Model this scene! Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 

"Untitled photo, possibly related to: Grain elevators and flour mill, freight yards. Cedar Rapids, Iowa," September, 1941, Marion Post Wolcott, FSA/OWI Collection, The Library of Congress, negative LC-USF34-090050-D

These images were recorded by Marion Post Wolcott in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in September, 1941. She was one of many professional photographers of the era who were contracted by the government to record facets of industry, culture, daily life, etc., under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration that morphed into the Office of War Information. They were mostly medium format, so the negatives are generally high quality, and the photographers were generally free to choose their subject matter. As they were recorded under government contract, there were (and are) no copyright restrictions on their use [note that people do download these images and sell prints of them; if you buy such an image you are generally paying for that which you could acquire for free with a little sleuthing.]

"Grain elevators and flour mill, freight yards. Cedar Rapids, Iowa," September, 1941, Marion Post Wolcott, FSA/OWI Collection, The Library of Congress, negative LC-USF34-090049-D

Back to these images... these three images illustrate (to me, at least) what would make an exceptional switching layout opportunity. I presume that these images were recorded over a relatively short period of time, yet you can see in the images the activity level. This entire scene could be recreated in a walkaround island four to six feet wide, depending upon your space and eight to twelve feet long, incorporating some or all of the industries and tracks shown or it could be narrowed to include fewer tracks and perhaps flats instead of full structures on one side and run along a wall. 

"Grain elevators and flour mill, freight yards. Cedar Rapids, Iowa," September, 1941, Marion Post Wolcott, FSA/OWI Collection, The Library of Congress, negative LC-USF34-090051-D

In these images you can see four (!) locos switching these tracks. There are plenty of operating opportunities here. There is also an interesting mix of cars, including the usual box cars plus automobile cars, stock car, reefers (including a dry ice refrigerator car,) tank cars, and coal gondolas. The Sanborn maps for this location can likely be located and there are probably resources about Cedar Rapids in historical society publications. If you're an aprtment dweller or have a small to modest-sized room available for your layout, you could do worse than to recreate this scene.

Southern Pacific A-50-11 Automobile Car

 

SP 69439 was an A-50-11 photographed in San Diego by Col. Chet McCoid. Note that the placard boards on the right door and the end had been lowered. Dec. 26, 1954. Bob's Photo

The Southern Pacific rostered three classes of all-steel "single sheathed" automobile cars. They're not technically single sheathed cars since they had steel sheathing with wood lining, making them double sheathed, but they have visible structural members, lending the traditional look of a single sheathed car. 

While the subject of this February, 1939 FSA-OWI image by Dorothea Lange was the two itinerants, it provides an excellent view of the Dreadnaught end door applied to the A-50-9 class automobile cars. Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California, Library of Congress Call Number: LC-USF34-019076-E

The first group was class A-50-9, built in 1928 by Tennessee Coal & Iron, 250 cars in series 68980-69229. They were characterized by steel sides with visible structural members in a Howe truss arrangement, long support sections under the Youngstown steel doors, large fishbelly center sill underframes, Murphy Solidsteel roofs, Dreadnaught ends, including end doors in the A end, and Dalman two-level trucks with Barber lateral motion devices.

This Dorothea Lange photo from the same family of images as the one shown above affords a good view of the support applied to the side sill, below the doors. Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California, Library of Congress Call Number: LC-USF34-019076-E

A-50-10 SP 69304 was photographed in Alameda (Oakland area) California in 1947. Note the hinges at the left corner of the car, for the Dreadnaught end doors. Howard Ameling Collection

In 1930, Pressed Steel built 150 cars that were similar to the previous class, down to the end doors, but notably had a different support section under the doors and a different underframe arrangement. This group, nos. 69230-69379, were assigned to class A-50-10.

At the same time, Pressed Steel also built 150 cars without end doors that were otherwise identical to the A-50-10. These cars with tight ends were assigned to class A-50-11, car nos. 69380-69529. Prototype photo at the top of this post.

Given their steel construction, these cars were relatively long-lived on the SP, with close to two-thirds making it into the 1960s in revenue service. Why am I sharing all this info? Well, I happen to be constructing the pilot model of a forthcoming A-50-11 kit as I type this. The one-piece body is shown below.

These kits will be offered in the next couple weeks and include the following:

• one-piece cast resin bodies and resin details
• many etched metal details
• Tahoe Model Works Dalman two-level trucks with Barber lateral motion detail
• 0.088" tread width wheelsets
• Decals printed by Cartograf from my artwork
• Kadee scale couplers
• Tichy KC and AB brakes and wire

Phoenix Rising, or new Speedwitch kits

 

CNW Riveted PS-1 Auto Car pilot model

While I will create individual posts for the new kits as I launch them, I do want to provide some context in advance of what I assume will generate a kerfuffle, albeit a small one (I hope!) As many noticed through the magic of others' photos from MARPM 2023, there are some new offerings coming from Speedwitch. The most immediate are as follows: CNW riveted PS-1 auto car, SP A-50-11 50' single sheathed steel auto car, Milwaukee 50' single sheathed auto car, Pullman-Standard Southeastern roads' 10'0" IH Emergency box car, and Santa Fe Bx-34 Duryea underframe parts set. The first four are complete kits with one-piece resin bodies. The Bx-34 includes a floor and underframe parts plus other details including ladders and placard and route card boards. There are other cars that will follow quickly upon the heels of these offerings.

B end of CNW PS-1 Auto car

The reason for this post is not necessarily to discuss these releases, but to share some information about the prices and how the kits will be released. First, a note about prices. These kits will be expensive relative to all other HO scale kits. That may be a dealbreaker for some and I completely understand. What I hope is that those who find them too expensive will respect my reasons and they are as follows. For years, my pricing philosophy was to always charge the least I felt that I could, given that resin kits already command a high price. However, I am not in a business where I have runs of 50,000 items and can secure profits through volume. I am in a highly specialized and niche market where ~100 of a car might be the entirety of sales. I am investing a lot of time in pattern creation and prep for production, decal artwork and decal printing with the acknowledged industry leader, etching artwork and processing, plus adding other items as will be described in the following paragraph. In other words, I am providing a premium product to replicate interesting prototypes as closely to the prototype as the scale and medium allows. I need to do this at a price that provides value to me and my suppliers for my efforts.

CNW PS-1 Auto car underframe

As alluded to, I am adding additional items that will allow for highly detailed replicas, down to the smallest details. All decals (except one instance where the decals were printed years ago) are printed by Cartograf, the finest provider in the industry. Even the smallest lettering is clear and legible and large decals, such as emblems and medallions are not "thick" and difficult to make conform to surface features. I am including trucks with 0.088" wheelsets where feasible, including working with providers on some trucks that have not been available in HO scale previously, except in poorly rendered brass or metal offerings, if at all. These will increase the accuracy of several kits. I am providing more etchings than anyone has in past to replicate details in the most accurate way possible. Kits feature the best details and parts that I can source such as parts from Kadee, Tangent, Tahoe, Moloco, Tichy, and others, where appropriate. I am set to provide everything necessary to complete the models except paint, weathering media, and things like chain, which will be called out should the modeler wish to add these details. 

Southern Pacific A-50-11 body casting

All kit offerings will follow a limited release plan, meaning that once they are gone, I will not re-release them again in future. Kit runs will be in the range of 100 kits (plus or minus depending upon subject and interest.) I realize this might be difficult for some, but I have determined from past experience that I can be more efficient if I produce an item, sell it, and move on to the next project.

Milwaukee Road single sheathed auto car body casting

Given the nature of limited runs, I will be introducing a subscription plan for those who are interested. There will be no upfront payments or deposits required. It will be non-binding, meaning you can opt out at any time or can opt out of specific individual offerings. When a new kit is released, it will be announced to subscribers first and those individuals will have 72 hours to decline. The remaining kits will be added to inventory and/or sold at meets and events. Should subscription interest outpace the ~100 kit number, I will reevaluate and likely increase the number of kits produced for that project, up to the maximum quantity of items such as decals and etchings that closely "match" the maximum number, roughly a cap of 150. [Please refrain from contacting me about subscriptions at present; I will provide details in the near future.] The CNW riveted PS-1 auto car will not be part of the subscription plan.

"Board-by-board" detail on Milwaukee Road auto car

Circling back to the cost, kits will be in the $75 to $90 range depending upon complexity and details necessary to complete the kit. Again, before lambasting me for the cost, please give some time to see what the offerings look like and what value is present. My intention is to provide a premium product that results in one of the finest models in your fleet, not just another car in the fleet. Watch for the release of the CNW riveted PS-1 auto car in the coming days...

Thank you for reading. As always, comments are welcome. Cheers, Ted

Some context for weathering of freight cars

 

Illinois Central R.R., freight cars at the South Water Street freight terminal, Chicago, Ill. The C & O and Nickel Plate Railroads lease part of this terminal from the I.C.R.R. April, 1943, Jack Delano, Call number LC-USW36-605, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information, Library of Congress

The other day, I was looking for images that I had of Erie 1932 ARA-design box cars and this one came up as part of my search. I think most of us have seen this and many of the other incredible images like them. The Jack Delano color images from the World War II era effortlessly suck me into the nuances, textures, and details of the various parts of the photos. What I realized is that my weathering and finishing efforts, in spite of my attempts to diversify my techniques of late, are still not quite up to the look of the prototype. After looking at these photos, I conclude that I can do a better job of creating variances across the surfaces of my models, both in terms of color and texture. I will be working to expand my quiver of skills and will share some of my successes and failures here. 

[note that the cars displayed in this small montage are weathered quite a bit more heavily than you might see 5-10 years later, due to the continued shift from steam to diesel power and with that a decrease in the amount of dirty gunk belched from locomotives as well as more frequent maintenance and repainting of cars in the postwar era.]

Lots of interesting things in this photo

This photo of Clyde Yard from the Newberry Library from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy collection. The image was recorded by Russell Lee in May, 1948.

In the image below, I have overlaid text to highlight some of the details. Views of roofs are especially interesting as they illustrate the diversity of types, as well as the differing heights of cars. 

Plywood Sheathed Freight Cars: Protoypes and Models

Here are the links to my files on plywood sheathed freight car prototypes and models as presented at Hindsight 20/20 6.0 on January 09, 2021. 

Youtube video

.pdf file

McKeesport Connecting Railroad 1000-series 50-foot Gondolas

ACF Industries, Hawkins/Wider/Long Collection

The McKeesport Connecting Railroad was part of the U.S. Steel family of railroads and its very modest fleet of cars reflected that affiliation. It received 100 fifty-foot gons from American Car & Foundry in 1941 that were similar to cars received by other USS roads. The cars were placed in the 1000-1099 series. They had fairly low sides, steel floors, fixed Dreadnaught ends, and fishbelly center sills, among other details. They were painted in a decidedly gray (not black) color: Scully #320 black graphite and as delivered featured a Pratt & Lambert "Vitralex" red circle as part of the company monogram.

The cars did have some unusual details, many of which are called out in the graphical photo overlay above. Note the grab arrangement in the in service photo below.

John W. Barriger National Railroad Library flickr site, TRRA of St. Louis album

Funaro & Camerlengo offers HO scale resin model kits for these cars. There are a few details that need to be addressed/corrected for an accurate model:

• Grab iron mounting arrangements at corners of sides and ends (note that these were simplified for many cars by the early to mid-1950s; scratchbuild on model)
• USS-style towing loop/jacking pads and route card holders (spare etchings from Speedwitch B&LE box car kit)
• Universal 5700 XL power hand brake with M1704 wheel (from Intermountain covered hopper kit)
• Collapsible stake pockets (model includes them; prototype did not have them; will model a car with a load to hide interior, but must remove rivets from exterior of sides)
• Red circle in the as-built scheme (small custom decal project!)

I will highlight the modeling of a car in coming posts. Here are photos of my model in its current state (not very far along!):

Reservoirs and AB valve installed and piped with 0.010" wire

Floor glued in place; not collapsible stake pockets (not correct for this prototype)

Etchings for towing loops/jacking pads and route card holders

Other photos:

MKCRR 1029 - Ed Wilkommen Collection of Lake States Railway Historical Association - note replacement Equipco hand wheel

MKCRR 1042 - Jack Whitmeyer Collection (small image)

I plan to bring this to Cocoa Beach as a finished model, including pipe load

BIG thank you to Ed Hawkins for his help with the prototype information

Wordy Wednesday - Illinois Central 176000-series Single Sheathed Box Cars

Zanesville, Ohio, Paul Dunn photo, Howard Ameling Collection

In 1927, the Illinois Central received 500 cars each from Pullman Car & Manufacturing (predecessor to Pullman-Standard which was the result of the merger of Pullman with Standard Steel Car) and Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Co. The cars were of single sheathed construction with zee-bar structural members arranged in a Howe truss configuration. They had fewer ‘panels’ per side, with only four diagonals total. Other specialties included Hutchins Dry Lading roofs, Youngstown steel doors with Camel no. 50 fixtures, Dreadnaught steel ends (three main corrugations in the top panel over five in the bottom), and cast steel sideframe trucks (the prototype's trucks are most, but not exactly like, the 40-ton ARA trucks with Barber Lateral Motion detail from Tahoe - TMW-114 and TMW-214). One other notable feature was that the side sills were angles, rather than the more common channel sections. The cars were initially assigned to the 176000 series, but after the war were renumbered into the 16000 series.

Dunsmuir, California, September 4, 1954, Will Whittaker photo

HO scale models were offered by Sunshine approximately 20 years ago. They were quite good, featuring ‘board-by-board’ patterns. At this year’s Chicagoland RPM, the gift to early registrants was a set of parts to replicate these cars using an Accurail 7100 undecorated box car kit as the foundation. The parts include ends, door rollers, underframe parts, AB brake components, and other details. One note is that the crossbearer bottom cover plates have a single row of rivets in the parts set while the prototype had a double row. Although I do not have drawings, this is perhaps due to the use of pressed steel crossbearer shapes that were arranged flat back to back (again, this is purely my supposition).

These cars were included in Focus on Freight Cars, Volume One, pages 26-27.

It is my goal to complete all four of the recent gift kitbashes from the 2016-2019 meets to display at next year’s event. The cars are the B&O M-15K rebuilt Wagontop box car, Chicago Great Western 1937 AAR box car with Carbuilder’s ends, Fruit Growers truss rod reefer, and the IC single sheathed box car. Let’s see if I can keep to that timetable.

Illinois Central car diagram

Chicagoland RPM 2019 - Part Two

Norm Bakker displayed this attractive reworked Life-Like model of a Milwaukee 4-6-2

Here are some additional photos from the Chicagoland RPM from this past weekend, 24-26 October, 2019.

This heavily weathered Soo box car represents a company service car modeled by Tom Dowling

Dave Campbell showed off this S&G Tech 3D-based model of a C&O V4-1 ventilated box car. It is decorated with parts from Tichay, Accurail, and A-Line with custom ghost white printed decals.

Eric Hansmann displayed a similar design car (although not a ventilator) that was also built in 1923 and also represented through a private run resin kit.

Bob Chapman had a large number of cars on display, including this ACL O-16 rebuild from a Yarmouth kit

Kristen Dummler is becoming an authority on poultry equipment and is also becoming the leading modeler of such equipment, as evidenced by these two beauties

Jon Pansius is also one of the posse of mid-1920s to Depression era modelers that brought models for show. This is a private run model of an MDT reefer built in 1924

Jon also displayed this SFRD Rr-X from a Westerfield kit

Roger Hinman completed the gift from last year's event, down to the closely-spaced seam caps at the center of the roof

This 8-hatch CN reefer displayed by John Riddell is a True Line Trains HO scale model painted and lettered using Black Cat Decals

John also brought this Chad Boas resin flat car with CP trailers by Modelwerx of Vancouver. 

Ryan Mendell of National Scale Car displayed his model of last year's gift to attendees. Note the correct black roof. Ryan reworked many details, including a scratchbuilt underframe.

Weathering guru Hunter Hughson displayed one of the models covered during his weathering clinic. It started as a factory decorated Kadee model and was then weathered using many of the techniques that he discussed.

Hunter also had this in-progress model of a 1966 rebuild of a 1929 CN single sheathed box car.

These are two more examples of the many loads on display from Craig Wilson. They are both NYC models. The shorter one is a Red Caboose model, while the longer is a resin offering from Protowest. The wood loads are scale lumber

This brass 'bash caught my eye because I was gifted this exact brass model several months ago, with no accompanying documentation. Steve Hile's efforts can be used as a foundation for my own. The prototype is a Warren 8,000 gallon ICC 104W insulated tank car built in 1953 by AC&F. The model is from Iron Horse/Precision Scale.

Here are this year's parts and below is a photo of the prototype by Will Whittaker