Changing Plans for SP HW Diner Kitbashing Projects

For about 25+ years I've been on the hunt for an economical way to model SP's vast fleet of HW dining cars.  What I wouldn't have given to have been able to get into the well researched SP dining car information in the mid-1990s that we have now.

SPH&TS's fabulous Vol.4 on Dining Service Cars.

Thankfully, today we have the excellent research materials provided to the prototype modeler by the SPH&TS's publications.  I'm going to be chewing on some deep dive data from this book here, and we'll see what we can apply to the models on the market today.  

Where to begin?  I've not been focusing on passenger train modeling for about 7 years now, shifting more to my new home layout on the SP's Jawbone Branch.  However, I thought it would be fun to turn back and look at several of my stalled passenger car modeling projects.  These are mostly "in-process" to kitbash the critically missing offerings of SP dining cars to the 'budget brass' and plastic modeling community, but cars I've not finished.  Usually I like to blog about projects after I've finished them, or are at least high on my modeling priorities "short list".  Today I'm breaking that 'rule' and we'll be looking at some messy models and some hopefully not so messy research!

SP Dining Car Painting and Lettering Graphic for 1937-1960

In this blog I'll cover a couple of the projects that I've had in process for 10-15 years.  I'll be using my new Diner Timeline chart for the car's history that I'm discussing... so expect to see excerpts from this chart.

Soho Brass 77-D-3/4 Diners

The problem with the legacy "Budget Brass" Soho 77-D-3/4 from the early 1980s is that it is a period model for the as-built version of the 77-D-3/4 cars, without air conditioning and with transom windows.  Both of these features were changed in 1937-1939 when the cars were air conditioned.  

Left side of John Ruehle's rebuilt Soho Diner

The Soho cars have been the 'budget brass' benchmark for an arch-roof diner for the last 45+ years.  Unfortunately there are some errors baked into them on the right side aisle-side windows being the same spacing columns as the other parts of the car, the prototype car should be a bit wider columns.  That's going to be impossible to change on this model.

Right side of John Ruehle's rebuilt Soho Diner.

John's sent me this diner several years ago.  He has done a fine job starting his kitbash, his underbody detail work on this car is excellent.  The window blanking is keeping the transom cross bar, which is too low to my eye.  

Left side of my brass-bashed work from 15-20 years ago.

So on my body kitbash (below) shows that I remove the cross bar, and put in smaller filler pieces.  Both of these models need major work on the roofs to detail them for an air-conditioned car.

Right side of my incomplete brass-bashed body from circa 2005-2010.

One of my Soho 77-D-3/4 shells that I have been tinkering on and off to change the windows for about 15+ years now, but that is a very involved kitbash.  So that has stalled that project route.  The roof A/C details would also have to be fabricated and would be a fairly involved project itself.

Let's stick a pin in these Soho 77-D-3/4s for now and look at what else has been in the works...

Rivarossi HW Diner Kitbash

Another project I started about 25 years ago was kitbashing a Rivarossi HW Diner into one of the later 77-D-6/7/8/9 or 79-D-1s.  The car-sides are very much a signature ATSF-style features.  So without huge amount of very precise cutting and modifications this route is problematic.

SP's Clerestory Diners of 77-D-6/7/8/9 and 79-D-1 classes timeline with painting and notes.

Most of the SP's clerestory diners aren't of much interest.  In fact by the 1940s they were the older A/C'd diners in the fleet, being upgraded last in 1932 and 1935/36.  By 1940 their A/C systems were marginal with the new Waukesha systems being installed on the later 1937-1940 conversions, which incorporated the new "Daylight"-styled Art-Deco interior designs of 1937.  In general that's why these cars tended not to receive the upgrades to keep them in premier service on the new trains like the Lark,  SF Overland and Golden State Limited of 1942.  Only one was painted into Daylight colors to operate on the San Joaquin Daylight in 1946.  All of these cars were quickly retired once the SP removed the 'third rank' over-night intercity passenger trains in 1954, being retired within 10 months of one another, the 1930-built 79-D-1s only lasting until the end of 1955.  Needless to say, these cars filled in the majority of the SP's lower-ranked HW Pullman trains after 1937-1940, such as the Oregonian, Klamath, Argonaut, Apache, Californian, Challenger, Coaster, etc. until their discontinuance and saw heavy use during WWII and Korean MAIN train assignments into the early 1950s.

These cars can be of interest to us prototypical modelers.  The four main cars of these classes are of interest are the three cars painted in Daylight colors for the San Joaquin Daylight, and the fourth is a standard DOG car (10150) which was substituting in for another Daylight car when the SJD was invovled in a serious wreck, but more on that in a moment. 


The Daylight Shuffling!

Let's have a closer look at what the SP was up to with the Daylight protection pool during the 1946-1951 era.

The SP 10148 was one of the cars assigned to the Summer 1946 San Joaquin Daylight which allowed for the consist to be split at Lathrop and connect with the Sacramento Daylight.  The reinstatement of the Noon Daylight pulled the 1939 pair of Triple-unit Diners out of San Joaquin Daylight service and put the two 1937 Daylight Diners (SP 10200/10201) back in the San Joaquin Daylight assignment when they're not protecting the Daylights on the coast.  The SP 10400/10401 Coffee Shops provided the other half of the triple-unit's service on the SJD for the 1946 consist.
The loss of SP 10400 and the 10311 Coffee Shop-Tavern in the Kingsburg wreck with a gasoline truck in Feb, 1947, required a rapid reshuffling of the SP's Premier Daylight-painted Diners and Lounge cars.  This pulled the 77-D-4 class SP 10115 into Daylight colors and also brought the SP's HW Lounge 2929 into Daylight colors as well to form the protection set of equipment for multiple months while the two severely damaged cars were repaired.  The SP 10310 returned as a full-Tavern after 11 months, releasing the SP 2929, which was repainted back to DOG by 1949.
It is interesting that the wrecked SJD consist wasn't using a second Daylight painted Diner, but only the 10400 Coffee Shop car, instead of the 10200/10201, the consist had the SP 10150, a 77-D-9 Diner and sister to the 10148.  This makes me believe that at the time of the wreck the SP had only the SP 10148 to protect the SP 10200/10201, and they must have needed to pull the 10150 in as the regular Daylight-painted Diner was bad-ordered on the wrong end of the run to get the 10148 to protect it.  So there's a good chance that either the 10200 or 10201 missed getting burned up in the Kingsburg wreck by only 1 day.
In any case, the SP 10200/10201 weren't very long for th SJD assignment, as just over half a year later they were reassigned in 9/47 to the City of San Francisco.  This reassignment would have left the San Joaquin Daylight with only the Diner SP 10115, SP 10148, and SP 10401 as Diners and the Coffee-Shop-Tavern SP 10310, with the HW Lounge SP 2929 covering the Lounge/Coffee Shop-Tavern assignment.  I'm not exactly sure when SP 10401 was repaired and returned to service.  The next year the SP 10038 & 10040 were repainted for assigned to the San Joaquin Daylight Coffee Shop/Diner pool, allowing more flexibility in the pool to cover the two Daylights on the coast. 
This didn't last too long either as in 10/49 the SP 10200/10201 were pulled out of CoSF service and painted into Daylight colors again to cover the protection of all the Daylight trains., now also including the Shasta Daylight.  Mixed in with this at the same time, the SP 10400/10401 were transferred to the Starlight, as at the same time the Noon Daylight was discontinued, releasing the triple-unit 1939 cars back to the San Joaquin Daylight again.
Through all this, there's no note that the SP 10115 was repainted out of Daylight colors.  In fact, in June of 1950, the 10115's sister 10117 was also painted into Daylight colors!  SP Lounge 2920 was also painted into Daylight protection colors in 1950, possibly by 2/50 to protect the SP 10310's shopping to be converted to match her sister as a full-tavern car.

MDC-Roundhouse/Athearn BB Kitbash

Another option which I did start on in the 2010's was reconfiguring the MDC/Roundhouse Harriman car parts to make an arch-roof diner.

The left side of the 77-D-2 kitbash coming together.

This kitbash actually started as a reconfiguration of another in-process kitbash I was already doing.  The SP's six unique 77-D-2 rebuilt diners, which had strange smaller kitchen window.  

The right side of the 77-D-2.

This whole class during my modeling era were painted in SP's Two-Tone Gray scheme, so my model was stalled for a number of years waiting to be able to replicate that paint scheme accurately.

Left side SP 10096 in basic TTG painting applied in 2016.

I was able to get the right paint and some decals applied, but I'll probably redo the decals with the new sets in the works from OwlMtModels and Todd Osterburg.

Right side of SP 10096 in basic TTG painting applied in 2016.

This car is typical of my kitbashes using Roundhouse/MDC parts, which was a pretty involved project, but eventually could be made into a decent kitbashed model.

SP 77-D-2 painting and rebuild graphic 1937-1960.

After reviewing the new painting and lettering Graphic I posted yesterday, there was actually one of the six 77-D-2s which wasn't painted into the TTG scheme.  However, it was assigned to the T&NO for most of the era I model.  It came back in 1950 as a lounge for a few months, then back to a Diner in 1/51, which I think means it was still in DOG at that point.  The 10094 was the first 77-D-2 retired in 1955.

Given that my 77-D-2 is already painted in TTG as the SP 10096, I'm planning to keep it in the TTG scheme and finish it.

Bachmann-Spectrum AC&F Diner

These cars are definitely NOT SP standard design.  However the El Paso Southwestern cars were absorbed into the SP system in 1924, introducing a number of more typical HO-scale standard passenger car models for the SP prototype modeler to draw from.

SP's ex-EPSW Diners.

Modelers of the WWII era would have a fun time modeling SP 10119 and 10120 as MAIN train dining cars.  The drawings in the SPH&TS Dining Car book show those cars still with their kitchens in place, so I'm not sure what the SP meant by the 'commissary removed' comment.  I think I read somewhere that some cars were used paired up with a full diner, but used more as 'eating space' cars, but not actually preparing the food.

Three ex-EPSW diners survived WWII with A/C upgrades and operated into 1955, all being converted to Hamburger-Grills.  The SP 10123 and 10125 were repainted into TTG, however SP 10124 remained in standard Dark Olive Green until the H.G. conversion in 1955.

Left side of the typical AC&F diner, of the basic Spectrum diner.

The basic Spectrum "SP" Diner is completely incorrectly lettered for SP 10201, which was a 77-D-10 LW Daylight diner.  This car will need a lot of chopping and splicing to change the various windows and reposition them to be more accurate.  I started pondering cuts and window changes with the pencil marks.  As I recall, I also need to shorten the car by 2-3 feet to the prototypical 79ft length.

Right side of a typical AC&F designed car with the door at the far end of the car.

I plan to make my model as the SP 10124 in the DOG scheme, but it will require a number of window repositioning and technically the car should be 79ft long, which will require cutting out a couple scale feet from it's length.

A New Contender Enters the Ring? Golden Gate Depot

With the announcements of pending reservations and production of a plastic 77-D-1/3/4 diner in HO by Golden Gate Depot and Third & Townsend Models, I'm seriously re-evaluating how much more work I want to put into my Soho diners... as they have accuracy issues plus the huge amount of work to refit them to model cars with A/C.

Saved image of some of the Diner offerings from the Third & Townsend Models website, 20250629.

With the forecast of potentially good models of SP Diners, which will be accurate, I'm seriously looking at shelving all of my Soho Diner projects and not trying to 'modernize' any more of them.

SP's 77-D-3/4 fleet service history 1937-1960, including paint and rebuild data.

I'm not showing the history of the T&NO's 77-D-1s, but their history is interesting as well, including some swapping back and forth with leases to and from the SP.

Just looking at the SP's cars before my cutoff in 1953-54, none of the Hamburger-Grill versions are needed for my interests.  The SP Yellow version is a little late for me, however one of the early H.G. conversions was outfitted in 1955 in yellow.

Most of my interest will be in the SP DOG (Dark Olive Green) cars, one of the Daylight Diner versions (either SP 10117 or 10115) and possibly a TTG car.  I have a photo from the SPH&TS Dining Car book that shows SP 10116 in TTG around 1954 cut into the Owl's consist at LAUPT's Coach Yard, behind a ex-SSW Osgood-Bradley chair car.  So it could be a nice way to break up the otherwise mostly DOG consists.  Alternately, the SJD could always use a TTG Diner to mess up the consist's red and orange painted cars.

In Closing

I've put in my reservation for the GGD/TTM cars, so we'll see how they do.  Hopefully they'll be better than the Soho model, and being plastic they should be easier to detail and modify to match the 'snow-flake' details of some of the SP's particular cars.  While the SP's cars generally followed a standard design, the 77-D-3/4s are pushing 25-30+ years old by the 1950s, and had seen at least one full reconditioning rebuild in the 1937-1939 era, and then many received another rebuild to become the Hamburger-Grill cars in 1955 for those that continued into 1960+, so they did tend to start having slight differences with the underbody details, exactly which windows were closed off, grab iron changes, etc.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Passenger Car Statistics - (Part 1) Dining Cars (1930s-1950s) - More in-depth car-by-car research on the SP's HW Dining Cars (data-roster info from SPHTS Passenger Cars Vol.4 book), with extra assignment data from various sources.

SP Passenger Car Statistics - (Part 2) Lounge Cars (1930s-1950s) - More in-depth car-by-car research on the SP's HW 'Full' Lounge Cars (data-roster info from SPHTS Passenger Cars Vol.5 book), with extra assignment data from various sources.