Taking a side step in the SP Jawbone Branch building blog. I'm pulling out a quick trip through the "way-back" machine to my early 2000's modeling, which I didn't finish in the last 12-15 years. In SPMW 7021 - Bakersfield Wrecker Outfit (Part 1) - Consist Overview, I cover the makeup of the project.
About 2005, maybe earlier, I decided to build a more accurate model of the SPMW 7021 Wrecker Outfit which was based at Bakersfield, Calif. The 7021 outfit was comprised of the 160-ton wrecker crane and multiple supporting 'Relief Tenders' which used suffix letters after the car number.
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| SPMW 7021 outfit spotted in the PI Yard at Bakersfield, post-1962. - David Willoughby collection |
About 2005, maybe earlier, I decided to build a more accurate model of the SPMW 7021 Wrecker Outfit which was based at Bakersfield, Calif. The 7021 outfit was comprised of the 160-ton wrecker crane and multiple supporting 'Relief Tenders' which used suffix letters after the car number.
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| SPMW 7021 crane with 7021-J crane tender at Bakersfield's PI Yard. - Eddie Sims collection |
Unfortunately I don't have permission to post the better reference photos I have from Bob's Photo of SPMW 7021J, and several other parts of SPMW 7021 outfit. I'm mostly referencing this car as it would be from the crane being "forward" with the boom trailing over the tender.
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| SPMW 7021J, post-1958 gray paint. - Eddie Sims collection |
Looking up the SPMW 7021 in the SPMW January 1, 1956 shows the SPMW 7021J started life as an A-50-6 class, SP 62027 single sheathed automobile boxcar. Retired in June 1944 and converted to this crane tender configuration the whole body was removed and replaced.
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| January 1, 1956 SPMW Roster for 7021 Wreck Outfit assigned to Bakersfield - SP Trainline excerpt. |
I started construction of my model with an old MDC-Roundhouse 50ft single-sheath double-door boxcar underframe. The new body-frame of the model was fabricated from strip styrene. I fixed multiple tool boxes to the underframe. The deck is made from strip wood planks.
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| Left side of SPMW 7021J - 2020 configuration. |
The water tank with the fill tube is located on the end opposite the crane boom.
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| SPMW 7021J in FCR brown (cropped photo from above) - Eddie Sims Collection |
The lovely cropped color photo above, of the SPMW 7021J in brown. The car has some sort of power-hand brake mounted close to the crane, so that's the B-end of the car.
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| Right side of SPMW 7021J - 2020 configuration. |
I don't know which it is. The way I've built the model the area is set up as a tool rack. This photo makes the tank at the B-end suggests that it is much narrower than the car. So maybe I need to change it, filling it out as a fuel tank... On the far side I suspect the load spreaders are left there and several oak blocks are there as well. The center of the car has four rails for carrying up to four "shop trucks" of older freight varieties.
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| Top of SPMW 7021J with a pair of RC T-Section trucks from OMM F-50-series flatcars. |
I have several older trucks which I'm planning to put Tichy Train Group scale wheelsets into and use on this car. Currently, those trucks are stashed away during the construction of the Owenyo Branch.
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| Here's the deck of SPMW 7021J without the trucks on it. The chain is loose, which I'll be hanging on the bar at right. |
The trucks of the car are replaced with lovely Tahoe Model Works Dalman Two-Level trucks, which would be from the car's days as an automobile service boxcar. The post-1958 photos of the car painted gray suggest that the car had the earlier trucks replaced with a more standard AAR U-section truck type. Because I have some of these cool looking trucks, I'm putting them on this model!
Finishing Up 7021J
The next steps in this model will be needing U-bolts of wire to support several of the conduits and air pipes. There are also a large number of grab irons and stirrup steps which are sprinkled around the car at useful places for workers to mount and dismount the car. Over the years some slight damage to the relief tender lettering has occurred, obviously I need to fix this up.
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