Modeling the Owl (Part2) - Korea to 1960

In this part of discussing the Owl (Nos.57 & 58), I will look at the changes that happened to the Owl from 1951 to 1960.  After which point the Owl was on the slide to being annulled, leaving only the San Joaquin Daylight running between LA and Oakland.  Follow this link back to first part of Modeling the Owl (Part 1).

SP 4255 leading No.58 between Bakersfield and LA.

Southern Pacific in the Bay Area, by George H. Drury, page 89 shows the regular Owl (No.57) at Martinez, nearing the end of its run on April 22, 1950.  The shot shows the headend of the Owl, with an RPO right behind the engine, a 80-BH-1 horse baggage, and SP 6114 (60-B, ex-60-PS-1 4402).  The lower photo of the same day shows the middle of the Owl with one of the 72-C-1/2/3/4 class "Deluxe Chair" cars , but no number is visible.

Most of the consist info shown below is from the SP Trainline No.74 from Winter 2000, with some data extracted from the commentary in the article on the Owl by Sheldon King.  I want to thank Brian Black and James Salkeld for letting me use their fabulous photo collections taken by their family members during the 1950s.

Consist 1951

No.58, eastbound at Ravenna - James Salkeld Collection (used with permission)

The last consist I showed in Part 1, shows Feb 15, 1951, but to avoid making readers flip back and forth, I'll relist the consist here.

No.57 Feb 15, 1951
BG Oak-Bakersfield (returns on No.57)
BG Oak-LA (Storage Magazine - Tuesdays only)
BG Oak-LA (Ex-Sunday)
PS Oak-LA Postal-Storage
RPO Oak-LA (Working)
Chair (probably News Agent)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
STD 12-1 (Replaced 16-Section Troop Car)
STD 12-1 (Replaced 16-Section Troop Car)
STD 6-2-Lounge (Mission-Series)
STD 6-6-4 (LW) or STD 8-5 "Clover" (Alternating Days, one of each assigned)
STD 14-SBR (Night Fern & Night Mantel assigned)
STD 10-1-1 (HW Car)
STD 12-1 ("Regular" 12-1 sleeper)

By November 1st the two 12-1 sleepers behind the dining car were moved to the rear of the train.  Also an additional partitioned coach was added on Mondays and Fridays.

Nov 1, 1951
BG Oak-Bakersfield (returns on No.57)
BG Oak-LA (Storage Magazine - Tuesdays only)
BG Oak-LA (Ex-Sunday)
PS Oak-LA Postal-Storage
RPO Oak-LA (Working)
Partitioned Coach (Mon & Fri)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
STD 6-2-Lounge (Mission-Series)
STD 6-6-4 (LW) or STD 8-5 "Clover" (Alternating Days, one of each assigned)
STD 14-SBR (Night Fern & Night Mantel assigned)
STD 10-1-1 (HW Car)
STD 12-1
STD 12-1
STD 12-1

A 3D Printed model of the News Agent space, used on some of the SP's Chair Cars. - OwlMtModels 4052 shown.

I'm not clear if the leading Chair car remained as a News Agent car or if the assignment of the partitioned coach could have been a News Agent car.  Generally, I would think the NA car remained the leading Chair Car.

SP 4251 with No.58 at San Fernando - James Salkeld Collection (used with permission)

Steam continued to be the regular assignment over the Tehachapi Pass until 1952.  Before about 1950, the ACs received MT-class or GS-class helpers over the Tehachapi Pass between LA and Bakersfield.  After 1950, enough AC's were being displaced by diesels that they could afford to let them double head on the Owl.

In the San Joaquin Valley, the Owl was assigned Mt or GS class engines between Bakersfield and Oakland.  On occasion P-class engines can be seen working lighter sections of the Owl, when Pullman traffic overflowed what the Owl's normal consist could handle, or the schedule of the extra traffic didn't make it possible for the extra passengers and cars to be worked into regular trains.

Consist 1953

SP 3501, converted to Baggage-Dormitory service. To the left is T&NO 141 a recent transfer from the Sunbeam.

In 1953 the SP rebuilt the 14-Single Bedroom sleepers Night Fern and Night Mantle to be Baggage-Dorm cars SP 3500 and 3501, which were regularly assigned to the Owl consists.  These cars are not easily modeled from standard Pullman sleepers without a large amount of window changes.

Typical Consist for 1953
BG Oak-Bakersfield (returns on No.57)
BG Oak-LA (Storage Magazine - Tuesdays only)
BG Oak-LA (Ex-Sunday)
PS Oak-LA Postal-Storage
RPO Oak-LA (Working) - Usually 70-BP-30-1/2/3 or 69-BP-30-2/3 as seen above in some of the photos.
Bag-Dorm - (SP 3500 & 3501 assigned once rebuilding was complete)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
STD 6-2-Lounge (Mission-Series)
STD 6-6-4 (LW) or STD 8-5 "Clover" (Alternating Days, one of each assigned)
STD 10-1-1 (HW Car)
STD 12-1
STD 12-1
STD 12-1

It should be noted also that during 1953 the ex-SSW American Flyer" Osgood-Bradley chair cars were assigned to the Owl, among other Pacific Lines trains, it wasn't uncommon to see at least one of the Chair cars on the Owl being one of these unique cars.

Consist 1954

Kitbashed model of SP 3503 starting from Rivarossi 12-1 sleeper

I've decided to model one of the next two cars the SP rebuilt in this way, which were the 1954 rebuilt Pecos and Sunburst Rose, which started as Pullman 12-1s, and also became Baggage-Dorms SP 3502 and SP 3503 receptively.  Follow this link to see how I chose to Model the SP 3503.  I chose the 3503 because I had an extra pair pf Walthers Pullman 242 trucks, and the SP 3503 retained those trucks when rebuilt.

No.57, April 9, 1954
BG-Express Fresno-Oakland (Ex-Mon) return on No.58 unless noted
60ft RPO Mail Apartment (SP 5044 & 5045, 77-BP-60 - ex-77-D-6 diners with new 60ft Apartments)
PS Mail Storage (Ex Sat & Sun)
BG-Express
Bag-Dorm (usually 3500 & 3501)
Chair (News Agent)
Chair (Fri, Sat, Sun)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
Lounge (Full Lounge or Tavern car)
STD 6-2-Lounge (Mission Series)
STD 8-5 "Clover" series HW Sleeper (Now two cars assigned, LW 6-6-4 dropped)
STD 10-1-1 "Palouse Falls and "Prior Lake" regularly assigned
STD 12-1
STD 12-1

The changes to the 1954 Owl include the new 60ft RPOs (SP 5044 & 5045) rebuilt from 77-D-6 dining cars.  The balance of the space in the 77 foot body was assigned as baggage-express space.  These newly rebuilt cars had ply-metal doors, as did most of SP's rebuilds after 1953. (see the door style on the SP 3503 model above.  One of the three 80-BP-60 (SP 5217-5219) rebuilt Horse-Baggage turned RPOs protected the San Joaquin Daylight and the Owl.

Late in 1954, the SP began experimenting with "Hamburger Grill" cars, rebuilt from HW Diners.  The 10502 and 10503 were the first two regularly assigned to the Owl in January 1955, replacing the full dining cars.

Also late in 1954, the STD 10-1-1 HW sleepers were withdrawn from service on the Owl.

Consist 1956

In 1956, the steam assignments of GS-3s and GS-6s between Bakersfield and Oakland finally came to an end.  Often two-unit sets of F7s (A-B pairs) took over the assignment.

SP 6383 with two B-units leads No.51, the San Joaquin Daylight, in the Valley in the late 1950s. Brian Black Collection

In September 1956, the use of the remaining Heavyweight sleepers in the Owl's regular consist came to an end.  The Mission-series 6-2-Lounges were retired to MW service and LW 6-6-4 sleepers became the regular accommodations for all Pullman passengers.

The 6-6-4 sleepers replaced the old HW Dark Olive Green and TTG sleepers, here SP 9161 in 1953 Golden State colors.

Consist 1957

By the end of 1957, the Owl, No.58 was down to the following cars:

BG Bag-Express (Ex-Sun)  - Oak-Fresno (Return on No.57)
60ft Mail Apartment  - Oak-LA (SP 5044 & 5045 regularly assigned)
BG Bag-Express  - Oak-LA
BG Bag-Express  - Oak-LA

Chair  - Oak-LA

Chair  - Oak-LA

Chair  - Oak-LA
HW Hamburger-Grill  - Oak-LA
STD LW 6-6-4  - Oak-LA
STD LW 6-6-4  - Oak-LA

The end was coming for the Owl, even with the discontinuance of the (Tehcahapi) Mail Trains (Nos.55 & 56) in 1954/55, there wasn't a lot of mail and express traffic left for the Owl to handle.  1956 also saw the end of HW Pullman sleeper use on the Owl.

In Closing

The marker on a UP 6-6-4 brings up the rear of the Owl.

The end for the Owl was still several years away, during those years the food service would again see a step down to "Automat" service in March 1962, basically a rack of drink and snack vending machines and cold sandwiches to eat.  The "Economy" Baggage cars would start showing up in 1960-1962.  Towards the end, even UP 6-6-4 LW sleepers would be seen on the Owl as there were not enough SP 6-6-4s to cover all the assignments.

UP "American Captain", a 6-6-4, similar to the pair seen in a photo of the Owl near the end.

The last trip was made on April 13, 1965, with barely any notice by the public or the news media.  Fewer than 33 passengers road No.58 on the last trip.

Jason Hill

Related Links and Articles:

Modeling the Owl (Part 1) - Post WWII to Korea

Modeling Mail Trains Nos. 55 & 56, The Tehacahapi Mail

The Shasta, a revised "Pike-Sized" train from 1987

Modeling SP Road Engines (Part 4) - Articulated Steam

Mistakes in Modeling - Part Oops!

Well, we all make mistakes...

Can you see the mistake?  I bet you'd never know.. but now that I know... it's REALLY ANNOYING!

A few weeks ago as I was finishing up a PSC 60-P-5 model of SP 4261 for a customer.  I reviewed the various RPOs I was working on to see which ones might need the 3D printed interiors.  I was looking forward to designing one for the 4261, as its unique interior layout would show off the double letter case on each wall between the windows!  I was reviewing the car's history in SPH&TS SP Passenger Cars Vol.3 and came to the horrifying realization that I had made a mistake in the car!

Car Backround

The SP 4261 was the only car in SP's last class of 60 foot postal cars.  Her sister cars were sent to UP, and for some reason the SP ordered one car following the style of those cars.  The SP 4261 has its letter cases mid-car, with the windows towards both pairs of side doors.

One can only assume that it was because this car was the odd ball, but it was retired from active RPO service in 1936, while most of her older sisters stayed in service many more years.  The car was then placed in Storage Mail service.  When RPOs were stricken from the fleet of active RPOs and stripped of their working capacity, i.e. Catcher Arms, Sorting Racks, Letter Case, etc. they would pretty quickly have their "US MAIL RAILWAY POST OFFICE" lettering painted over.  Baggage cars usually had lettering for BAGGAGE and RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY on their sides to indicate what service they were in when the RPO lettering was painted out.  Cars in dedicated Storage Mail service would have "US MAIL STORAGE CAR" lettering applied in place of the RPO lettering.

The Error

The 4261 in 1936 would have been in Gold Leaf lettering "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" when last lettered as an RPO.  The model that I'd finished lettering was done for the post-1946 "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" style lettering.

The SP 4261 should look something more like this picture of my in-progress SP 4404....

The Fix

Well, the customer wants the car to be the way it should look in the 1950-1953 era for operations.  So there's only one thing to do.  Not wanting to try to strip the car and repaint the whole thing, I masked off the carside where the offending lettering was.  I placed the masking vertically near a rivet line, so any stepping of the masking edge would be hidden or look like a joint in the car siding.  I shot a fresh batch of StarBrand SP Dark Olive and covered the overcoated decals.

I've tried stripping or just lifting off the bad decals in the past.  If they've been properly applied and set completely, and then overcoated and sealed they're is NO WAY it's coming off without completely messing up the rest of the paint job on the car.  It's better to patch over completely finished and sealed decals.  These decals are extremely thin and I will be placing new lettering decals over the area, so I'm not worried about anyone "seeing" the old lettering... even if they did it's prototypical!... The real car probably still had "RPO" lettering under there too!

It took an afternoon to reshoot the car and a few days of drying between the painting and glosscoating.  I have plenty of extra Storage Car decals laying around, as most models I've done are using the "BAGGAGE" and "RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY" lettering for baggage-express cars.

Back on Track!

All better, Storage Car 4261 will soon be ready for service!

Here's the relettered and corrected model of SP 4261.  While I'm sad that I don't get to do a car with all the cool interior and full length lighting to show it off... at least this unique car will continue to be a very unique car in Storage Mail service on trains like the Owl (Nos.57/58). - (Link to Modeling the Owl - Part 1)

I'm sure this won't be the last model that I'll have to do something to "Fix" so I thought I'd share this. I hope that this encourages everyone out there to not be afraid to change your models to keep up with the new research that is available to us now!

Jason Hill

Modeling the Owl (Part1) - Post-WW2 to Korea

Let's look at the 1946-1950 consists of the Southern Pacific's Owl between Oakland and Los Angeles (No.57 & 58).  Most of my information comes from the SP Trainline (SPH&TS Magazine) and from the research that the Operations Dept at La Mesa Model Railroad Club has dug up over the years.  I'm also cross checking this data against that provided in SPH&TS's five fabulous volumes of SP Passenger Car books.

Links to my blog posts on the following related topics:
SP Heavyweight Passenger Car Models in HO Scale
Thoughts on Golden Gate Depot Harriman Cars
Modeling the Shasta (Nos.327/328) Consist in 1949 & 1952
Modeling the Tehachapi Mail (Nos.55/56) Consist
Kitbashing Pullman 16-Section Tourist Car (Part 1) TC 4242

No.58 lead by SP 4255 slips by in the night towards Los Angeles with a long string of varnish.

The Owl traveled the flat San Joaquin Valley from Oakland, north around the San Fransisco Bay to Fresno via the Mococo Line, then south to Bakersfield.  In Bakersfield the smaller engine used from Oakland would be changed out for usually at least a big AC-class, cab forward, and usually a point helper of some type, often the point engine was another AC-class engine.  Heavy 16 car Owl consists required big engines to move it over the 4000ft Tehachapi Summit and then over the Mojave Desert to Vincent Summit, south of Palmdale.

After the arrival of dual-service EMD F-unit sets in around 1952, the run between Bakersfield and Los Angeles was dieselized.  Steam lasted in the Valley, north of Bakersfield, until about 1956, when pairs of dual-service F-units took over that run as well.

In this first part, we will focus our look at the consists changes over the years between 1946 and 1950.  The post-1950 and dieselization will come in following posts.

1946 - Consist of No.57

Coaches, like this 60-C-9, were common on the SP passenger trains until replaced by chair cars.

Older coaches like this 60-C-4, made up most of the coach-class cars on the post-war Owls until A/C Chair cars took over.

BP Oak-Fresno (Probably 30ft Apartment) - to 2nd 60 at Fresno (Possibly entrained between the baggages and the coaches)
Baggage/Express Oak-Fresno
B/E Oak-LA
B/E Oak-LA
Partition Coach
Coach (News Agent)
Coach
Coach
Pullman Tourist Car (STD 16-Section)
Pullman Tourist Car (STD 16-Section)
Diner
Pullman STD 6-2-Lounge ("Mission Dolores" and "Mission Santa Ynez")
Pullman STD 12-1
Pullman STD 10-Sect Lounge-Observation

March 10, 1947 - Consist of No.57

An option for modeling a Postal Storage Car, ex-RPO SP 4261, now a Storage Car.

This is the standard consist planned for the Owl after March 10th, 1947.

Postal Storage
Baggage/Express
Baggage/Express
Baggage/Express
RPO Bag/RPO (30ft Postal Apartment to rear)
Coach - Partitioned
Coach - News Agent
Coach
Coach
Diner
Pullman STD - Tourist 16-Section Sleeper
Pullman STD 6-2-Lounge (Mission-Series)
Pullman STD 10-1-1 Sleeper
Pullman STD 14-Section Sleeper

The consists in this film is very interesting:

This is the consist as best as I can make out.

SP 4228 (AC-10 class engine) working as "road engine" between Bakersfield and LA on No.58 Eastward at Saugus after point helper was cut off, probably at Vincent after going over the Tehachapi mountains and over the Mojave desert.

An example of a MDC 60-B-9 & -10 baggage-express cars like SP 6043 in the consist below, note the large left door.

SP 6114 Storage Mail (60-B, ex-60-P-4)
SP 6043 Baggage-Express (60-B-9)
SP 6320 Baggage-Express  (60-B-1) (hard to read the last number)
SP 6336  Baggage-Express (60-B-2) (Very hard to read number)
SP 5076  RPO-Baggage (69-BP-30-2) (working RPO - Apartment to rear)
Pullman Tourist Car 2281 (ex-Schuykill, STD 12-1 non-A/C Sleeper) - Acting as Dormitory Car (Might be PC TC 2381, ex-Pennell)  - Not shown in regular consist
SP 2165 Partitioned Coach (60-C-9 Ice A/C floor)
SP 2500 News Agent Coach (Ex-ADL-Coach "CHAIR" 60-CC-1)
SP 1365? Coach (60-C-5,6,7,8,9,10 Ice A/C'd) - Number doesn't match up with historical data
SP 2306 Coach (60-C-5 Ice A/C roof end)
SP 10107 Diner (77-D-4 with A/C)
Pullman Tourist Car 4000-4200-series STD 16-Section Sleeper Tourist - usually US Military personnel returning from WW2.
Pullman "Mission Dolores" STD 6-2-Lounge - After 1948 to SP ownership regular on Owl until 1956
Pullman "Palouse Falls" STD 10-1-1 Sleeper - Regular with Prior Lake (10-1-1) on the Owl until 1954 or so.
Pullman "Overdale" STD 14-Section Sleeper

Pullman 16-Section Tourist sleeper, Kitbashed from a Walthers 14-Section model.

June 17, 1947 - Consist of No.57 Wrecked at Lerdo

SP 2701, a stand-in model for a non-A/C'd 60-CC-1, like SP 2512.

The consist was pretty much the same when the Owl derailed at Lerdo (in the San Joaquin Valley) on June 17th 1947.  Records of wrecks always include the involved cars, per the Owl article by Munger in SP Trainline.

SP 4376 (MT-5) - working between Bakersfield and Oakland

1 SP 6064 B/E (70-B-7)
2 SP 6073 B/E (70-B-7) Later * Baggage
3 SP 6457 B/E (70-BA-5) Later * Baggage (probably working TBM car)
4 SP 1836 Partitioned Coach 60-C-3
**(Point of broken rail catching rear of SP 1836)**
5 SP 1362 Coach 60-C-3 - plain Coach (8 deaths, all on this car)
6 SP 1084 Coach 60-C-3 - plain Coach
7 SP 2512 Coach 60-CC-1 ("old" Chair car, possibly News Agent car)
8 PC TC 4246 - Tourist 16-section - For US Military personnel
9 PC TC 4242 - Tourist 16-section - For US Military personnel
10 SP 10107 (77-D-4 with A/C)
11 PC "Mission Dolores" STD 6-2-Lounge
12 PC "Prior Lake" STD 10-1-1
13 PC "Overcot" STD 14-Section
14 PC "Mt. Breckenridge" STD 10-Sect-Lounge-Obs

Edit 20260530: John Signor's new San Joaquin Division book, pg 262 says that this train had 15 cars.  It also says that the Owl was No.58 (eastward), not No.57???  Also that it was Mt-4 4346 involved, not the 4376.  I'm not sure how to resolve these differences in reporting.  Signor goes into more detail than Munger did in his Owl article in Trainline.  So I'll give a overview of what Signor's account of the wreck includes:
    At 65 MPH, a broken rail caught the rear end of the 4th car (SP 1836), derailing the 5th (SP 1362)-14th (PC Overcot) cars and the front of the 15th car (PC Mt.Breckenridge).
    Photo included from SPL collection after the wreck shows several of the TC's on their sides and the diner SP 10107, Mission Delores, Prior Lake, and Overcot laying partly over to their right sides, but still upright.  Diner 10107's front end (kitchen) is shown mostly still on the right of way, but the rear of the car and the following sleepers on the shoulder of the right-of-way, leaning to the right.
    It appears that PC TC4242 is still upright ahead of the SP 10107, while PC TC4246 is the car laying on it's right side.

    Another passenger car with a caboose and steam engine has the wreck outfit 7021 out of Bakersfield, so the clerestory diner in the photo there is probably part of that outfit as the SP 10107 is in the photo and is an arch roof car.

    All 8 deaths involved in the wreck were on the SP 1362 coach.  There were another 86 passengers injured in the derailment and wreck.

I'm not sure why Signor's account shows 15 cars, not 14 cars provided in the list from the Owl article by Munger from Trainline.

Old Walthers metal 10-Section Lounge-Observation, Similar to the Pullman Co.'s Mt. Breckenridge in the Owl consist above

It looks like on that ill-fated run the train was running the extra 10-Section Lounge-Obs, but no RPO or dormitory car listed.

February 27, 1950 - Consist of No.58

SP 2312, a 72-C-2, rebuilt with A/C and plated over transom windows as it would have appeared in 1947.

Note the changes in the consist as the chair cars replace the coaches.  These Chair cars were most likely arch-roofed 72-C, clerestory roofed 73-C, or 74-CC Heavyweight A/C'd "Deluxe" Chair cars after this time.  Also note the now standard Tourist sleepers behind the Diner.

RPO - Oak-Fresno (30ft Apartment)
Postal Storage - Oak-Fresno
Baggage-Express - Oak-Fresno
Baggage-Express - Oak-LA (ex-Tuesday, Storage Mail & Magazines)
Baggage-Express - Oak-LA (ex-Sunday)
Chair (probably a News Agent Car)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
Pullman STD - Tourist 16-Section Sleeper - For US Military personnel
Pullman STD - Tourist 16-Section Sleeper - For US Military personnel
SP "Mission-series" STD 6-2-Lounge
SP "Night-series" STD 14-Single Bedroom ("Night Fern" and "Night Mantle" - later rebuilt into Baggage Dorms SP 3500 & SP 3501)
SP STD 10-1-1 "Prior Lake" & "Palouse Falls" regularly assigned
SP STD 12-1 - SP Pool 12-1s no specific cars assigned.

Sept 24, 1950 - Consist of No.58

SP 2337, a 73-C-1, is another example of a 48-seat "Deluxe Chair" car used on the Owl.

Note the movement of the RPO to stay with the train now.  No Fresno setout car now.  Also the last consist showing 16-Section Tourist Cars regularly assigned.

Postal Storage Oak-LA
Baggage-Express Oak-LA
Baggage-Express Oak-LA
RPO Oak-LA (30ft Apartment)
Chair (probably a News Agent Car)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
Pullman STD - Tourist 16-Section Sleeper - For US Military personnel
Pullman STD - Tourist 16-Section Sleeper - For US Military personnel
SP "Mission-series" STD 6-2-Lounge
SP "Night-series" STD 14-Single Bedroom ("Night Fern" and "Night Mantle")
SP STD 10-1-1 "Prior Lake" & "Palouse Falls" regularly assigned
SP STD 12-1 - SP Pool 12-1s no specific cars assigned.

Feb 15, 1951 - Consist of No.58

This consist changes in a number of ways: 1. RPO car is now through LA-Oakland. 2. Pullman 16-Section Tourists replaced with standard 12-1s, possibly Pullman Pool cars. 3. Introduction of first regular Streamlined car to train, STD 6-6-4 sleeper, alternating with HW 8-5 "Clover"-series car.

Baggage-Express Oakland-Bakersfield
Baggage-Express Oak-LA
Baggage-Express Oak-LA
Postal Storage Oak-LA
RPO Oak-LA (30ft Apartment)
Chair (probably a News Agent Car)
Chair
Chair
Chair
Diner
SP STD 12-1 - PC/SP Pool 12-1s no specific cars assigned.
SP STD 12-1 - PC/SP Pool 12-1s no specific cars assigned.
SP "Mission-series" STD 6-2-Lounge
SP STD 6-6-4 "SP 9150-series" or STD 8-5 "Clover-series" on alternating consists
SP "Night-series" STD 14-Single Bedroom ("Night Fern" and "Night Mantle")
SP STD 10-1-1 "Prior Lake" & "Palouse Falls" regularly assigned
SP STD 12-1 - SP Pool 12-1s no specific cars assigned.

SP 12-1 "Los Angeles" brings up the rear of a very late running No.58 at Caliente.

That pretty much does it for Modeling the Owl (Part 1), stay tuned or follow to be notified when the next update is posted.

Jason Hill

Follow these links to other related posts on my blog:
SP Heavyweight Passenger Car Model Index in HO Scale
Thoughts on Golden Gate Depot Harriman Cars
Modeling SP Trains 55/56, the Tehachapi Mail
Modeling SP Baggage cars with MDC/Athearn 60ft "Harrimans"
Modeling the Shasta (Nos.327/328) Consist in 1949 & 1952
Modeling SP 1005 (Part 1), Soho 60-C-5.
Modeling SP 2701 (Part 1), Model Power 60-CC-1.
Modeling Pullman Mt.Nebo (Part 1), 10-Section Lounge-Obs from old Walthers metal passenger car

Golden Gate Depot's New "Harriman" Cars - Thoughts on the prototype cars

Golden Gate Depot

Recently, Sunset Models' affiliate Golden Gate Depot announced that they're taking reservations for a selection of "Harriman" arch roof to be imported and made in injection molded plastic.  This is great news for those of us that have been wanting to expand our SP fleets of passenger cars without going into budget brass or working with resin kits.  Not that I'm saying either of those two options are bad, but I know many people will like the ease of R-T-R plastic passenger cars!

I am not affiliated with Golden Gate Depot (GGD), but there's certainly been a big buzz about this project lately.  I've been asked repeatedly by various people what the prototype cars for the planned models were, where they're used, what they're painted like in various eras, etc.  I'm going to try to answer some of these questions...  I will put this disclaimer here, that I only know of what they're planning to do from their posts and a few emails.

So I'll assume based on the photos of the cars what classes they're planning to make, and then comment on those prototypes.  So, until we actually get the GGD models in our hot little hands this will have to do.

Paint Schemes

First a quick comment about paint schemes... GGD is taking reservations for a whole host of railroads to have these cars painted for.  I did some poking, at at least as far as I can tell UP didn't have any 70-Bs instead going with 69-Bs.  I also don't think they had any RPOs exactly like the 70-BP-30, although I don't have a lot of materials on the UP.  So let's look at the SP paint schemes that are offered.

One thing to remember is that general painting of SP heavyweight cars into TTG didn't start until 1954. - So basically any headend cars until 1954 (unless for special assignment) should be SP Dark Olive Green.  Some head-end cars did stay with "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" on the letterboard until about 1951-1952.  The RPOs and other first class cars were repainted within about a year or two after the 1946 change to "SOUTHERN PACIFIC".

The coaches seem to have lasted longer in the pre-1946 scheme than almost any other type of car.  There are some pictures of a few cars in 1951-1952 still with SPL on the letterboard.  My guess is the cars freshly repainted just after WW2 in the SPL Scheme and then in late 1946 the new SP letterboard scheme was only applied to cars that hadn't been repainted yet.  This left those cars in the SPL scheme that had not been repainted to SP, started being repainted in 1954 to the TTG.  Also a good number of the non-A/C'd coaches that were mechanically shot were downgraded out of passenger service before the TTG scheme was introduced.  Many Dark Olive SP coaches and chair cars lasted until 1960 or so before being repainted into TTG or retired.

Remember that a good number of the coaches have lived on at various tourist railroads around the country.  I know of at least two people that are considering buying a few of these cars for their modern layout's tourist operations!  Some cars were also sold to various Mexican railroads over the years as well.

Let's look at what they're offering... (I will also be subbing in photos of models I've taken as examples of the classes of car I'm talking about.)

"Baggage 70 ft - Harriman" 70-B-series

SP 6444, a 70-B-1/9 from a Soho model

These look like the standard SP 70-B-1/9 series of cars.  There have been models made by Soho and several other brass manufactures of these cars, and also the beautiful resin model kits from Southern Car & Foundry, which you can see under construction on my blog pages here.

SP rostered a total of 75 70ft arch roof baggage cars in the 70-B-series.  The SP had 20 additional cars of similar design with Autodoors at the A-end of the car.  The T&NO rostered an additional 42 70-B-series cars and one 70-BA-class Baggage-Auto car.  This gives a combined total of 138 cars intermixed in the SP 6000-6500-series and the T&NO 100 & 600-series.  Many T&NO cars eventually made their way to the SP numbering system eventually.

Six 70-B-series cars were modified with streamlining, moved truck centers, changed roof profiles, etc for use on premier trains.  Two of these were painted for the San Joaquin Daylight in the early years, but quickly were moved to the Noon Daylight and then the Starlight.  The other two were for the Lark and then two more converted when the Cascade was started in 1950.  -  I would personally start with a SC&F baggage to do these cars, the same way I'm building the SP 5069 (RPO car) as I don't feel as bad cutting up an undecorated kit, rather than a R-T-R model with all the finished details to not destory.

This is a very SP signature car, and welcome.  Pairing a few of these with some MDC/Athearn 60ft Baggage cars would be a great start at an SP mail train from almost any Division of the SP.

"RPO 70ft - Harriman" 70-BP-30 (rebuilt)

SP 5148, a Soho 70-BP-30

The photos on GGD's announcement show a car in the 5145-5154-series, which were rebuild from 70-BP-15-3s between 1946 and 1951 to class 70-BP-30.  They're unique from the SP's other series of nearly identical 70-BP-30-3 class cars in that the 70-BP-30 cars had the closest windows on each side to the RPO door blanked out when converted to 30ft RPO Apartment cars.  This I don't believe would be an easy thing to change back.

The rest of the 70-BP-15-3s were being converted to Baggage-Express cars, and having the RPO apartment removed between 1941 and 1954.  Often this just meant the RPO lettering was painted over.

SP 5130, a 70-BP-30-1, along with other cars kept it's 4th RPO window into the 1960s.

The nearly identical class of SP 70-BP-30-1 SP 5129-5138 and 5161-5163 kept their 4th RPO window.

This isn't a bad RPO to choose, as each signature group of SP 70-BP-30-series cars were a little different, and there were never more than about 10 or so cars in any one group.  This class is a fairly good choice as it was used on many secondary passenger trains (Owl, etc) during the 1950s.

"Coaches 60ft - Harriman" (60-C-5, and later classes)

A Soho 60-C-5, SP 1005, as refitted in 1943 as a chair car with transom windows and end windows intact

According to the reply from Golden Gate Depot that I received last week, they said these will be 60-C-5 class cars.  This is good because about 40% of the SP's 60ft coaches were of this body style.  These cars had paired windows, originally under a transom window - but later painted over or plated over after WW2.  Check your photo collections and you'll see a few transom-window cars lasted until about 1952 with them intact or only painted over.  These were probably the "crumbiest" of all the 60-Cs that the SP didn't think were worth rebuilding and probably ended up in MW, caboose, or express rider pool within a few short years.  Follow my build of the SP 1005 (Part 1) here.

I've not seen any photos of cars with transom windows after about 1954 at the very latest.  I would say that any transom window car after about 1950 would be very rare.  Most by 1950 would look the like the 2178 shown below.

A Soho 60-C-9, SP 2178, with plated over windows and June 1946 lettering applied.

The following classes of 60-C-6, -7,-8,-9, & -10s had various changes to the roof, mainly changes in the type, location, and number of vents.  The first ten cars of class 60-C-6 had square "utlity" vents and the 60-C-7 cars returned to using "Globe" vents.  The later cars of class 60-C-6s and 60-C-8/9/10 had square vents.

Some 60-C-5s were down graded and renumbered into the 2800-series for use as express rider cars, some were also assigned to various Overnight LCL trains.  There's one nice photo of one marked for the Arizona Overnight out of LA.

Caboose SP 998 started as a MDC 60ft coach, which can stand-in for either a downgraded 60-C-3/4 or 60-CC-1.

Lastly, you could of course use them as the next lower rating of non-passenger service as a "CABOOSE".  About 20-30 cars were downgraded and patched as cabooses.  Some were fully repainted into Freight Car Red (FCR).

Here's a very weather beaten model of SP 973, a stand-in model using a modified MDC as a 60-C-5 used in local service.

The ultimate fall from grace were the 60-C-series cars that were downgraded to MOW service.  These were often repainted in the standard MW paint scheme of the era, either FCR (pre-1958), or light gray (post-1958).

Good models of SP 60-C-5 will be a nice addition to the selection of available models!  T&NO and NWP had a number of these cars as well.  Even if you're not modeling the San Fransisco Commute pool, these cars made up the backbone of SP's third rate mail train rider cars, any remaining branch line passenger service (Mexico! SPdeM, etc), they would also see use as express train messenger cars and Banana Messanger cars. - I will cover some of those trains in more detail at some point soon.

The 1910-1930s era modelers would be hard pressed if these cars do have plated over transoms.  Most SP modelers between 1940 and 1960 could probably find a use for this car somewhere on their layout if they have plated over transoms.  Modern modelers after 1960 could probably justify 1-4 of these in their tourist trap train behind some old diesel switcher, steam engine or GP.

"Lunch Car 60ft - Harriman" 60-C-3 & -4 ADL

Ken Kidder 60-C-3/4, showing what the ADL's were converted from.

The ADL's started life as 60-C-3 and -4s, such as this model of SP 1190.

Non-Kitchen side of 60-C-3/4 ADL coach - This is not changed from the standard 60-C-3/4s.

Kitchen side of 60-C-3/4 ADL coach.  Notice the far left window is modified with the standard diner kitchen window.

The photograph of the Golden Gate Depot CAD model on their advertisement suggests one of the 60-C-3/4 that was rebuild for All-Day-Lunch (ADL) service for coach passengers in certain trains.   The 60-C-3/4s differ from the 60-C-5s in that they have the longer "picture" windows, with one small window at one end and a pair of single windows at the other.  I am not clear on if they're doing the SP 10517 and SP 10518 that received A/C and were regularly assigned to the Suntan Specials in the San Fransisco-San Jose-Santa Cruz service - or if they're doing some of the non-A/C coach-ADLs that worked around the SP in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Many ex-ADL cars were converted back to coaches in the years between 1935 and 1937, some would keep a the ADL space and become News Agent Coaches.  Most of these without air conditioning.  There are some consist sheets calling out a News Agent Coach on the 1946 Pacific Limited between Ogden and Oakland, I don't know if those were air conditioned cars.  There were also a good number of A/D'd 60-CC-1s that were converted to News Agent cars during 1944 as well.

By the post-war (1947-1949) time frame, SP was upgrading the rest of their secondary trains on the main routes to full "CHAIR" cars with A/C and the more spacious seating.  The Owl (Nos. 57/58) consists show the coaches from the 1947 consists replaced by chair cars in the 1950 consist lists.  Usually this meant 44, 48, or a max of 64 seats per car, where as a coach of the same size would seat between 64-80 people with much less legroom!  News Agent Chair cars were regularly assigned to these secondary trains, which had A/C and Chair configurations.

This means that the coach ADLs were downgraded to News Agent/Coaches by this time, still basically serving cold sandwiches and soda drinks and coffee to coach-class passengers.  The question then becomes - "Where did the extra News Agent Coaches get assigned?"  I'm still looking into this, but it would appear that the non-Suntan assigned cars were back in the regular coach pool, perhaps in the Commute Pool around San Fransisco?

I am going to get one or two of these and see if I can back-convert it into a non-ADL 60-C-3/4.  Basically I think this will involved rebuilding one window where the SP installed a "Diner Kitchen" style high window, back to a standard coach-type window.  I'm not at all sure how this will go... I sense another blog about that in the future!

I would say these would so up after 1960 about the same way the 60-C-5 Coaches would, for your local tourist railroad behind steam and early diesel.  After all you got to have that on-board snack and memorabilia car selling stuff!

"Business Observation 60ft - Harriman" 60-O-1

SP "Redwood" NWP's Superintendent's car.  (model and photo by John Ruehle 2016, used with permission)

These would be 60-O-1s primarily build for the T&NO and rebuilt as Business cars for the Superintendents of certain divisions along the SP.  After rebuild these cars had a "home" and would usually not wander too far from that assignment.

The classic 60-O-1 that everyone thinks of is the Business Car "Redwood" assigned to the Northwestern Pacific.  This photo above is John Ruehle's lovely kitbashed and super detailed Soho model, photo used with permission.

In Closing

The second to the left most window is the higher "Kitchen" window, not completed in this photo is the mid-window bar.

I think it will be very interesting to see the GGD passenger cars, and I'm looking forward to seeing them in person!  I hope they'll fill a very much needed vacancy in many modeler's rosters.

As always, for more information on these cars I highly recommend looking into the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society's series of books on SP Passenger Cars, Vol.1-6.  Specifically for these cars Vol.1 Coaches, Vol.3 Head End, and Vol.6 Business cars.  I believe they've been sold out of Vol.1 for several years now.

I'll probably start referencing these cars in my consist posts for various trains.  Pairing these with Walthers HW Pullmans and MDC or SC&F 60ft baggages would be the foundations for some good lookin SP Heavyweight trains!

Jason Hill

Related Links:
Review - Golden Gate Depot (Part 1) - 60ft Harriman Coaches

Review - Golden Gate Depot (Part 2) - 60ft Harriman Business Car

Review - Golden Gate Depot (Part 3) - 60ft Harriman All-Day-Lunch

Review - Golden Gate Depot (Part 4) - 70ft Harriman Baggage, RPO-Baggage, & Conclusions

Other Blogs with SP Harriman Coaches:
SP 1005 (Part 1) 60-C-5 from Soho Coach

SP 2701 (Part 1) 60-CC-1 from Model Power Coach

Building SP 5199 (Part 5)

In the last post of Building SP 5199 (Part 4) I roughed in the couplers, this time we finish the mechanicals and the outside of the car's paint.

Right side of SP 5199 in the afternoon sun

Couplers and Low Riding Cars

Checking the car against the Kadee Coupler Height Gauge, it shows the car sitting about 0.025" high. I temporarily made some 0.015" shims of sheet styrene to lower the coupler boxes.  I usually don't like to use more than one shim, as it makes the car ride too high.   I did a bit more investigating around the underframe.  As I suspected earlier the plumbing running under the bolsters is fouling the trucks.

I cut away the plumbing above the trucks.  This keeps the details under the main body, but again like the detail parts of the bolsters, it clears up the space above the trucks.  I cleared a bit of extra material from the edges of the center sill flanges to clear the arc of the truck swing with my Dremal burr tool.  The truck bolsters are still too high, I shave them down with the Dremal as well.about 0.020".  Checking the ride height every so often against the Kadee gauge.  I kept the 0.015" Kadee shims.  The shim will provide a good bearing and also will allow the truck to track over vertical curves.

With these modifications the car now rides at the correct height.

Overcoating

SP 5199 with decals overcoated and flat finish applied - Windows still masked.

During the finial building steps after the decalling, there were some chips on the painted grab irons and stirups.  The modifications for the ride height also caused the underframe to have many rub marks and was much in need of touchup.

The interior was painted at this step as well.  I didn't have the exact color match to the US Mail's standard cream color for the mail apartment, so instead I used Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan.

Touch up work around the grab irons was done with StarBrand Dark Olive Green and I repainted the underframe again with my off-black mix.  I wanted to touch up the inside of the side sheets as well.  I put the underframe back into the body.  Using a piece of plastic card-stock to mask off the finished outer car sides I shot the black mix around the inside of the car side.  Taking the floor out again, I did some additional touch ups where the frame details masked the touchup work.

Flat Finished undrframe of SP 5199, the axle-belt electric generator will be installed later.

I also painted the trucks and wheels with the black mix.  The StarBrand paint leaves a glossy finish, so I over spray the underframe and trucks.  The Flat Finish really leaves a dead flat finish, which is not what we want for the car sides.

Many SP headend cars did weather quite heavily and would look pretty flat, this RPO was most likely repainted in late 1947 or 1948.  The car's paint then would only be 4 or 5 years old.  The car was repainted in 1954 or 1955 into TTG.  I don't want the car to look totally decrepit so.  I used Testors Wet Clear to overcoat the car sides and seal the decals.



The Wet Clear is super glossy, which is a bit more glossy that would look appropriate.  The car is basically pre-weathered by using the off-black color for the underframe and roof.  To blend the finish of the car together I dust on the flat finish to the carside by bouncing it off the spray table.  I wanted to make the car look like it's faded and flat from the road dust.  The flat finish comes about half way up the bottom side sheets of the car and then fades out as it goes up the car side back to the high gloss.



After each of the rounds of touch up and over spraying I left the car to "gas off" in the warm summer heat for a day or so.  I did check in on it every hour or two, making sure the parts were not getting too hot.  The StarBrand paint is a lacquer and doesn't need to be "baked" like enamel paints, however I do like to be sure the paint has finished nice and hard before putting down any more paint.

The Unmasking

Windows demasked looking into the RPO section from the right

With the body off I carefully started removing the masking from the pre-laser cut windows.  With the heat from the car being out in the sun drying, I think the masking also baked on too!  It was harder to get off than I remember from doing the windows on the SP 5124.  It took the better part of an hour to do.  Being VERY careful not to scratch or cut through the masking onto the clear window glass.

One window popped out during this process.  I removed its masking and then remounted it with Testors Canopy Cement from the inside with the window in place.

What's Left on the Outside

The car still needs to have the door windows mounted.  The diaphragms are also riding a bit low on the couplers.  The baggage-end coupler is sometimes fouled and will not center by the striker.  I will be fixing this issue with a small wire spring to tease the striker up toward the top of the free-play in the diaphragm, but I'll leave that for next time.

Interior Progress - CAD and 3D Printing to the Rescue?

The interior's the next major project on the car.  If interior lighting is not going to be mounted, then this portion of work really wouldn't be seen.  However as I plan to put lighting in the car, that pushes the issue of scratch building all the bag racks and letter cases for an RPO, which is a daunting task.

Current status of car's interior

I'm not really an advocate of doing **EVERYTHING** with 3D printing.  While there are amazing models being made with it, often there's a LOT of clean-up work to do.  Sheet styrene can make thinner parts and we're sure of the long term stability of styrene and ABS plastics.  I do believe there are certain times that a one-off 3D print will really make a project shine, I feel this will be one of those times.



I spent about 2-3 hours drawing up the car body and floor in quite a bit of detail.  This is critical to making following parts fit correctly.  I even modeled the styrene blocks I used to mount the body to the floor.



Pouring over the standard RPO drawings, photos of the interiors, and the video linked in my RPO page on this blog I was able to work out what the interior of a 30ft RPO Apartment should look like when it's working.  Rivarossi has made interiors for their RPO cars, however they worked only off the drawings and didn't read the fine print that says that both sides of the car had "Bag Racks" and both sides also had "Paper Boxes" along the windows.  The Bag Racks folded down off the interior wall where the windows are and the Paper Boxes were bins over the windows with a door to dump the contents of the bin into a bag suspended from hooks at the bottom of the bin when dumping the bin.  The interior of RPO cars were truly an amazing exercise in practicality and form matching function.

Additional bags and modular sorting tables could be set up on center floor stanchions to work the Bag Racks, Paper Box bins.  The center stanchions were cut 8" shorter so there was room at the letter case at the car-center end of the apartment.

In the Baggage section I drafted up the desk, stove, enclosed toilet partitions, water cooler, safe, and electric locker.  The baggage door windows and the one center-car window will be the only way to view these, so again, it doesn't have to be too fancy.

The drawings are based on plans for SP 5164 & SP 5166, but it's the only 69-BP-30 floor plans shown in the SP Passenger Cars vol.3: Head End Equipment book, so you work with what you have.  Also as mentioned in the RPO video, each route could have different setups for the sorting table, etc.  While it would be esoterically cool to be able to look up what the proper setup for the Tehachapi Mail (Nos.55 & 56) or the Owl (Nos. 57 & 58) RPO would be in 1952, I'm not going to loose any sleep over it!

I didn't bother drafting the storage mail stanchions or the RPO door dividers, those will be either made from scratch or omitted if they can't be seen from outside the car.  I do want at least something resembling the letter case as viewers might be able to see into that part of the car with the interior lighting.

Dropping the Mail

Where we're leaving it now - Left Side

Where we're leaving it now - Right Side

That covers it for Part 5.  Building SP 5199 (Part 6) will be coming along when the 3d printed interior parts arrive, probably about a month or so.  I'm sure some of you are probably ready to go "Postal" with all these posts about RPOs...  I hope to work on some other blog projects for the next few postings.

Jason Hill

Related Articles

SP 5199 Part 1

SP 5199 Part 2

SP 5199 Part 3

SP 5199 Part 4

SP 5199 Part 5

SP 5199 Part 6

SP 5199 Part 7

SP 5124, Modeling San Joaquin Daylight RPO (Part 1)

SP 5069, Modeling San Joaquin Daylight RPO (Part 2)

Modeling SP HW Passenger Car Index Page