Models and Kitbashes by NightOwlModeler: Modeling the SP 6-6-4s for the West Coast and Owl (Part 1)

While I understand most of us think of passenger trains of the SP as the nice ordered consists with striking appearances of a solid trainsets of Red and Orange Daylight cars behind a GS-4, a fog-cloaked two-tone gray Lark slipping in the early morning along the coast, or a brilliant Yellow and Gray consist flashing by on the Overland Route... But, what about the other SP trains in the early 1950s which started picking up extra cars, still painted in "Premier Train" schemes?

The History

One of the hidden surprises in digging in more accurately modeling my passenger consists is that the SP's fleet of 6-6-4s was one of the largest groups of streamlined or light-weight sleepers that they had as of mid-late 1950, which also lost their regular assignment and became 'extra'. Primarily, this was due to the two new versions of Pullman's standard 10-6 and 10-6 blunt-end sleepers which were displacing the 6-6-4 sleepers in middle of 1950.

Mid-1950 through 1953 era 6-6-4 options in the form of SP 9163, 9152, and 'Golden Plain'.

This change pulled the four 6-6-4s completely from the Lark service and released at least two or three of the 6-6-4s from the regular Golden State assignments. The remaining 6-6-4s were then focused onto the SF Overland/City of San Francisco pool based out of Oakland/Richmond and the Golden State Limited, based out of Los Angeles.

While I'll cover the West Coast's consist in a dedicated blog-post soon, so I'll sum it up here by just saying that the otherwise fairly dull SP Dark Olive Green and Pullman Green consists of Owl and West Coast, can have a varied dash of color added by mixing up which 6-6-4 was assigned on a given day. The West Coast starts off being more colorful head-end from the UP/GN/NP connecting baggage cars from Seattle and Portland to Los Angeles, but also on the rear-end from August 1950 until early 1954 used the two ex-CoSF 10-5s still painted in SP yellow and gray until 1954 when they both went to TTG, and a mix of 6-6-4s which we'll look at here.

SP 9163 - West Coast's 'Regular' TTG 6-6-4

One of the Lark assigned 6-6-4s was assigned regularly to the West Coast, while the other three went to the SF Overland pool. This car was the SP 9163, which kept the Two Tone Gray scheme, but lost the Lark train logo on the sides. I'm not sure of the other three cars assigned to the SF Overland, if the received a new Overland logo or if they also dropped back to the general service reporting marks only.

SP 9163, the TTG 'general service' 6-6-4, assigned to the West Coast in 1950.

About ten of years ago, I picked up a TTG Pullman car, repainted the letterboard and decalled it for Southern Pacific, but left off the Lark train logo, making my SP 9163. This car's conversion from 1942 as-built TTG "western" Pullman scheme was fairly simple to do. I removed the PULLMAN letterboard pad printing with my fiberglass brush and also painted on the short bit of SP Dark Lark Gray past the vestibule doors to match photos. This scheme didn't have the lower skirting painted black, but stayed lighter Lark Gray.

These cars also did not loose their skirting for a couple more years. I probably could have gone with full-width diaphragms, but as the SP 9163 was regularly removed from the 'streamlined' consists, I'm saving the money and modeling this car with the narrow stock diaphragms.

I still need to make a pass over this car again to put in the window shades and grab irons, etc. I may also fit the car with a OwlMtModels illuminated tailgate marker.

SP 'Golden Plain' - West Coast's 1947 'Golden State'-Scheme 6-6-4

A number of years ago I also planned to make several Golden State 6-6-4s, but I started those cars with Walthers cars that didn't have full skirting, but the highly cut back version of the later eras.

SP "Golden Plain" 6-6-4 repainted into Golden State colors for my 1950 assignments.

My newer research has shown that they really didn't loose their skirting while painted in the Red/Silver Golden State 1947 scheme. This additional research has thus pushed me to acquire another Walthers 6-6-4 with full skirts to finish as a Golden State 6-6-4 with skirting in the 1947 Red & Silver scheme, to provide another option for my West Coast or Owl assignments.

This combination of 6-6-4s in the SP's system naturally provided the West Coast as the 'shuttle service' to move 'shop cars' back and forth from Sacramento General Shops to Los Angeles, whenever a Golden State car needed to be shopped or returned to pool based out of LA.

SP "Golden Plain" was one of the three cars fitted with the lit tail-sign boxes, which were covered over in 1950 when the new blunt-end 10-6s were assigned to the Golden State.

I've been working on building the Golden State 6-6-4 sleeper (Part 1), "Golden Plain". So far some bumps, but I'm having fun with this car. I've been wanting to get one of these Golden State 1947-scheme cars for about 20 years now. The "Golden Plain" is now into 'finishing' phase, detailing and grab irons being fitted. Also I need to figure out where my red TCY full-width diaphragms went to... as I need one to fit to the vestibule-end of the car. As the blind-end of the car was only fitted with narrow diaphragms due to the planned operation on the rear of the consists with the tail-signs.

Yellow Too? - Another Surprising West Coast Option for SP 6-6-4

While researching the SP 9200 side of the West Coast modeling project, I found a photo of it on Nov 4, 1951 when a photographer captured the West Coast in Sacramento's platform laying over. The SP 9200 wasn't with the expected TTG 9163 or a Golden State car, but in company of a very much yellow 6-6-4!! - Doing a bit of digging, this car has to be either SP 9152 or 9155, which were painted yellow in 4/50 and 8/47 respectively. This shows that they certainly were mixing the cars around as early as 1951. Also of interest is that the photo was taken on November 4, 1951, only the 4th day of operating with the 10-5 on the rear of No.60. However, the photo shows the 10-5 on the east end of the consist at Sacramento, on the curved end of the platform. Which suggests that it was actually running the other way than what the consist shows?

As my decals seem to be showing a little damage, I could change them from a '6' to a '5', making the SP 9162 into the 9152.

This revelation makes me want to retouch my yellow SP 6-6-4 to be one of these two cars, either SP 9152 or 9155, as that could mix another color car into my West Coast consists options. Athough with the 9200, this would make two yellow cars at the rear of the train.. The other SP 6-6-4s in the Overland pool that eventually were painted yellow didn't happen until 1953-55, so they really should still be TTG in the 1950-53 era I want to model.

Post June 1953 Golden State 6-6-4s

The SP 9160 was the first 6-6-4 repainted in June '53 to the Sunset Limited-style Golden State scheme.

For those wanting to model a bit later, in June and October 1953 the SP 9160 (ex-Golden Creek) and 9157 (ex-Golden Valley) respectively were the first 6-6-4s repainted into the new Russell ordered 'Sunset Limited- Style' or 'Simulated Stainless Steel" (SSS) Golden State scheme. The other three cars were not repainted into this scheme until 1955, so there was quite an overlap of both the "GS Red" and GS SSS painted cars.

In Closing

To wrap this exercise up... One of the points I'd like to drive home with this post is that some SP trains will allow for multiple 'correct' cars to be modeled and swapped around to change the look of the train.

Mix of SP's pool of 'extra' 6-6-4s in the early 1950s, showing off TTG, 1953 Golden State Silver/red (SSS GS), 'Overland' Yellow/Gray, and 1947 Golden State 'Red' (GSR) schemes..

The SP did have plenty of extra 6-6-4s from mid-1950 into 1953 to cover the three regular assignments on the Owl (one car only, alternated with HW 8-5 sleeper in the other consist) and West Coast (two cars, one per consist). The SP may have also had sufficient extra cars to allow several to be leased back into the Pullman Pool for general assignments.

Jason Hill

SP 'Golden Plain' 6-6-4, 1947 Golden State Red scheme