Models and Kitbashes by NightOwlModeler

This post will be my first post on modeling the sleepers for the West Coast (Nos.59/60) more accurately. I've not yet published my 'Modeling the West Coast' series like I did on the Owl 10 years ago, but it's in the works, but that will be it's own multi-post series. I may first post an article just on the West Coast's sleepers that I'm planning to model for the 1950-1953 era shortly. I should note that in 1951, the Owl (Nos.57/58) was also assigned one SP 6-6-4 on alternating days with a HW 8-5 working the other direction, so this car could also be seen in service on the Owl during my modeling era too.

SP Golden State 6-6-4 History

The SP ordered six 6-6-4 Pullman Sleepers for assignment to the Two-Tone Gray Golden State in 1942.

My fully decaled and finished Walthers SP "Golden Plain", ex-PC 509, future SP 9159 in 1955.

These six cars were repainted into the new Red & Silver scheme for the Golden State in December 1947. The Pullman owned PC 510 'Golden Cloud' was destroyed on the MoPac New Years Eve, 1948, only a few weeks after being repainted.

These were named: PC 507 "Golden Valley" (SP 9157), PC 508 "Golden Sea" (SP 9158), PC 509 "Golden Plain" (SP 9159), PC 511 "Golden Creek" (SP 9160), and PC 512 "Golden Canyon" (SP 9161). The remaining five cars lasted to the acquisition by the Southern Pacific on Dec 31, 1948 from the Pullman Standard Company.

The small "PULLMAN" lettering at the ends of the letterboard were changed to "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" by request of the SP before they took ownership because the Rock Island's cars were already displaying the cars in the train that were theirs on lease from Pullman. Even the railroads can't make everyone happy all the time.

SP 9160, ex-Golden Creek, after repainting into the Sunset Limited-style version of the Golden State scheme in June 1953. This car is good to use for June 1953+ era consists, such as my Owl or later West Coast.

Three of these cars were given their SP numbers when changed to the Silver & Red Golden State scheme in 1953, but SP 9157 (G. Valley) and 9159 (G. Plain) were finally repainted in 1955 to the new scheme, which is nice to know if you want to model the 1947 GSR scheme as late as possible.

The three cars PC 507, 508, & 509 were fitted with two tail-sign boxes for rear-end service. One box was on each side of the blind-end narrow diaphragm, much like the Lark's 13-DBR sleepers, except the Lark cars had full-width diaphragms on both ends. The three SP 6-6-4s were fitted with narrow diaphragms on the blind-end with the signs. In 1950, the Rock Island and SP put new tail-cars into service, two "blunt-end" 10-6s for the SP and three round-end observations for the Rock Island, resulting in the 6-6-4s equipped for end-of-train service into general service.

As I plan to model the 'Golden Plain', it will have these boxes in place, but plated over.

Prepping the Model

Stock D&RGW 6-6-4 out of the box.

I ended up disassembing the whole model, more so than I do on my other projects, because for some reason this DRGW 6-6-4 was GLUED together. Even the windows and vestibule interior wall were glued in. Sigh...

At least I got it all a part. The only models that I've dealt with that I've taken this far apart were the Undecorated Walthers models I've started with, namely the Santa Fe 'Surprise Valley' and the MoPac 'Eagle River', both other 6-6-4s. If I'd thought this one would have been this much trouble, I would have hunted down another undec model!

Bolster Changes

Modifications made to the Walthers LW Pullman carbody.

With the model disassembled, I took this opertunity to modify the Walthers body bolster to my standard, aka, removing the body portion of the bolster, which catches on the brake cylinders and screws on the top of the trucks. The stamped steel power-pickups are also stripped out and removed entirely. This allows the carbody to sit down properly on the center bolster ring and brings the car's ride height down to a reasonable level.

Painting Prep

I really should have started by removing ALL of the Walthers pad-printed lettering and striping. This bit me later as the paint thinner reacts with the pad-printing ink and causes it to 'pucker', ruining the paint above it. This led to a LOT of color-sanding to remove all the new paint, and then the pad printing.

But, once the base layers of paint laid down on the model cleanly, I painted the 'red' with a lightened shade compared to the Daylight Red that is specified. I want to have the look of a car that's been in service in the southern California/Arizona/New Mexico sun for a couple years, despite the SP's best efforts to keep the cars looking their best. I've heard this color described as 'salmon' when it was really fading and looking bad.

I've modeled my SP 2428 as it would have looked freshly out-shopped in October 1952 from Sacramento Shops as the last SP car to be painted in the red & silver Golden State scheme.

I don't want it that bad on the 'Golden Plain'.. just not as 'pristine' as my SP 2428 model, which is Athearn's stock 'Daylight Red' paint and matches pretty well with my MTH Daylight painted cars and StarBrand's Daylight Red.

Painting Tamyia Gloss Aluminum onto masked car sides. Ends also painted.

I masked off the to shoot the lower body at the very bottom of the windows. The first round I shot the side panels with my preferred Tamyia 'Gloss Aluminum' and then switched the masking to the lower part of the body. Both the StarBrand and the Tamyia held the masking tape perfectly! No pealing up of any portions of the paint job.

Completed Red/Aluminum paint scheme on Walthers 6-6-4 sides.

I took Star Brand SP Daylight Red and mixed in a 'dash' of SP Scarlet Red, I'm guessing it was upto about 70-80% Scarlet, which brings some slight brightening and maybe a slight bit of orange hue into the paint. I was aiming for about 40%, but I'm happy with the results. A sister car was painted as an experiment with nearly straight SP Scarlet, and it looks nearly identical to the Golden Plain, so I guess I used much more Scarlet than I thought.

Color comparison: SP 2428 "Daylight Red" (left) vs my custom "Golden State" light fade shade on the 6-6-4's roof (right).

The whole roof was shot with this red mix. I'm keeping some extra paint to touch up the roof details, like the air conditioning lift handles and the roof ladder rest grab irons.

Decalling

The decals that I have are probably 6-8 years old since I got them, I tested a small section of the silver end strip, and it broke up. So I did a application of the MicroScale Liquid Decal Film. This has to be put on in a 'one-shot' deal and then you wait 15 minutes. One section I didn't wait and it disolved the silver stripe section, thankfully I limited my application of this fluid to only a pair of "GOLDEN STATE" and two pairs of the small "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" lettering each time.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC names painted on the letterboard at the car's ends.

I was able to use the four small silver strips, but I decided there was no way that I was going to be able to get a good transfer out of the larger silver section for the center letterboard "GOLDEN STATE". So I'll paint it!

Aluminum Letterboard painted and masking removed.

This was probably the most time consuming portion of the painting and lettering work. I used my calipers to measure and insure that the masking was set up the correct distances from the roof line. The car-side was removed from the body during this whole phase. Then I used a piece of scrap center silver strip decal, cut off so I could check the width of the stripe against my masked area.

A in-process photo I shot when I'd just shot the second car side's Aluminum Letterboard block, with the completed first side that I shot in foreground.

The two strips of Tamyia masking tape where then closed off at the ends with a vertical piece where I wanted the stripes to end. I did one side of the car at a time. Next, I set up a larger masking unit with blue-tape and paper to keep the rest of the car-side from catching any stray silver paint. Once the first side was painted, I salvaged all of the masking materials and repositioned it on the second car-side. Then shot that side. It's hot summer weather here in Nevada, so after about 5-10 minutes, I can pull the masking off before it sets too hard onto the body paint work.

Completed decals on the center of the car.

The center letterboard block of aluminum paint looks very good. I'm rather temped to use this method again if I need to do more of these cars.

Tail Sign Boxes & Details

I scratch built the tail-sign boxes out of styrene strip, 0.060" thick x 0.250", then cut off at 0.190", which I scaled off a photo, where I could see the end-frame of the car which was the same height as the box. The height I figure at about 0.460" from the upper part of the bottom notch in the end frame.

The upper box should be about 0.200" tall and 0.125" wide. I fabricated these out of the same strip styrene and cut the two blocks down to size with my chisel blade.

Train Logo sign boxes fashioned and installed on my 6-6-4's blind end.

Tamyia Liquid Plastic Glue is used to glue the four boxes into place. I used a scrap piece of 0.060" to space the smaller upper boxes and placed them with their outer edge about 0.120" by eye from the outer edge of the end of the car.

Rear-end of the 'Golden Plain' with the tail-sign boxes in place.

All four boxes were colored using a Silver Sharpe Marker. I also did a bit on the striker surface of the diaphragm with a black marker, representing the grease common on the strikers, and then I went over that with the Silver Sharpe again to back off this coloring, as this was the rear-end of the Golden State, but in West Coast service it will be mid-train, as the SP seemed to run the two sleepers with their blind-ends towards one another. I may dry brush a little newer rust on the striker to show a little wear since the arrival of the new SP 10-6 Blunt-End tail cars for the Golden State.

In Closing

Right side of my painted and decalled SP 'Golden Plain' 6-6-4 sleeper.

I still need to drill and mount all the Walthers detail grabs and parts, then touch-up those parts. The vestibule-end of the car also needs a Full-Width Diaphragm to be installed. The car will get red drift-card window shades and some soot weathering on the upper portions of the roof, as I've seen on photos of other Golden State cars in this scheme around the same era as I model, but we'll get to that in Part 2.

Jason Hill

Owl Nos.57/58

SP 4258 No58 Arriving LAUPT - John Shaw Photo -James Salkeld Collection