Wordy Wednesday - Pere Marquette 83332

San Diego, California, November 22, 1954, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo Collection

A couple Wednesdays ago, I posted an image and promised that I would endeavor to become a more regular Wednesday poster with some of my favorite images. Many of my peers post "Wordless Wednesday" content. I am going to take that idea, but go in a slightly different direction by providing some background text, as well, creating "Wordy Wednesday" posts. They won't be terribly wordy, but in contrast to the wordless posts of others, they will be wordy. Hence, the modifier "wordy".

About the photo... this is the first of what will be many images from Col. Chet McCoid during his wanderings in San Diego. Many of his photos from there were recorded when the light was low and the subjects rendered relatively low contrast and saturated, perfect for highlighting subtleties such as surface details and weathering. Pere Marquette 83332 was built in 1930 by Standard Steel Car Company as part of a group of 1,500 cars, nos. 82000-83499. The cars followed the "Modified" ARA design (based upon 1923 ARA and closely related X29 designs), but with the crossbearers located under the door posts in what would become the "standard" location. This design was ordered by other Van Sweringen roads C&O and Erie, as well. The PM versions used the Hutchins Dry Lading roof, a departure from the cars on their cousins' lines.

Yankee Clipper offered HO scale resin kits of these cars many years ago. They are currently unavailable in the Funaro & Camerlengo line. I am fortunate to have one in my unbuilt kit inventory that will become one of my two "signature" PM cars when I build it. The other is one of the single sheathed automobile cars.

For more about these Pere Marquette prototype box cars, see "Pere Marquette 1930 Steel Box Car" by Jeffrey Koeller in Mainline Modeler, May 2001.

Interesting tarp cover on a gondola

I have seen plenty of photos of tarped loads on flat cars, usually covering equipment. However, I can't recall seeing a gon with a tarp. I'm certainly not saying this photo is unique, but given the number of photos I have seen, this one stood out. It would make an interesting and relatively easy thing to recreate. I'm leaning towards a microfiber cloth dyed to simulate the canvas tarps of the late Steam Era. I think it's worth a try. When I do it, you'll see it here.

The gon is PRR 337254, a GRA, reweighed in March, 1950 at the Rose Lake, Illinois, eastbound shops on the Pennsy.

The subject of the photo was a New Haven I-4 Pacific in the Hartford Yards, but this is far more interesting, so I zoomed in and cropped to show all of the gon that I could. All three cars can be modeled in HO. The gon can be replicated using the Westerfield kit, the Texas & Pacific automobile car can be built using an MDC single sheathed auto car (read about how in Prototype Railroad Modeling, Volume 3) and the Pere Marquette auto car can be built from Speedwitch kit K111 (wow! two Speedwitch plugs in one sentence!)

A Good Point and a Decal Set

When I posted about creating decal artwork, I received a reply from Stephen Wilder, who made a very good point about the creation of accurate lettering; a point that had completely slipped my mind, but bears mentioning as it's another example of the things that are encountered in making accurate lettering. He observed that the "MA R" from my Pere Marquette lettering differed from what he had created for his Pere Marquette lettering. Yet neither of our lettering is incorrect. Often, one style of lettering will not work for a car that has constraints, such as a single sheathed automobile car (the Pere Marquette auto car has slightly condensed lettering in the road name as compared to a 1937 AAR box car or a gon) or a depressed center flat car (the "PENNSYLVANIA" on the F29  is only six inches tall). These differences must be incorporated or the lettering will not work. It's a point worth noting and I thank Stephen for making it.

I would also like to take a moment to plug the excellent decals that Stephen created: Smokebox Graphics set DF0187 for Pere Marquette freight cars. It's rare that I will rather purchase a decal set than create my own. I'm that picky. That said, I bought the Smokebox Graphics decals because the artwork is that good. They are printed by Cartograf. If you model airplanes, you know how good Cartograf decals are. I highly recommend this set.