kit used to make the B-50-25) and the SP and T&NO's B-50-25 and -26 classes of 12-panel box cars.

First an interesting point: while the GN 12-panel box cars garner lots of attention, the SP had a sizable fleet of 12-panel cars and if confined to the inside height of 10'0"/10'2", the SP/T&NO cars were more numerous, at 3,475 for the GN vs. 5,600 for the SP/T&NO. 

There are several well-documented differences to these prototypes: the end panels on the GN cars were welded together while they were riveted on the SP/T&NO. The side sill support tab sections on the GN cars were welded to the underframe crossmembers while they were riveted on the SP/T&NO. The door stops on the cars were different for the GN vs. SP/T&NO. The GN cars used Murphy diagonal panel roofs while the SP/T&NO had rectangular panel roofs. These differences alone add up to these being quite different looking in aggregate (not to mention the early Improved Youngstown doors on the SP/T&NO B-50-25, with their wide overlapping sections.) The Intermountain models skew all of these detail differences in favor of the GN cars, making an SP/T&NO model a compromise on many levels. I did address many of these things in my model shown above, but the difference in the side construction was not addressed. Here is what that looks like (click on the images to see a larger view)

March 22, 1959, Hamlet, NC, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

June 6, 1948, Wilmington, CA, courtesy of Paul Koehler

Yes, these differences are subtle, but when added to the ledger of other differences in roof, ends, doors, side sill support sections ('tabs') and additional details, it all beckoned me to take the plunge and fix everything. So, I have created new side and end patterns to be incorporated into a full kit with one-piece resin body, accurate side sill support 'tabs' for the different builders (they were different!), correctly spaced ladders, etc. for the B-50-25/-26. Stay tuned as these will be available this year from Speedwitch.

*one interesting thing I found when making decals for the B-50-25 is that the Pressed Steel cars (which the model is based upon) used a zero for the 'O' in "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" lending a pronounced oval shape to the character, as opposed to the more rounded "O" as shown in the prototype photo of B-50-26 SP 59057, shown above. The prototype photo of SP 21264 is shown below

November 9, 1947, Reading Allison Hill Freight Terminal, Harrisburg, PA, Bob Charles Collection, Kalmbach Memorial Library

Forty-foot PS-1 12-panel Box Cars

San Diego, California, December 27, 1956, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

In my various clinics on 'oddball' 40' PS-1s I have touched on the 12-panel box car variants (link to presentations). I have wanted to model a couple of them and will start expanding upon that here with the two prototypes I intend to replicate in HO scale. One is a Mississippi Central car and the other is a Nickel Plate prototype. The Mississippi Central has been released by Intermountain using their PS-1, which is not accurate for this car, but offered nonetheless, no doubt due the the attractive scheme and the sales it could generate. The Mississippi Central had 100 cars, nos. 5000-5099, delivered in June, 1949 by Pullman-Standard. Nickel Plate received 1,000 12-panel PS-1 box cars, nos. 6000-6999, delivered by Pullman-Standard in early 1948.

courtesy of Al Hoffman

The starting point for the Mississippi Central car is the original Kadee PS-1 with six-foot door opening. The biggest consideration aside from the specialties of the prototype (hand brake, running boards, etc.) is the 12 panels. More on that in the post on modeling the cars. It's a relatively easy car to model, though.

Until late 2018, the Nickel Plate car would have required a more formidable effort. However, the recent release by Kadee of the early version of the PS-1 makes things considerably easier. The main thing to be addressed, assuming one chooses to, is the underframe (aside from the number of panels, of course.) For the earlier cars Kadee opted to leave the underframe tooling from the original kit unchanged, even though it is not technically accurate. Early PS-1s used what was in essence a welded AAR underframe, while the Kadee model uses the later proprietary PS-1 underframe. I will cover my efforts to address that in the subsequent posts on modeling these cars.