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| A string of SPMW Supply Cars ready for service... or not, we'll talk about it. |
I'm revisiting the small flock of Supply Boxcars that I've been working on. A new clip of SP TIMR'46 was uploaded in April 2023, so in this post we'll be looking at some screen captures closer and see what more I need to do on the Supply Cars.
The SP Company Film shows several great shots of the SP Company Shops at Roseville and the Supply Train operations. I grabbed four great screen shots to discuss here regarding the SPMW Supply Boxcars.
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| SPMW 2681 and sister cars loading supplies at Sacramento Shops' material yard. |
Notice the white diamond placard warning on the car's four sides. That would probably be a "Flammable" warning for some of the contents this car is carrying regularly. Also of interest is that these cars all have the small heralds painted on them, so that seems to have been standard, which I've not put back on my cars as of yet... but I probably should to match these photos.
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| Small station agent-operator gets his dust pan and broom... see you in another 90 days! |
In this shot we see the grab iron ladder and the fact the car has had its doors removed and partly paneled over with a standard "man door" installed.
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| Clerk/conductor seeing to the unloading with a "signal" maintainer or section gang member receiving materials. |
It appears that most of the Supply Cars in this train have had their doors replaced with the man-door version. I'll probably look into replacing the doors on my five Supply cars here, like I did on the Scale Test Repair Car (SPMW 438), but probably using 3d prints and then just blowing out the doors on the cars with a drill and knife.
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| Supply Clerk (possibly Conductor) steps aboard the train as it highballs out after dropping off supplies. |
Interesting that the the SPMW 2681 is placed right behind the clerk's car, which normally would be a pair of flatcars according to the 1945 consist. However, this passenger car appears to be the SPMW 740, which was based out of Sacramento, I believe. So there's certainly plenty of documentation that the Supply Trains changed quickly after WWII.
SPMW 701 - B-50-13 - Retired to MW 7-51
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| Left side SPMW 701 |
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| Right side SPMW 701 |
A more heavily weathered SPMW pool car, the 701 can show as serving the SP with rougher loading materials, such as scrap, etc. I still need to fit the 701 with the standard stirrup step to the left of the side door. Heralds need to be added.
SPMW 2209 - B-50-10 - Retired to MW 10-40
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| Left side SPMW 2209 |
I finished SPMW 2209 with the "SUPPLY CAR" style used in a 1945 photo of SPMW 3698, assigned to the same supply train. I assume this was an "earlier" standard position for the stencilling, which was slightly smaller than the later style seen in This Is My Railroad - Steam Version (1946-47 era) which I've used on the rest of the cars. The car also has two sets of the fire warnings next to the CAPY data line and also on the doors, this car was assigned to Supply Train service hauling flammables.
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| Right side SPMW 2209 |
Roof walk is off while I work on the roof weathering. I'll probably also be back-dating the car to using K-brakes instead of the stock Accurail AB schedule system. I still need to fit the 2209 with the standard ladder and stirrup step to the left of the side door. Heralds need to be added.
SPMW 2681 - B-50-10 - Retired to MW 5-43
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| Left side SPMW 2681 |
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| Right side SPMW 2681 |
Freshly repainted SPMW 2681, as seen in
This is My Railroad - Steam Version (1946), ready for service with the grab ladder and stirrup for the door in place. Heralds need to be added. As we'll see below the 2681 was fitted with replacement Andrews trucks.
SPMW 2767 - B-50-12 - Retired to MW 6-44
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| Left side SPMW 2767 |
Unfortunately, I messed up the reporting mark lettering on this car... SOOO, I'll be repatching the car's numbers to correct the reversed number decals from last year. (oops) The doors are much easier to remove on the Tichy USRA car, so I'll probably be replacing this car's doors with the man-door version.
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| Right side SPMW 2767 |
The grab ladder is installed and I need to finish a few minor details on the 2767, such as the brake staff & wheel, corner grabs, etc. Heralds need to be added.
- BTW, Now that Ken Harrison's SPMW book came out, the 2676 is wrong decalling, I crosschecked the original car number, build dates, builder, etc... and know this is the wrong car number... AGAIN! (Shakes head in disbelief for second time in 3 weeks.) The 2767 is actually a B-50-11. I will have to redecal this car yet a 3rd time to either 3931 or 3932, which were both retired (USRA) B-50-12s and assigned to Supply Service on 17 Sept, 1945 at Bayshore and lasted until July 31, 1953 and April 1949 respectively. Given the longer service life of the 3931, I'll probably choose that car.
SPMW 3724 - B-50-10 - Retired to MW 2-45
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| Right side SPMW 3724 |
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| Left side SPMW 3724 |
In these photos I still need to fit the 3724 with the standard ladder and stirrup step to the left of the side door. Heralds need to be added.
In Closing
The TIMR'46 footage shows that the Supply Cars will mostly have replacement doors in their futures. I'll probably 3d print a door plug to do the job.
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| Here's the SPMW 438 with the double-man door. |
The B-50-10s that were used in Supply Service also still had wood ends. The car I started with for the SPMW 438 had wood ends that I modified. Most of the cars I converted for SPMW service were the Accurail version with steel ends. So I may look into 3d printing new ends to further kitbash the cars at some point, which will include my fleet of B-50-8/10/11s as well.
One problem with completely replacing the car's ends is that it will compromise the structure of the whole body shell, unless I do a solid job attaching the new parts to the existing body.
Jason Hill
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