Kitbashing Mystery SPMW 215 (Part 1) F-50-series Flatcar (Lone Pine Outfit)

Want to try another wild prototype SPMW kitbash?  I think I'll give this one a try.

Lone Pine SPMW Outfit F-50-flatcar - owensvalleyhistory.com - ebay47_lone pine_sml

I've decided to built a new F-50-series carbody to make this model, which is really cool!  I think this car was used for water service, probably under the Bridge & Building Department.  Oddly the B&B Dept didn't have cars directly assigned in the 1956 roster, while the Track and Maintenance did.  Lots of tubes, looks like 3-4" pipe.  Some sort of compressor or generator under the rack.  Be a cool looking car!  Of course I'd back-date this to FCR, pre-1958 era version.

Type-A 14x10" "Occupied Outfit Cars" sign, used to protect equipment from being coupled to or moved.

Notice the blue-flag warning sign hung above the cut lever to the left end of the flatcar in the prototype photo.  This would be put on both ends of the equipment to protect it from being coupled to.  There would also be a sign hung on the rail, and locked in place 100-200 feet from the equipment.  The switch stand to the track where the blue-flagged equipment would also be aligned the opposite direction and then a blue-flag switch lock, which also had a sign warning of "occupied equipment."

SPMW 3605 F-50-5

I already built a couple SPMW flats from the F-50-series flatcar from the OwlMtModels' kit.

SPMW 3605 assigned to T&M gangs - OwlMtModels 2002 kit.

I don't think I'll be using SPMW 3605 for the Jawbone MW "outfit" which was photographed at Lone Pine, which had a rack over-head, fuel tanks, compressors, etc.

SPMW 215 - T&M Flat

Basic Flatcar

Originally an F-50-5, ex-SP 41449, converted to T&M Flat on 10-5-1950.  Unfortunately, I can't read the car number on the prototype photo at Lone Pine, but I'm making a guess for a 1956 roster, for a car that was converted by my modeling era of 1949-53.

Underframe of completed F-50-5 with K-brake.

I built the flatcar per the kit instructions provided by OwlMtModels.  K-brakes are used, and I don't have any extra Kadee Vulcan trucks at the moment, so I'm using Accurail U-section AAR trucks (kit 2003).  The deck is moderately weathered with my razor saw distressing method.  I also added some deep gouges longitudinally from the center of the car under the tool rack, where the generator/compressor (whatever it is!) would have been drug into place.

Deck is distressed, engine drag marks from center to left, towards B-end.

I painted the basic car body with Star Brand SP/UP Freight Car Red (FCR).  The prototype photo is for a post-1958 gray MW car, and it appears that the car and tool rack is painted over-all gray.  Likewise, I want the car generally over-all FCR, but I'm using pre-stained wood with OwlMtModels ABS plastic stakes from the lumber load kits.  The plastic stakes can be glued very well into the plastic deck.

Stakes & Sideboards

Rough cut stakes from OMM lumber load kit spare parts.

B-end stakes and end board.

End stakes and inboard platforms stakes.

2x10 basswood strips cut to fit across B-end and down the sides.

The 2x10" basswood strips are pre-stained with gray Apple Barrel paint.

Machinist square checking vertical for the stakes while ACC cures.

Inboard end stake pockets fitted with stakes as well.

Checking fit of sideboards. - Notice no sideboards where fuel tank will be.

Another view of square with stakes set vertical.

Other 2nd from B-end stake.

ACC gluing left sideboard to stakes, with board clipped to inboard platform stake.

Sideboards installed.

Adding more stakes into the pockets with ACC around three sides and bottom, plus up the back side.

Another over-view of the installed sideboard.

On the right side, there was a short section of 2x10 between the center three platform stakes.

I used a loose 2x10 strip to space the short section of 2x10 up onto the stakes, glued on with ACC glue.

Completed short 2x10 installed on right side.

Left side short stakes installed.

Higher view of the sideboards and stakes.

Another high view with all stakes installed, including short stakes.

I filled in the remaining stake pockets with left over stake material.  I used the mini-clamps to hold the stakes to the sideboards as needed.  The right side of the car is shown in the prototype photo, so I cut them to the respective heights.  I extrapolated some of the left side stake heights, but some are just a guess.

Upper Platform

At this point, the stakes are secured well to the stake pockets.  The lower sideboards glued to the stakes also seems to help keep the stakes square and vertical.

Installing the longitudinal stringers with small self-closing clamps.

I put marks on the inside of the stakes at 6'4" from the deck.  This is the mark for the top of the longitudinal stringers made from wooden scale 2x6s.  ACC glue was applied with a piece of 0.030" scrap wire.  Then self-closing mini-clamps are useful to glue the wood strips to the stakes.  The stakes tend to lean off from the stakes, and to get them to glue properly to the longitudinal 2x6 the clamps work very well.

Cross beams were made from 9

Crossbeams were made from 9'6" scale 2x6 strip wood.  I used the NWSL "Chopper" to make 10 of these crossbeams for the five pairs of stake bents.

Overall view of the Right side of the car and rack at this point.

The crossbeams are glued in place with wire-applied ACC.  Occasionally the mini-self-clamps were used to hold the parts together while the ACC dried.

Notice in this shot that I've added the 2x4 wood strip across the upper parts of the right side A-end stakes, per the prototype photo, this formed the outside of the "pipe pile" area.  I'm not sure if there were more boards across the A-end of the car to keep the pipes from shifting.  It doesn't seem like if there was, it would have been high enough to contain the pipe, the photo doesn't seem to show it anything there at the far end of the prototype photo.

Overall view of the Left side of the car and rack at this point.

About this point I did a light coat of hand-painted Apple Barrel Chestnut (21391E), which is a slightly lighter (faded) shade of FCR, which seems about right if the crew that built the rack on the pre-painted flatcar in 1949, just applied a light coat with a brush or mop and it's already starting to fade or fail.  I may blend this a bit more when I weather the flatcar sides.  I'm keeping the internal sides of the wood strips with the pre-stained gray color of wood that had been outside for a couple years. 

B-end view of the flatcar and rack.

Be sure to leave a little extra longitudinal stringer past the posts to catch the outside cross beams on.

High-angle view of the cross beams, with a second one at the end of the rack installed.

One crossbeam was then attached on each side of the stakes.  The prototype photo seems to show plenty of "stuff" piled on top of the rack... so I suspect that the construction of the rack was build extra strong to support whatever the MW gang put up there.  Interestingly there does not appear to be any diagonal cross bracing in either direction for the tall stakes going up to the platform.

Detailed view of the completed framing with doubled cross bracing.

I used a couple of loose pieces of wood or stake material to check that the cross beams were roughly even and level so the platform deck boards would be level and supported.

Another overall view of the completed framing for the platform deck.

Looks like the cross beams are ready for the floor boards made from 2x10 strip wood, which are cut to overhang the outer cross beams slightly.

Northwest Short Line "Chopper" for cutting plastic and wood to repeated lengths.

Nine pieces are cut to length, again with the NWSL "Chopper".

Nine platform boards glued in place with small gaps between the boards.

On all the plastic-wood glue joints, I'm using ACC "super glue".  On the wood-wood joints, I'm using canopy glue (Testors), weighting or clamping in place, until it is dry.

Let's have a look at the bottom of the platform deck

Looks pretty good!  Wheels will be installed later, as I liked having a good steady support for the car on the workbench, not allowing the car to roll alway.  In this view the hole in the sideboards is obvious, where the fuel tank (?) is installed.  I look forward to building the crazy piles of stuff on the car, but for now I'm building it empty.

Time for platform deck detailing with pencil nails.

For the little nails to hold the deck on the platform, I'm using my little mechanical pencil, and softly pressing down into the deck boards.

2x6 sideboards installed on the platform.

Per the prototype photo, there were 2x6 boards forming a tray out of the platform.  This makes perfect sense as all the materials stored up there needs to be contained.  Note that I have mounted another 2x6 across the B-end of the rack, to form a containment board there.

Possibly, if I was to do this again, I would have put a 0.01-0.02" styrene strip spacer under the 2x6, which seems to be good, as there would probably be a gap to allow anything spilled to be cleared out.

Another 2x6 is cut to go across the inboard side of the rack.

Note that the rack doesn't have a ladder on the inboard end of the rack, per the prototype photo.  There's a ladder formed on the center two posts on the B-end.

Ladder

Ladder rungs are formed from 24" sections of OwlMtModels lumber bracing stock.

I made the ladder on the B-end out of ABS OwlMtModels bracing pieces cut to 24".  These pieces and the stakes in the center stake pockets are both ABS plastic, which can be very effectively welded together with Tamiya plastic glue.

Upper "Stuff" Rail

Spacers made from two extra OMM Stakes and a piece of 0.125" x 0.06" strip.

I need to make spacers to position the upper platform "hand rails" or maybe more correctly termed "Stuff rails."  I figure they should be about 12-15" above the lower boards.

Removed plastic spacer with upper right rail clamped in place.

The upper rails are still clamped, now that I've removed the plastic spacing material.  The two loose stakes are going to b

Inboard upper hand rail in place.

I'm not sure if the inboard rail should have another vertical support, but the prototype photo doesn't seem to show one.

The B-end cross hand rail is glued in place.

The final part is installing the B-end hand rail.

Here's the B-end cross hand rail is cut to length and for the ladder.

 Last step is cutting the 2x6 rail to length and separating the two halves for the ladder.

Completed upper rail around the platform.

At this point, I cut off the extra height of the stakes around the upper platform railing with my flush cutting pliers.  A bit more paint touch-up will need to be done.

In Closing

Here's the nearly complete car with the rack.

After this photo, I went in with a wash-stain and lightly touched the horizontal boards around the platform.  I also touched up the vertical posts with Chestnut color and the interior of the platform boards with Dark Gray (Apple Barrel 20366E).

Lone Pine SPMW Outfit F-50-flatcar - owensvalleyhistory.com - ebay47_lone pine_sml

The brake wheel and shaft need to be installed.  Also I still need to do the gloss coat and apply the decals, but for now the basics of the kitbash is complete.  At some point I'll get to the load on this car along with the SPMW 7021A, Rail & Tie car load.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SPMW 7021A (Part 1) Wrecker - Rail & Tie Car - Starting kitbash

SPMW 7021A (Part 2) Wrecker - Rail & Tie Car - New Bulkheads and Rack

SPMW 7021A (Part 3) Wrecker - Rail & Tie Car - Adding Details to Rack

SPMW 7021A (Part 4) Wrecker - Rail & Tie Car - Finishing Plastic Parts & Painting Rack

SPMW 7021A (Part 5) Wrecker - Rail & Tie Car - Installing Running Boards

Kitbashing OwlMtModels F-50-Series Flatcars (Part 1)

Modeling SPMW 7021 the Bakersfield Wreck Outfit (Part 1)

Modeling an MOW Supply Train (Part 1)

Modeling SPMW cars with Musical Parts (Part 1)