The SPNG, originally the C&C, was built to move the mined and dry lake gathered minerals from the distant Inyo mountains and the Owens valley to market. After the turn of the century, the SP standard gauge line was built to support the construction of the California Aqueduct, and once connected to Owenyo, provided a southward shipment path for the products of the SPNG to market. Once the SPNG's northern connection over Montgomery Pass was abandoned in 1937, the standard gauge transfer at Owenyo was the only connection left.
Owens Valley, looking east at the Inyo Mountains
In this post, I want to look a little closer at one of the minerals that was shipped by Narrow Gauge rail to Owenyo, then loaded into Standard Gauge cars, and sent out to the larger world beyond Mojave. While at the surface, most of the line's later loads were all white powder or solid chunk forms of 'stuff' which looked very much alike, there actually where about a dozen different minerals being worked.
In this view we see multiple low-side NG gondolas of bulk soapstone being unloaded by hand and wheelbarrow into standard gauge boxcars. I'll be covering some of the other commodities in future dedicated posts.
But, What is Soapstone?
Several companies shipped soapstone and talc in several forms. This explains why soapstone is seen on the Jawbone Branch moving in multiple types of freight cars, coming in on the Narrow Gauge to Owenyo in flat-bottomed gondola/flatcars, then moved over to bulk loading in Standard Gauge boxcars with chunks of 4-8" and finer pieces. Specifically, I'm going to be looking at the soapstone which was loaded on a truck-ramp at Zurich, along with talc and soda ash... all white minerals which look similar, wonderful! To be clear, talc does made up a large portion of soapstone, and some companies shipped the 'soapstone' deposits out to be used for its talc content, while others were intending to use the soapstone for it's unique qualities.
Soapstone samples - image from Wikipedia page, linked below.
The websites where I looked up Soapstone, it has a density of 2,980 kg/m³! From this I am able to calculate how much weight we're usually seeing in the NG flat-bottomed gons, which were piled with soapstone, probably to capacity of 15-20 tons. I can also figure how much they might be able to fit into a typical 40ft boxcar.
Soapstone is useful for many products and consumable uses, including: marking pencils for metal which will be welded, multi-purpose carving for sculptures, high and wet area structural uses - such as - counter-tops, stoves, etc. The Soapstone is a high concentration source of talc, with some silica and traces of CaO or Al2O3 mixed in.
By the mid-1950s, the SP Transfer Dock crews had a small forklift with a front-end bucket in place of the regular fork tines, to drop the loads of soapstone into piles in the boxcars. Some comments on photos of the transfer trestle also report that soapstone was being moved in NG gondolas, then dumped into the SG gondolas at the trestle.
Boxcars or Gondolas?
SP 102856 post-war B-50-28 boxcar SPNG Owenyo Transfer Dock 1954, loading with 100 pound bags of Gypsum. - owensvalleyhistory,com s-l1600_ebay01_sml (Cropped)
A load in a 40ft AAR boxcar, 48in high of soapstone works out to about 48 tons. The photo of SP 102856 has a half-height load of 100 pound bags, which would appear to be a full weight load as well.
Seems that would be rather hard to put into a car with just the forklift bucket. But it works out about right for a GS gondola piling to average about 4 feet high would be about right, as the cars had 5 foot high sides.
In Closing
SP boxcars of various classes are switched at Owenyo to load and move all the materials to and from the SPNG.
A couple of the photos in Joe Dale Morris's book on the Jawbone shows that most of the cars at the docks around the 1950s era were being loaded with the bucket forklift into the boxcars with the newer 7ft door boxcars (including foreign cars). This might help explain why the sudden increase in B-50-28,29,30,31,33s showed up after the mid-1950s at Owenyo. This would make since as using the bucket-forklift would be easier to maneuver into the car and dump the soapstone than the older 6ft door cars.
I started writing this post in mid-October'23, but am getting around to posting it in March 2024, after a couple other posts about the research trip to Owenyo, work developing 3d prints of the structures, & redesign/reconsidering several aspects post - Parts 39-42 actually. So any out of temporal statements made here compared to Parts 39-42 should be taken into account.
Time to return to the Owenyo Wye.
I've not done much on the Jawbone Branch during the last year. A very severe winter, some health issues, and then a very busy summer with work at OwlMtModels has kept me from doing much on the layout itself.
Well, I got the NC car done before I worked much more on the layout.
My freight car fleet has grown a bit with some wonderful additions (Rapido X-3 tankcars, Tangent B-50-28/31 boxcars, and finally getting decals and finishing touches on my NC&StL Fowler boxcar), but all that doesn't help get the layout itself done, but maybe I can pivot the "new model" energy into getting a photo diorama going on the wye-tail at least! - (Yes this post was written 6 months ago already... remember when this car was newly finished? Yeah, that long ago!)
A Time to Color!
I still need to wire the track and build the connectors to tie the wye-tail module into the rest of the layout, but I couldn't wait any longer to see what some tie-color would look like on this section. The basic painting of the ties will allow me to get one module at least with some scenery and finishing on it. Maybe I can put up the white-board as a backdrop and shoot some nice model photos against this soon!
Not much has happened since this photo in March of 2021... - Until now!
I decided to try misting some Krylon 'Almond' color spray paint enamel onto the Wye Tail module and see how that looks.
Masking the switch point joiners.
I masked off the rail joiners for the switch points, as I've not installed them yet, and don't want any paint getting down into them. Remember to watch out for how touchy the Krylon spray nozzles are... they're pretty much "ON" or "OFF", and they have higher pressure than typical Tamiya spray cans.
Wye tail with the Almond color dusted on.
This results in a high-pressure blast of paint which can basically be 'dusted' on to the tops of the ties. It's a pretty narrow cone of paint too, so be sure to be 2-3 feet back when you fire the paint-hose!
Wye switch and curved sections misted with Almond.
The Almond color is a good starting point I think for the sandy valley bottom around Owenyo. The ties will need some washes and treatment to look like ties that have been down in the muddy-silty ground of Owenyo for 10-30 years, washed over a few times by some flash flood, and half-burried. Then I'll be putting in the rest of the ground cover (mud/ballast).
Close-up of the Almond on the track. It acts as a good primer for doing additional weathering effects.
Over this, I'll be airbrushing some metallic (gray steel) color onto the sides of the rail. This will probably be a dark gray-rail brown color from low angle, as the desert air doesn't tend to rust steel very much, but the very occasional, but driving rain, tends to splatter mud up onto the sides of the rails. So a final dusting of the near almond color will probably be needed to finish blending everything together.
In Closing
March 2024: I'm really starting to reconsider using the Krylon paint as it is still very easy to get it too heavy. I'll probably end up using finer grade airbrush paints instead, but in similar sandy colors and then work my way up to other weathering colors.
Notice the patches of lighter color around the dump trestle and the nearly white area around the talc conveyor loader. The other very white areas are 'salt flats' which trap water until it evaporates.
Also looking at color photos of Owenyo, there's noticeable changes in the ground colors, especially around the loading structures and 'down wind' from them. In some cases 'down wind' seems to be more a function of radius than a vector.
Owenyo Module #3 CAD model with "pink foam" scenery contours roughed in.
2024-03 Comment: Well, obviously I've still not done more on this... yet, but I probably will within a couple months and get into constructing the next modules. Mid-March Note; Hopefully I'll find out what they say about my hand injury from November. So hopefully soon I'll be back to being able to build benchwork again!
SP 3237 Bartlett on the Jawbone branch - Leo Barusch photo, my collection
Time to come back and address some research issues and selective compression of Bartlett into my planned layout space.
Track Chart Research
Bartlett - SP ValMap (RR East to Right)
I'm unsure of the date for the SP company ValMap shown here, but I think it's later than 1960, as it agrees with the SPINS map for Bartlett with two stub spurs off one main track switch on the west end.
Bartlett MP 509,02 - SPINS Chart - David Coscia collection (RR East to Right)
The SP SPINS charts show track arrangements for the computerized system that the SP developed in the 1970s.
Aerial Photo Research
Bartlett 1944 - Fairchild Aerial Survey (RR East to Left)
I've found several aerial photos of Bartlett, but the 1947 and 1955 sets didn't have the contrast to really show what was going on... probably due to the blowing dust in the Owens Valley the days that the photos were taken. However, this 1944 photo more clearly shows what the plant and track arrangement was at Bartlett.
Modern Bartlett Aerial - Zoomed on main building - BingMaps with scale
The plant was upgraded in 1960 with new buildings. I still need to do more research on what exact structures will be included in my version for the Jawbone Branch. It seems the changes were mostly the new tanks have been added around the basic building. A few structures remain today, owned by some artists who are experimenting with optics and sound unique to the desolate location.
The Model Track Plan Evolves
Original CAD drawing for my planned model of Bartlett. 2021-02-03 - REV-C
Originally I roughed out the plan for Bartlett to put the switch right at the corner of the bookcase and would only be a single spur. The plant structure would be placed parallel to the edge of the layout.
Early March 2024 revisions for the CAD track plan to include the double-ended runaround.
I wanted to see if I could fill out Bartlett to be more in line with the 1944 aerial photo's arrangement of tracks and structures. In this drawing, I've moved the main track switch to the right farther, creating more space in the inside of the curve for the track and scenery expansion.
Newest updated drawing with resized inside runaround and Glass Co loading spots.
I've been wanting to get a more detailed drawing made with the road crossing, and the 'inside' runaround. Sadly this version is gobbling up more of the space across the front of the bookcase, reducing the length between the Bartlett switch and the Little Lake East switch. The space shown for the Southern Columbia Glass Co. is just a rough guess at this point, as I've not gone into detailed breakdown of what the warehouse and plant looked like during the 1944-1955 era. I'll probably have room for a couple of out-buildings along the road and to the right of the road.
I may still come back and do another pass of revisions for Bartlett trying to shift the inside runaround to the left a bit more and get more of the S-curve between the west switch of the runaround and the main track switch. Drawing switches accurately is somewhat tricky, and it's much easier to lay them out in real life on the layout itself. So these track plans are more 'rough calculations' of what I can fit, and I always plan them to be conservative on what I can expect to put in the space.
Redesign Considerations for Little Lake
This was one of my track plans for Little Lake from 2021-02-03 - REV-C
Originally I planned to model Linnie with the lumber mill, but research found out that it was not built back in the era I want to model. So I changed this corner of the layout to be Little Lake, with this being the original concept.
It's still not exactly what I want, regarding the exact arrangement of the scenic elements of Little Lake... So I've been considering changing it again.
This is the current March 6, 2024 plan, which still will probably have another round of changes.
I like the original position of the MW spur a bit better coming off in the middle of the curve, or even the current "Optional" location of the spur. Also the West Switch I think needs to move farther down the wall where the door is.
I am also leaning towards moving the company village and MW Spur to the right some, which would keep it out from behind the book case. The bookcases rise above track level of the layout in this area, and provide a view-block between the Bartlett and Little Lake scenes, but I also want to keep the operational part of the scene from being on top of the desk, which would make switching and viewing the Company Village more difficult.
1944 Aerial photo from Fairchild Aerial Survey.
I may tend to straighten out the curve by the Truck Dump a bit more and bring the Dump away from the wall enough to have more of the Highway in the modeled space. I may end up pulling the right corner curve out a bit more, possibly making more of the whole scene on a large radius curve to make more room for the village and buildings. This would also allow me to make the little tangent of track under the "high rock bluffs" between the depot and the company village area. One counter issue is that I can't push the West Switch too far along the door, as the staging yard switch work needs to start somewhere on the curve in the SW corner of the room, and the ladder of the yard will take a sizable amount of space up off the west wall of the room, and reducing the door module's tangent even more might be problematic.
Little Lake - Jawbone Branch - 2022-06-15 REV-E
Basically the area of Little Lake is still pretty fluid, as I've not been too happy and have concerns about how well I'll be able to pull off the compression and viewing angle of the village.
In Closing
Little Lake - Jennifer Dinsmore collection
This is roughly the view that I'm hoping to achieve with the model of Little Lake. I have the feeling that I'll continue to keep massaging this part of the layout design right up until I start mocking it up and start construction. The features of the room, like the desk and the book cases on top of it providing the view block, I really like. Some of the other details that I want, I think will still need some more pushing and moving around to give me the same 'warm fuzzy feelings'.
This will be a bit more of a scattered blog post on the Jawbone Branch research that I've been finding during late 2023 and 2024 so far.
Which is the Main Track?
I've been looking more closely at various photos I have of Owenyo and the track arrangement.
SP 2578 No 788 - Owenyo 1940 - Phil Serpico - owensvalleyhistory,com southern_pacific015_sml
This photo circa 1940 of Mixed No.788 arriving at Owenyo behind SP 2578 is interesting... why is she coming in on the west most track, not the center track? We can see the consist diverging on the switch back under the rear portion of the train as the engine comes past the stock transfer platform.
SP Owenyo Wye 1958-1960 - Andrew Brandon collection
Or this photo... very near the end. I believe by this point the wye had been cut off just past the engine spot where the RSD5 is sitting. I always wondered in this photo why the center track and the diverging track to the east seem to have dust/dirt on the railheads, and it's not been cleaned off by the equipment moving over it, where as the west siding and wye have signs of being run on regularly. It's almost like by this era with diesels on the Standard Gauge, they weren't even using the 'north' (RR eastern) end of the yard at Owenyo, switching everything from the 'south' (RR western) end of the yard.
Owenyo transfer decks with coaches looking north - owensvalleyhistory,com - ebay35_owenyo_sml - (Lightened)
This photo of the 'north' (RR east) end shows the two mixed train passenger cars on the western track, with other cars scattered on the main track in the center. Notice also that the RPO/baggage has been turned already with the coach behind it, ready to depart. The engine will only have to back around the wye and the pull westward (south), then back up and couple up. In later era photos, it seems that the caboose of the local was also left in this spot across from the depot on the west track.
Then I zoomed in and cropped the following photo...
Owenyo Yard from transfer trestle Crop WM - Tight Cropped on Track Details - Andrew Brandon collection
Look at the position of the switch points in this photo... straight route on the first switch, with switch stand target showing it's set for the normal route. But the second switch... the second switch points are diverging into the west-most track, but the switch stand target is also showing that is the 'normal' position. (Gasp!) - Could it be that the west-most track is actually the "Main Track"?
Looking even more closely at the house track, we can see the standard split-point derail with deflecting rail, which protects the main from cars rolling down-grade from the NG transfer facilities in the distance all the way to Lone Pine. The center track also has at least a split point derail too, which is open, in the east (right) rail! So the center track certainly isn't the main line, but the western-most track is!
SP 5504 at Owenyo NG Rich Wilkens014 - SPNG Groups io photo page
Here SP 5504 is turned and looks to be moving to prepare its train for departure... and it's on the west track as well. At the south end of town it will probably cut off the caboose and then fetch the cars from the house track and dump trestle pit, then shove them back against the caboose. Then cut in the air and depart for Lone Pine and Mojave.
Heavier Rail?
Looking more closely at some of my photos of the main line sections of the Jawbone Branch, I started to see that the main track rail seemed heavier than the rail in the yard at Owenyo. Originally I bought Code 55 rail for the whole branch... but now I'm starting to do the deep research to see if I really should consider upgrading the main track from my Mojave staging yard to at least the west end of Owenyo... possibly to some point farther into the yard of Owenyo. - Even as far as the north end of the 'main' track.
So let's look at some photos and see what conclusion we come to...
Little Lake
SP 2751 at Little Lake 1950 serpico_little_lake003_sml - Owens Valley History,com
Here at Little Lake, it seems that the main track (under the 2751) is heavier rail than the siding. Changing Owenyo and Bartlett to heavier Code 70 rail will mean three switches at Little Lake and one at Bartlett will have to be upgraded.
Little Lake Depot Station 1940 - ucla_little lake08_sml - Owens Valley History,com
Note in this close-up photo of the main track at Little Lake next to the depot, the rail seems much heavier than that around Owenyo.
If I change Owenyo too, then the south switch to the Trestle Pit, two at the South end of the yard, and possibly the south switch of the wye will also need to be changed. Right now about 12 feet of Code 55 track and the south wye switch would have to be pulled up and replaced, which wouldn't be that hard, as I've not glued the track down - just spiked lightly to the MDF module roadbeds.
Since I'm now looking closer at the main track. Several photos I have showing Owenyo make me think the western-most track's rails were heavier than the rest... Is that rail more exposed, or is it really heavier than the one in the immediate foreground? Or is the closer track just buried in dirt?
Water Tank - Owenyo station with tank and 5501 RSD-5 - Andrew Brandon collection - (Cropped4x)
The western track here looks taller... but part of that might be that the south wye switch is very close to this point... or that it really is heavier... hard to tell.
SP 2335 East Owenyo with excursion Oct, 1954 - Alden Armstrong photo
This Alden Armstrong photo seems to show that the rails are about the same... so maybe the shot of 2758 at the 'Engine Spot' really is just an optical illusion of heavier rail at the north end of town.
SP F-70-3 with SPNG 9 on it - Owenyo - snowcrest,net - Tim Huebner collection
Here's an interesting shot, seems the close track, which is the main, is a bit heavier in this view.
SPNG 9 Owenyo & Water car 350 - Jack Sims photo 1959 circa - TH Huebner collection
But in this is a cross-view of the east (north) end of Owenyo, just south of the house track switch. Looks to me like these rails are all the same height. - So I'm still not sure if I'll stay with the Code 55 at the north end of town. If I do increase the rail weight to Code 70 all the way to short of the north switch, then I'll have to pull up the south wye switch and relay that track as well, then make a rail transition in the curve of the wye down to Code 55.
SP 2335 mid-Owenyo direct transfer stub - Oct 1954 excurions - Alden Armstrong photo
Here's a shot of the 1954 "SPNG 1, Little Giant" excursion arriving in town... looks like their coming directly into the "Siding" - aka center track. Dirt is pretty much up to the rail heads between the company village and the Narrow Gauge, except on the "Main" track. The cameraman is standing just south of the "Bulk Conveyor Loader" on the SG stub track.
Notes SP Company Village - Owenyo-Switching - PacificNG Collection - Cropped
Back about 50 feet from the shot above... at right is the bulk-loader and the end of the stub in the foreground. The 'main' again looks taller, but probably more that the non-main tracks are covered with dirt up to the railheads. Interesting that the SG spur has wheel-stops and a tie across the track to catch any cars being shoved into the spur too far.
SP Company Village - Owenyo top of SPNG engine - Mark Van Klaveren collection - John West photo
This color photo's a great overview of the inside of the wye. Again, it's showing that the tracks within the wye are pretty much all covered in dirt up to the railhead. This whole area will be fun to model, which I'm thankful that there's not more terrain details in this area, which makes the compression less noticable.
SP Water cars at Owenyo - Sept 19, 1950 - Chard Walker photo - Mike Massee collection (cropped)
Looks like the dirt level is a little lower here at the south wye switch. The road crosses just this side of the water tank car, showing the difference between rail-head dirt, normal level graded ground level, and the road crossing height.
Owenyo Yard from transfer trestle Crop WM - Tight Cropped on Track Details - Andrew Brandon collection
Back to this shot again, it allows a great overview of what the ground level/dirt is doing throughout most of the length of the yard. It appears that the tracks south of the stub-spur's fouling point is more exposed, while north of that for a ways is covered... then the main track is exposed again north of the road until at least where the freight cars are on the west track. The rail shadows look like there could be a change to heavier rail just before the reverse curve in the main track, south of the main track derail, and about the same place in the house track.
Owenyo West Switch - TJ Huebner collection - I think Jack Sims photo
Here's a good view of the south end of Owenyo with the SG main switch. - I believe this is a Jack Sims photo as well, which TJ recently posted.
Owenyo Dump Trestle, SG south switch - Jack Sims photo
Another view of the south end of town, a bit more of a side view, close to what I'll have on the Jawbone Branch layout. Some of these new amazing photos from Jack Sims have been found on-line from a collection of photos sold from the Dennis Burke collection and posted here: Photo collection of Dennis Burke - I'm not sure the name of who bought these photos and posed them, so I'll drop back to say these are Jack Sims photos. I've asked for some help from Andrew Brandon to sort out the history of the credit for these "Jack Sims" photos. They may be older than that credit, if so I'll recredit these photos.
Sunday River SPNG Movie
Another fun bit of research is from the Sunday River SPNG Film on YoutTube video. Full of great shots and useful views for modeling Owenyo and the NG. There's even a clip of SP 3203 (one of my favorite SP Mk-2/4 class engines that worked Owenyo locals.
A Railroad Doctor's 1950s Film Collection
Since we're in the movies, let's have a look at this great collection.
Doctor Wayland Paul Matt worked for both the SP and the ATSF in Bakersfield as a railroad doctor. He filmed this collection of movies of the SP around Bakersfield, including the excursions to the SPNG are included in this film. - Enjoy!
Jason Hill
SP 3203 arrives at Owenyo, pulling past the string of spotted boxcars in 1953.
While I've covered each of these classes in more detail relating to their era of construction or manufacture's review, I want to cover the SP Boxcar models that I'm planning to use on the Jawbone Branch as a whole in this post.
Balancing the Prototype Fleet Roster
I'm specifically looking at the fleet roster for 1950 and 1955 data points, as it will cover the biggest swing of the fleet from single-sheathed wood cars to new post-war all-steel cars.
Switching the fleet of SP Boxcars at Owenyo around 1953.
Fleet Breakdown 1940, 1950 & 1955Number of Models in Jawbone Layout Fleet (March 2024)
B-50-8/10/11 :1673 171 1 = 1
B-50-12: 976 0 0= 1 car (Last revenue -12 was rebuilt/retired Summer '49)
B-50-13/146858 5189 716 = ~10+ cars
B-50-15/16: 4853 4745 4218 = 5 cars (I still have an unbuilt resin car, making 6 total)
B-50-18/19: 2750 2704 2659= 2 cars (maybe 3rd car if I convert an old Athearn car)
B-50-20/21/23: 5244 5220 3692= 8 cars (with up to 4 more unassembled BLYM kits)
B-50-25/26/27: x 8950 N/D = 0 cars (would be nice to have a few, but no current plans)
B-50-28/29/30/31/32/33: x ~2000 ~10500= 2 cars (I may still break down and pick up a T&NO car too)
Totals: 22354,~28979,30736 = ~ 28 cars (nearly one car per 1000 prototype average)
Note: * I did not subtract out the T&NO boxcars of these classes. * B-50-24 is not shown because all of that class was in Express or Overnight service during the time I model, and wouldn't be likely to show up on the Jawbone. * Also missing from this list is the increasing numbers of 50ft single-door steel boxcars and rebuilt B-50-12A all-steel cars. * Majority of B-50-29/30/31/32/33s built after 1950, so only show full numbers in the 1955 column.
Comments: It seems, looking at the data, that the 1950 era was the crossover point when the SP was rapidly expanding the boxcar fleet with new classes, and before the majority of pre-war cars started being retired en-mass. There were still a few of the older classes of B-50-1/2/3/4/5, & -6/9s in service after WWII, but I'm not bothering to show them here as it was only a few hundred cars left by these dates. The remaining post-1950 new builds of B-50-29/33 series of about 8500 cars by 1953 filled out the fleet and allow the retiring older boxcars.
The 4 extra unbuilt BLYM '37 AAR cars will add extra cars to that group, which is already over represented, but lacking any B-50-25/26/27 class cars, I think it will balance out for now with an eye towards adjusting this in the future. There also is the possibility that the B-50-20/21/23s would be more likely to show up on the Jawbone Branch given their age, and the new-postwar B-50-25/26/27s would be kept for more priority loadings. While this theory is promptly shot down by the photos of the B-50-28/32s showing up at Owenyo by 1956-60 in noticeable numbers over the pre-war '37 AAR cars.
Class Details & Modeling Options
This is post is ending up being a super-index of all my previous SP Boxcar blog-posts. So here's the quick notes on the classes listed in the roster above.
Pre-kitbashed B-50-10, SP 24864 with white bulk-load/dust leaks between the boards.
All of my Accurail B-50-8/10/11/13/14 class cars I'm planning to rebuild with new 3d printed ends, to make them look more accurate for the SP prototypes. Hopefully, this project will move forward in 2024.
The Tichy/IMRC USRA models for B-50-12s are pretty accurate for the SP's 1000 cars of this class, however the remaining 625 cars were all rebuilt in mid-1949 to All-steel B-50-12As for automobile parts service into the early 1950s, so I'm not planning to have any B-50-12As for now, and this model is more heavily weathered to model the end-of-life of these cars just before retirement in 1949.
The SP 26948 took a little damage to the plastic handbrake wheel, during the weathering process. So I'll be replacing it with a brass one before the Jawbone Branch really gets into regular "high detail" operating sessions.
I'm also building a second B-50-12, but as one of the few cars that lasted into 1956 in MW service, specifically one of the two Supply Cars. I'm renumbering it as SPMW 3931, which I've covered here before as SPMW 2676, and needed correction from a decal typo from a few years ago.
Pre-Kitbashed PE 2707, B-50-13 boxcar with MicroScale 87-911 decals.
All of my Accurail B-50-8/10/11/13/14 class cars I'm planning to rebuild with new 3d printed ends, to make them look more accurate for the SP prototypes. Hopefully, this project will move forward in 2024.
SP 15203 represents the wooden B-50-15/16s with post-'46 lettering.
The Rapido models are certainly a starting point which allows them to be placed into service within a couple hours (assuming you want to put some touch ups and weathering on them), but the wooden sheathing boards are too wide, almost double the historic size. I'm still considering options of how to 'fix' this on the two I have.
SP 15564 is a great B-50-15 steel-sheathed model.
For all the B-50-15/16s that were resheathed in steel, the Rapido model works very well. The 15564 only needed a little light dusting of FCR to tone down the lettering and give a little depth to the paint job. I also very lightly dusting on the lower carbody with a 'dust' mix through my airbrush, to replicate some photos I've seen of these cars at Mojave and years of Southwestern desert operation.
SP 37821, an Overnight-assigned B-50-16 steel resheath.
I decided I couldn't help myself. I picked up one of the all-steel B-50-16s as a post-war "Overnight" scheme express boxcar. Depending on exactly what era I want to claim I'm modeling, this car could be coming out of Overnight service and back to regular service in the 1949-1950 timeframe, and still retain the black scheme for a few trips. I may decide at some point to patch the tare-date with some FCR, hinting that the car's not in Overnight service anymore. I believe these cars should have the door steps and half-ladders applied from when they're in express l.c.l. service.
SP 32451 started as a Sunshine Resin kit. - Notice the correct narrow board-widths in the side sheathing.
Even though I started this resin kit a year before the Rapido cars arrived... I still need to do the last 5-10% to finish this car. I guess if the over-sized spacing of the sheathing boards on the Rapido cars gets to me too much, I could always build a couple more Westerfield resin cars! - but that will wait until after I get the Jawbone up and running.
I'm planning to do a bit more weathering on my B-50-18/19s, this photo shows the problem with the photo-stacking and not having any weathering on the panel lines... they simply disappear. So I'll probably do so weathering like the SP 102856 or 106272 (shown below) so these models photograph better.
This group of cars is one of the largest groups that I should have in the post-WWII era and into the early 1950s, so I have quite a pile of old Branchline Yardmaster-series kits that I've built over the years, and several more that I've been working on recently.
SP 96311, a B-50-23 class boxcar, mostly decalled.
This was a repainted BLYM car from another foreign road that I decided would be more useful as an SP car.
Mostly finished, but still needs data decals on the right side...
Another car that I repainted from a less useful paint scheme, SP 84550 is a B-50-20 class car - which I still need to finish applying the class and data stencil decals below the herald. Notice on these cars how far left the railroad name is placed. A couple of my older models from the pre-Tony Thompson Vol.4 days has the decals starting to the right of the grab irons, which I believe is not correct. I'm not sure if I'll get another full set of National Car Company decals to fix that or not... but it is starting to get annoying now that I have so many 'good' cars with the correct lettering.
Both SP 96311 and 84550 need some mechanical work and weathering to be put into regular service on the Jawbone Branch, which will probably wait until I have more of the physical layout built.
All B-50-24s were assigned during my era to special Passenger Express and Overnight services, and would not be likely to show up on the Jawbone Branch in general freight service.
Tony Thompson covers an example of this in his blog post: Improving a freight car where he is kitbashing a B-50-26 from an IMWX kit. - Maybe if I can find a couple of these kits, I could do a few of these cars.
With nearly 9000 cars, these classes would be a great help to 'balance' my fleet out. I don't have any models of B-50-24/25/26/27 classes, as they will either require finding other models that I don't have currently and then kitbashing to model or getting resin kits.
Photos of Owenyo show the earlier B-50-20/21/23 class cars at Owenyo during my modeling era more than the -25/26/27 class cars, so my current fleet in-balance of larger numbers of pre-war steel boxcars is probably ok.
B-50-28/29/30/31/32 - Post-1950 All-Steel (Tangent's new B-50-28 models)
These are certainly my most recent modeling project entering early 2024. Note the lettering changes between the Pullman-built B-50-28 (top) and the SP Sacramento-built B-50-31 (bottom). The 1952 B-50-31 class also leads the SP fleet in dropping the bars above and below the reporting marks. This change appears to be an interesting step towards the SP's 1953 general lettering change, but applied a year early! The Pullman-built cars also have a wide spacing of the car numbers, which is unique to the class.
Tangent B-50-28 and -31 on my Jawbone Branch yard at Owenyo with photoshopped photo of Inyo Mountains behind.
The Jawbone certainly won't need 30 SP boxcars all out on the sceniced part of the layout at once. The mix of these cars should make up a good slice of the SP fleet, and make it so the cars are rotated through. Roughly 30 SP cars does give me the option to use the 5-track staging yard to full effect when combined with other foreign boxcars rotating in and out, so that no boxcar becomes too regularly seen on the branch. The possible exception being that more photos from the 1955-1960 era shows that the SP/T&NO 7-foot door post-war cars (B-50-28-to-32-series) did start showing up fairly regularly. So maybe the two new Tangent cars will be recycled through staging faster than the other cars to simulate the new car type showing up more regularly for that era, as the B-50-8/10/11/12s were basically all gone by 1950, and even the B-50-15/16s seemed rare in the 1955+ photos of Owenyo, while they did last on the system well into the 1960s as steel-sheathed rebuilds.
My fleet still has a skew towards the single-sheath boxcars of the B-50-13/14 series and lack of any good plastic models for B-50-25/26/27s shows a major hole for modeling circa 1950. Maybe I'll find a couple IMWX or IMRC 6-panel 10ft cars to work with sometime, as the basic roster numbers would suggest that I should have somewhere around 9 cars from the -25/26/27 series, but I'm probably not going to get 9 new cars overnight.
In Closing
One of the operating schemes that I'm pondering doing is setting up the staging yard to reflect the way the equipment changed between 1940/46 and 1950 and 1954. Showing that not only will the engines working the trains change, but that I could have the balance of freight cars shift from earlier eras through a transition, then to the later era over the course of 3-5 days of consists being switched on the layout.
The extra Accurail B-50-13/14s in my fleet will allow me to more easily make 1940-1945 era operations on the Jawbone Branch and model the 'mixed' Owenyo Local. Then spread the remaining cars out through the sessions as the era moves forward.
SP 3203 arrives at Owenyo, pulling past the string of spotted boxcars in 1953.
I figure the operations could easily take an hour to make one lap out of staging to the layout... so to run 5-6 complete trains, without even doing live re-staging, which is possible, that will give a 'full day' of play value in the rather simple layout.
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