Pre-review of the Prototypes for GGD's 2025 Common Standard Harriman Passenger Cars in HO Scale

Several years ago I posted my high level of interest in the first round of the GGD 67ft (body length) Harriman cars, followed by my review of their models when they came out a year or so later.  For the last couple years we've heard that GGD was going to produce a new 77ft body length cars. 

A/C'd Diner SP 10112 in pre-war SPL Dark Olive Green scheme with extra window at right end. - Bob Zenk collection

I'll be covering the research on some of the SP's HW car types related to the GGD in a separate blog posts.  In these upcoming articles, I'll be going over what cars the SP had and some of the detail variations from what our brains generally think of when we hear "Harriman" Passenger cars.  As much as we think of the SP as a "Railroad with Standards" (aka "Common Standards" era and then the Harriman Era), the SP can be best categorized as "having standard groups of cars, with a couple of oddballs thrown in to keep things interesting."

An Preview of GGD's New 77ft Harriman Passenger Car Prototypes

New CAD rendering for "Harriman"-style 77-D-1/3/4 Diner!  Finally?!

In early 2024, Golden Gate Models has announced plans to do a series of 80 foot bodied SP "Arch Roof" passenger cars that were used on the majority of SP's heavyweight intercity passenger trains.  

Planned Cars Announced as of May 2025

Currently as of 2025-05-11 GGD is prospectively looking at the following classes of cars for the project.

72-IC 1/2 "Subs" (Commute SF-SJ)
72-C-1/2/3/4 72' Coach (As-built, circa 1924)
75-CS 75' Lounge Car (Rebuilt with Air Conditioning, circa 1937-1958)
77-D- 1/3/4 Diner (Rebuilt with Air Conditioning, circa 1937-1958)

72-O-1 72' Observation Car (As-built, circa 1913-1921/24 for SP)

The SP was a bit unusual in the way they classified their cars, not by the overall body length, but by their usable "Frame Length", between the "Endsills" of the car.  This did NOT include the vestibules of the cars.  This means that body at the square full ends was 77ft, the ends of the car pushed the over-all length out into the approximately 80ft and a few inches.  The single vestibule cars fell into classification as 75ft cars, and the double vestibule cars were shown as 72ft cars.  This is why the following models show their class lengths as 77, 75, or 72-series cars.  As far as I'm concerned, if the models fall into the 80ft +/- 3" is about as good as we're going to get in HO scale for an injection molded model.

72-IC-1/2 Commute "Subs"

The first car type that GGD announced, which is the main focus of their project is the 72-IC-1/2 class cars.  The other cars are "add-ons" because their tooling is similar, but may not be 100% accurate in length, etc, but accurate within a couple if scale inches of the right length.

These cars will be the first plastic models of these cars used as far as I know exclusively on the San Francisco to San Jose Commute Pool from 1924 until they were retired in 1985 and many were then sold off to various excursion railroads, such as Niles Canyon, Grand Canyon Rwy, etc.  I personally saw a number of these cars in the Bullring Yard in Los Angeles when we're leaving on the Coast Starlight in their faded dark-gray scheme in the mid-1980s.

72-IC-1/2 Screen shot of the CAD model from 3rd & Townsend's website.

While GGD's main design work is specifically aimed at the SP's 72-IC-series "Subs" which were used almost exclusively on the San Francisco-San Jose "Commute" pool from their delivery in 1924-25 until CalTrain took over in the early 1980s with very little upgrades or changes outside of changing paint schemes to match the current "General Scheme" (Dark Olive Green SPL from 1924-1946, then SP 1946-1958, with the cars converting to Two-Tone Gray starting in 1956, lasting into 1968, with Solid Dark Gray lasting in very faded condition into 1985.

GGD ordering list with my notes (green = accurate, yellow = needs modifications, red = not correct)

Note: Painted Dark Olive Unlettered available, plus custom orders for Niles or Grand Canyon schemes are available by special request when ordering.

The WWII modelers out there will enjoy collecting the special paint scheme cars to join the various branches of the military.

Jason's Comments:

While my interest doesn't really cover the "Commute Subs", many of the photos of SP "Commute" trains with steam leading show 6-8 of these cars with no headend cars.  As I recall there was one train schedule each way which extended past San Jose onto the San Bruno Branch, this train did have a RPO-Baggage car on it.  With a total of only 70 cars built in these two classes of cars, plus the 5 cars of 72-IC-3, the Commute Pool continued using the hundreds of 60ft 60-C-series cars until the mid-1950s when the new bi-level "Gallery" cars were delivered.  The last 5 car class 72-IC-3 had some small changes, which I question if would even be noticeable in HO scale.

72-C-1/2/3/4 72' Coach (As-Built, circa 1924, no A/C)

These cars form the missing core for most of our collective mind's eye image of an SP HW passenger train consists.  Unfortunately, strict prototype adherence cuts down the number of cars that can be made with one set of tooling.

Screen shot of the CAD model from 3rd & Townsend's website.

It appears that GGD has started off by making their 72-C-1/2/3/4 Coach model in the "As-Built" configuration with roof vents, typical of the pre-Air Conditioning version of the cars before the 1936-1939 time frame.

GGD ordering list with my notes (green = accurate, yellow = needs modifications, red = not correct)

Jason's Comments:

The intercity passenger cars fall much more in my area of modeling interest and I'll cover some basics of their assignments as it will apply to us prototype modelers who want accurate SP passenger train consists.  The average larger 12-16 car SP HW intercity passenger consist (such as the Owl or West Coast) would usually run 3-5 of these chair cars.

As such, I'm hopeful that these cars can be modified to convert them to Air Conditioned versions by removing the majority of the roof vents and installing various A/C underbody details.  So I'll probably be ordering a couple of these in standard SP Dark Olive scheme and then kitbashing.  The TTG is tempting, but I'm trying to keep my era cut-off before they regularly were being painted in TTG in 1954+

77-D- 1/3/4 Diner (Rebuilt with Air Conditioning, circa 1937-1958)

This prototype is probably one of the two most needed SP HW passenger car models needed in HO scale.  The T&NO used the five 77-D-1s, while the SP used the 77-D-3/4s.  A couple of the SP cars were traded back and forth with the T&NO to cover various assignments over the years.  Almost every SP HW intercity passenger train could make a claim to have been using one of these cars between their 1935-37 air conditioning and cutting of most of the SP's HW secondary passenger trains in 1954.  Some lasted well into the 1958-1960 time frame.

SP 77-D-1/3/4 screen shot of the CAD model from 3rd & Townsend's website.

The SP's diners were among the first cars upgraded with A/C in the 1935-1936 time frame.  Internally these upgrades included styling changes to full Art Deco styling to match the new "lightweight" Daylight-type cars then being designed and ordered.  The upgrades kept the SP's HW Diners and Lounges running for another twenty years by making the inside look the same as the 'brand new' cars. After all, you can't tell the car you are inside is a "new" LW car or a rebuilt "old" HW car with completely new interior.  The changes also included installing new fluorescent tube lighting with reflected light off the ceiling, the same as the Daylight cars.  The cars also lost their short windows with transom windows above, instead receiving the 'new' larger picture windows, again like the new Daylight cars were debuting in 1937.

GGD ordering list with my notes (green = accurate, yellow = needs modifications, red = not correct)

Jason's Comments:

Generally, it would appear that GGD is going to do well with their offerings here.  The Dark Olive SP Lines scheme will be correct for 1935 Air Conditioning until the change to SP lettering in June 1946.

The Two Tone Gray will be good for cars so repainted, primarily for the SP's HW Overland and in a pinch protection cars for the Lark, although generally a 77-D-2 was assigned to the Lark protection car and the Overland pool seemed to also use the D-2s. 

The 77-D-3s, three were painted into TTG in 1942, one continued and went to the SP's Yellow scheme in 1957 for the remaining HW cars on the Overland assignment.

SP 10112, one of four 77-D-series Diners painted in 1957 in Armour Yellow scheme for Overland Limited - Bob Zenk collection

There were four of the 77-D-4s assigned to the SF Overland when air conditioned, six of the 77-D-4s were painted into TTG in their later years, and three went into SP's Yellow scheme in 1957 for the remaining HW cars on the Overland assignment.  Note that the lower kitchen windows were painted and/or plated over by this late date.

The choice of a "Daylight Hamburger-Grill" scheme is slightly odd as several of these cars were used on the San Joaquin Daylight.  The SP 10115 was so painted in 1947, SP 10117 in June 1950, which continued after renumbering to Hamburger Grill service in June 1955.  Several other HW diners were also painted in Daylight over the years to cover the San Joaquin Daylight assignments

SP 10507, first Hamburger Grill car in Daylight paint for test runs on the San Joaquin Daylight and Overland in late 1954. - Bob Zenk collection.

The "Hamburger-Grill" cars consisted of renumbering into the 10500-series (SP 10101 to SP 10507 and SP 10117 to SP 10513) and changing the menus, and adding the changed car-type assignment to the ends of the letterboard from "DINER" to "HAMBURGER GRILL" in 1955.

For those modeling the San Joaquin Daylight the standard Dark Olive Green painted diners were very common to swap in if a 'protection' Daylight painted car wasn't available.  In the mid-1950s there are photos of TTG diners in these classes being assigned to the San Joaquin Daylight of 1956 operating as in the Coffee Shop position in the train (again, a change in menu severed in the car).  The SP only had 4 Triple-Unit Diner-Coffee Shop cars, thus regularly pulled one of the 1939 cars off the San Joaquin Daylight to cover the Coast Daylight when one of the 1941 cars went into the shops.  Thus pulling a pair of HW diners from the protection pool to cover the Diner and Coffee Shop sections of the triple-unit car.

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

75-CS Full Lounge (Rebuilt with Air Conditioning, circa 1937-1958)

This prototype is probably other of the two most needed SP HW passenger car models needed in HO scale.  Never being produced in plastic, and very hard to find in brass in any form, and always drawing a high price.  These cars have had a checkered public history with GGD with changes to the announcements over the last couple years. 

The models were originally announced to be 75-CS-4, which puts them as Baggage-Club cars or maybe at a stretch the five cars that were rebuild into Baggage-Dorms in 1930 and then out of that configuration in 1936, which would put the model into a very specific time frame, not useful for those of us modeling WWII into the late 1950s era.

Complicated History - What is a 75-CS Anyway?

75-CS-1 SP 3078-3080, used in 1930's 'Pearl Gray' Daylight scheme, two of which lasted into the 1950s on the Sacramento-Oakland passenger trains.

Only two (3078 & 3079) of the 75-CS-1 cars remained in regular SP service past the 1930's rebuilds, and they were upgraded in 1940 for assignment to the Sacramento-Oakland trains to the Cal-P route.  Unfortunately, for the rest of us they're not much use for the post-1937 upgrade and air-conditioning era.  The 75-CS-2/3/4 class cars were all rebuilt into the Full Lounge Cars of 75-CS series as noted below.

As the SP took the rest of the original Baggage-Club cars in for rebuilding, things get messy, most of 75-CS-1 and all of the 75-CS-2/3/4s, were eventually consolidated into the "75-CS" general type as full lounges, except the 75-CS-1s SP 3078 and 3079 as noted above.  There were also several more cars which lasted into 1940, being rebuilt in the totally different looking 75-CS "Tavern" style cars, which we're not talking about here.  I'm trying to keep things simple here, it's not easy with these cars.  However, I can generally pin down that there were two major groups and another group which I'll put all the 'odd-ball' cars into:

• SP 3211-3216 - Earliest rebuilds, the first of the "Odd-ball" rebuilds started in 1930 to "Dorm-Lounges" an "intermediate" step.  Four of the five cars were later converted again in 1936 to SP 2925-2928 (shown below).
• SP 2916-2924 - Main "Early" Group of 1936 rebuilt (transom windows retained).  Some cars eventually have transoms plated over, resulting in "low windows".
• SP 2925-2928, SP 2935-2936 - The four "Dorm-Lounges" from the 1930 conversions "Odd-balls" are rebuilt into two pairs of cars rebuilt for specific assignments, adding new windows in the former Dormitory space to create full lounges.  I'm also adding the two "odd-ball" June 1937 conversions to this category, the ex-SP 3229 and ex-T&NO 899 which did not have barber rooms were rebuilt for the 1937 HW Cascade as full lounges, coming out as SP 2935 & SP 2936 with odd window spacing in the vestibule end of the car.  The SP 2935 was further made an outcast by receiving wider "picture windows", abandoning the 'paired windows' of the majority of the rebuilt 75-CS full lounge cars.
• SP 2929-2934 & 2927-2940 - "Late" 1937 rebuilt with "tall windows" and much more 'standardized' window arrangements.

Originally, the GGD announcement was that these would be the as-built Baggage-Club cars, which lasted only into the 1930s before their first rebuilding of the 75-CS-4s (SP 3208, 3211-3216) into Club-Dormintory cars of 1930 by removing the baggage section and replacing it with six sets of bunks and other space to accommodate the crew for the lounges and diner.  These cars received A/C in 1934 and 1935.

Some of the rest of the original 75-CS-1/2/3/4 cars (SP 3209-3212, and SP 3217-3221) went into rebuilding early 1936, coming out with their transom windows intact and replacing their baggage sections with more lounge space, plus receiving air-conditioning, becoming SP 2916-2924, adding above the SP's open-end Lounge-Observation cars in the 2900-series.

The SP 3211-3216 didn't last long in this mid-train Lounge-Dorm configuration, they're in turn rebuilt in late 1936 and January 1937 into SP 2925-2928 resulting in the "odd" window spacing in the ex-Dormitory section of this "second" group of cars (see roster above).  The other two "Oddballs", SP 2935 & 2936 were rebuilt in mid-1937.  The SP 2935 received wide"picture windows", similar to what the new 1937 Daylight chair cars were delivered with and the SP's Dining cars had.  In 1938, the last of the 1930s "oddball" 75-CS conversions, SP 2946 also received these wider windows.

The last of original 75-CS-2/3/4 cars were rebuilt in the 1930s became the 1937 group of cars as Full Lounge cars, these cars received Air Conditioning and all new "high windows", replacing both the side windows and the transom windows above.  Various individual cars lost their barber spaces, as they were converted for use by stewards.

Screen shot of the CAD model from 3rd & Townsend's website.

Like on the SP's rebuilt 77-D-1/3/4 class HW dining cars, the 1937 rebuilt "Late" full Lounge cars received the taller windows, air conditioning, and completely new 'modern' Art Deco style interior with indirect fluorescent tubes with the light reflected off the interior of the roof.

GGD ordering list with my notes (green = accurate, yellow = needs modifications, red = not correct)

Research notes:

Photo of a TCY 2929-type 75-CS full Lounge that I painted and finished for a customer about 15 years ago.

Looking at the details of the renders so far (aka most recent), it appears that GGD is going to do the later group of "standardized" cars in Plan 882 (SP 2929-2931) and Plan 883 (SP 2932-3234 & SP 2937-2940).

Note: The SP 2935 and 2936 were set up without barber spaces for the 1937 Cascade, resulting in 6ft longer center lounge space and drastically fewer small windows along that part of the car.  The 2940+ series lounge cars were other types and other window arrangements.

Jason's Comments:

Thankfully, it appears that GGD has settled on one of the larger groups of cars in the "Later" series of conversions.  I have long campaigned for a model in this class since I posted my blogs on the Owl and West Coast modeling.  The "early" group of conversions retained their transom  windows, while these later cars standardized on new full-height windows.  

Most of us modeling any SP HW intercity passenger train should be able to fit one of these cars into our consists.  I'm looking at getting two of these, both in SP Dark Olive Green.  One will go into my plastic SP HW Owl consist and the other for the HW West Coast that I started building 20+ years ago.

The SP Lines version will be correct for the "As-rebuilt" version from 1937-1946.

The TTG scheme is correct for the cars assigned to the SF Overland and other trains, such as the protection cars on the Cascade and Golden State (1942 TTG version).  The TTG scheme became standard scheme to repaint cars into after the change to "General Service" scheme of HW cars in 1954.

Golden State?

The 2933 had one of the more checkered histories as a 75-CS rebuild.  in August 1943 it was designated as an "Auxiliary Diner", numbered SP 10607 (1st), then back to a Lounge in 5/1943, then to a temporary Chair Car on 2/28/1945, then back to a full lounge in late December 1947. 

SP 2933 (Plan 883) was used on Golden State (Red/Silver 1947 version) HW Lounge Protection car, Steve Perry collection, pulled from GGD web-post in 2024.

This conversion back to a full lounge car matches the date it was painted with a red roof and silver below the windows to provide protection service for the regular LW Lounge cars of the newly repainted 1947 Red-Silver Golden State trainsets.

The scheme of the Golden State shifted in 1953 to the Simulated Stainless Steel and red-stripe (SSS/Red) scheme based on the 1950 Budd Sunset trainset.  In this later scheme, the 2933 was even spotted running on the San Joaquin Daylight and Sacramento Daylight in 1957 per photos in the SPHTS Passenger Car book, Vol 5 pg168.

Daylight?

As we're talking about the San Joaquin Daylight, which for followers of this blog will know that I've worked on modeling a set for 1949-1950 era, there were two of this type of car painted into Daylight colors for protection service on the San Joaquin Daylight.  The SP 2929 was repainted to Daylight according to the table in SPHTS Passenger Car book, Vol 5 on pg154 around 1947.
This repainting would follow as one consist of the San Joaquin in 1947 was heavily damaged from hitting the gasoline truck in Kingsburg, CA.  The train was using single-unit dining and coffee ship- tavern cars at the time.  This lead to the rebulding of the LW cars after the wreck, so substitution of a HW Lounge car into the relief consist that was thrown together after the wreck follows.  I'm sure there was also a subsequent scramble to 'make up' a new San Joaquin consist with nominally proper painted cars until the non-chair cars could be repaired, so SP 2929 could have been selected as the 'regular' lounge and painted into Daylight colors. 
The SP 2929 was transferred to the T&NO in May of 1952, being renumbered T&NO 896 (2nd), presumably back to standard Dark Olive Green at that time, but the car card in the book's table doesn't specify what color it was after being painted into Daylight in 1947.

The second 75-CS to receive Daylight paint was the SP 2920, which was from the 'early' series of conversions, which kept the transom windows over the regular windows, and received the 'plated over' look that many of the SP's coaches and chair cars received later in life.  The SP 2920 had the transoms plated over by 1949 when it was painted into Daylight, presumably to replace the SP 2929 in protection service for the train.  

I don't recall seeing any of these cars in SP Yellow scheme, as LW Lounge cars were built and generally took over the SF Overland assignment in the late mid to late-1950s.  UP didn't own any of these cars (as they were SP Sacramento Shops conversions), but the UP and Overland route would see the SP cars running through to Chicago in SF Overland service.

72-O-1 72' Observation Car (As-built, circa 1913-1921/24 for SP)

Screen shot of the CAD model for the 72-O-1 from 3rd & Townsend's website.

This is an interesting choice to make a model of.  Only seven of this class of car were built in 1913 and 1914.  Six of the cars were built for the SP and OC (which was part of the SP, but kept their own number series and reporting marks until 1928 for billing reasons).  The seventh car was built for O-WRR&N, the predecessor of the OWR&N, a UP subsidiary.

The SP cars were completely rebuilt into 77-D-2 Diners between 1921 and 1924.  The single O-WRR&N 552 lasted until it was rebuilt into a coach during WWII, in July 1943 and then retired to MW service in March 1948.

GGD ordering list with my notes (green = accurate, yellow = needs modifications, red = not correct)

Jason's Comments:

GGD appears to be following the "train set" concept of including a "tail car" for the train.  The SP before circa 1920 had "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" letterboard and two sets of the car number centered over the trucks on the car-side.  Then the circa 1920-1946 scheme switched to the "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" version with reporting marks and car number centered over the trucks.

Given the SP cars were rebuilt in the early 1920s, the "later" schemes that will be offered are pretty much "foobies", the prototype modeler should probably refrain from picking them up.  It is odd that the GGD doesn't seem to be offering any older UP schemes for this car, nor a O-WRR&N scheme for the prototype modeler.  I'm not sure if GGD would be willing to do a 'custom' version like they're offering for the Niles and Grand Canyon Rwy 72-IC-1/2, shown above.

Perhaps a "Painted, Unlettered" option would be good so modelers can apply decals for O-WRR&N or other custom decals.

In Closing

As of when I'm publishing this blog post, obviously I don't know what other pre-production changes GGD will make, possible changing in their offerings, etc.  Some things I've posted here are my guesses as to what will be offered from what screenshots have been released publicly.  I can hope that other offerings or changes to the offerings to make more accurate schemes available, but the realities of producing R-T-R models will limit what can be done.

Note: I'll probably make some edits to this post as I get more research pages up on the Lounges, Coaches, etc. and put the links in with the edits.

From my trip many years ago to visit the Grand Canyon Rwy, where they still have some of the 72-IC-1/2/3s.  I've also seen some of these cars at Niles Canyon Rwy too.

I'm going to try to put most of my personal feelings and thoughts here at the end, although I let a few slip out in my comment sections above.  

72-IC-1/2-(3): Personally, I'm not planning to buy any of these cars, as I'm rather focused on areas outside of where these cars operated.  The me of 25-30 years ago, when I was very interested in building a commute railroad, would have loved to have the chance to get a 6-8 car consist of these.

I'm sure these cars will be a hit, plus I can only imaging what the gift-shops at Niles Canyon and Grand Canyon Rwy will sell all the models of their cars.

72-C-1/2/3/4 (as-built, 1924): I'm very much considering getting one or two of these cars to kitbash into the later era that I model and adding the Air Conditioning.  If they ever do an alternate version of the 72-Cs, I'm really hoping they decide to do the 72-C-5 - Plan 166, which received minimal changes when A/C'd in 1937-39 and have been hard to come by, even in Soho or brass.

77-D-1/3/4: I'm very interested in these cars.  I'm planning to pick up two of these cars in Dark Olive Green (for my Owl and West Coast consists) and possibly one in Daylight for use in extra trains or protection service on the San Joaquin Daylight.  I should add that photos of the SJD show that a fair amount of the time it ran with a Dark Olive Green HW Diner too.  Whether the regular diners were unavailable and the Daylight-painted protection diners were at the wrong end of the railroad.

I should also point out that the 1946 version of the train actually regularly used a pair of clerestory roof diners painted in Daylight in each consist, several were standard SP cars, and one (SP 10124 was an ex-EPSW car).  One Diner operating as a Coffee Shop car out of Sacramento-LA as the front car in the through portion of the Sacramento Daylight, and the other Diner being the rear car on the Oakland-LA, front portion of the train.  This of course changed when the two 1939 Triple-Unit Diner-Coffee Shop cars became available in 1949 with the discontinuance of the Noon Daylight.

If I get one of the Daylight versions, which is shown on the website currently as a Hamburger-Grill car (10500-series), I'm sure I'll be able to change the lettering without too much trouble.  Although when I send the reservation in, I might see if GGD is willing to do any as un-lettered, which would make my decal changing of the car easier.  If worse case, I'll have to use the fiber-glass brush to take off the lettering and then a bit of gloss-coat and reapply new decals.  In any case, I'm looking forward to super-detailing these cars to complete my two premier HW passenger consists and making some extra variations of my SJD consists too.  Maybe I'll get around to doing a 3rd post on the Owl's consist.

75-CS Lounge Car: I'll probably pick up two of these cars; one for the Owl and one for the West Coast.  Now that I've done the digging into the research for this blog post... I'm half-tempted to think about doing one of them as the SP 2929 in Daylight protection colors for the San Joaquin too.  It would allow me to go back a couple years farther in modeling a 1947-1948 SJD consists, without having to model the SP 10310 or 10311 as a full-tavern between 1947 and 1949 after their rebuilding. Oh dear, am I getting bit by the passenger train bug again!

72-O-1: This looks like it will be a great opportunity model to get an earlier "fancy" business car or refurbished lounge car if GGD can pull off the intricate transom windows of the 19-teens era high-class lounge cars.  My prototypical self is slightly screaming that it's too early for my modeling era focus.  Still, I would like to see how much of the intricate interior detailing this model might have.

One of my Walthers kitbashed 4-Compartment-Lounge-Observation to be finished as a "fictitious" Business Car.

Who knows, maybe I'll pick one of the 72-O-1 cars up anyway and make a proto-freelance RL&HS charter car or something with it.

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 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)

SP Passenger Car Statistics - (Part 3) Chair Cars (1930s-1950s)

Side Tracked for a Friend - A Pair of Quick Afternoon Projects

A week or so ago a friend came over and we worked on a couple of his engines.  Basically a little finishing work and completing the customization of the models for his desires.

Who's up for an afternoon "Shot-gun Wedding" of detail parts and paint?

I took a few photos along the journey to adjust the details and paint on these two models.  I'm mostly wanting to show these as examples of skills and techniques.

A Shot-gun Stack Change

The second of my friend's engines that needed a bit of work was a Westside Models TW-8 getting a "shotgun" stack.  The model had already received a bunch of work, but needed the shotgun stack, which didn't get done.  So this isn't too hard of a detail to change as I'll show below.

The first step on this engine was removing a bit of the smokebox's graphite paint so the resistance soldering iron could make contact with the brass.

Fiberglass bristle brush. - Use this outside, so the spent fiberglass shards don't get into your food or body.

I used a fiberglass brush to do this on the front and rear of the stack.  I do not subscribe to the belief that an engine has to be "completely stripped and repainted" to make certain detail changes.  As I found with the SP 3266, which I installed a clam-shell stack onto the painted model with minimal cleaning of the smokebox paint, which was then touched up after.

Stack removed, some minor paint removal is seen from the fiberglass brush in front and behind the stack base.

In this case, the stack came off really easily.  The replacement stack required cutting off the molding gate with one of my saws.  Then I pre-tinned the underside of the shotgun stack with flux and rosin solder.

Sadly, I didn't grab very many photos of the SP 2919 during the work.

Finished up with matched 'high-temp' graphite coating.

The new stack on SP 2919 took about three or four attempts to get it square and straight, but it ended up being not too bad to get set up.  I then washed the stack with alcohol to clean off the residue of the flux or oils from the raw casting.

The Graphite color on the smoke box was matched pretty well with acrylic ATSF Silver and black, plus a little gray to make a custom color.  I tested this with a micro brush onto the existing graphite.  Then painted the stack and the cleaned areas of the top of the smokebox with the microbrush.  The inside of the stack was then painted with straight black.

SP 1277 - Red Roof

SP 1278 Passenger Switcher - Eddie Sims Collection

The desired scheme wasn't going all the way to having a green/blue "Russian Iron" boiler and cylinder jackets, but to pull the red cab roof.  I should probably classify this as a "What If Scheme"... What if the 1277 had the green/blue boiler jacketing repainted black, but kept the red roof.

This was from some of my dabbling of mocking-up a proto-freelance 2-6-0 using various MDC/Roundhouse parts.

I'm only putting this in here to show what a "painted Green Boiler" scheme would look like.  I at one point was going to do an MDC 0-6-0 as SP 1276, which I did a green boiler and red roof on.

First the Gray

This model started dressed in the basic black with red window trim and injector/check valves, etc.  

Tamyia tape used to mask off the edges and then blue-tapped to protect the black paint.

This was a rather quick masking job.  Any bleed-through around the masking tape will be easily touched up with black after the red roof is done.

Another view showing the M.B. Austin riveted roof.

The red won't want to cover very well over black, so I used a light gray base-coat to prep before the red.  In this case I also airbrushed the gray heavier away from the rivet lines.  Some modelers call this 'pre-shading' or 'pre-weathering' while you're painting the model.  It ended up not really being needed, as the contrast of the gray ended up being more uniform and the red coat covered the variations in the gray.

And the Red

Rearward view of the roof with masking.

I used ATSF Warbonnet Red, as I didn't have a set of SP Signal Red, which I suspect was what the 'green boilered' engines used.

Front view of the painted and masked engine.

My friend didn't want any weathering on the red.  I also was considering, if this was my engine, to do a light weathering with soot along the rivet rows.  So I went ahead and made the red paint coat more evenly covering than I might have on my own engine.

De-masked SP 1277 with the bright red cab roof.  The Warbonnet Red matched well with the other red trim on the model.

The engine de-masked pretty well.  However, there was a small bit of red roof color pealed with the sunshade's masking tape.  I was able to touch this up with a small Tamyia detail micro-brush.  There was also some small over-spray that happened along the front wall of the cab and forward of the sunshades where the masking didn't really snug down tight enough.

Wrapping Up the 1277

With the 85+F days starting, I'm able to let the engine dry in the sun for about 90 minutes to help the lacquer paint dry.  I also suggested my friend not keep the engine in the box for a week or so to fully let it 'gas off' before letting any of the box plastic wrap be in close contact with the 'fresh' painted roof.

Wrapping up the engine.

I was able to go back in and touch up the black where there was some red over-spray.  One of the arched rear cab roof supports was hit pretty badly with red over-spray too, but that was very easy to retouch with the black.

In Closing

That does it for this quick update post.  

Completed M.B. Austin 0-6-0 with red roof.

In February, after nearly a year, I finally started feeling better from the steroid injection in my hand from a the 1st quarter of 2024.  Then two weeks later the whole family came down sick.  We've mostly recovered, but some lingering effects over the last two months, which has kept me busy.

Some of the last work on the layout in Sept 2024, before the SPHTS Convention in Sparks in October.

I'm looking forward to getting back to some other projects again soon.  The layout hasn't seen much work in nearly two years, but I'm looking forward to catching up on the last two years of projects!

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Modeling SP 3266 (Part 2) - More History & Installing Clam-Shell Smoke Stack - Using the resistance soldering iron to solder a new clam-shell stack onto an old Balboa MK-5/6-class engine.