Jawbone Branch Freight Car Roster

This is the main index page for my regular freight car roster that will be used on my "Jawbone Branch" layout.  Obviously other foreign cars will be rotated through to expand the variety of foreign cars showing up, especially boxcars.

SP Boxcars

SP 24864 - B-50-10 - Accurail kitbash

Right side SP 24864

The SP 24864 is almost complete here at the end of 2022.  Final finishing touches to the handbrake staff and wheel, brake levers & rods, etc.

Left side SP 24864

This should be a fun car to have on the Jawbone with the dusty mineral leakage from the sides of the car near the floor, so I figure the car will be good for the messy powdery minerals on the Jawbone Branch.

SP 32451 - B-50-15 - Sunshine Models - Resin

Left side SP 32451 - Dec 2022

The SP 32451 has been under construction for many months this year.  It's almost done, just finishing up the details and weathering to go now.  It'll be a fun car to have on the Jawbone.  I have several of the Rapido's B-50-15/16s coming, so that will more than fill out the fleet for the Jawbone Branch.

SP 15203 - B-50-15 - Rapido Trains - Original Wood-side

Lightly weathered SP 15203 with some dusting effects to show years of service in the desert southwest.

This car is to represent the cars that received the full repaint after WWII but didn't receive the upgrades to steel-siding, new trucks, etc.

SP 15469 - B-50-15 - Rapido - Original Wood-side

Backdated reporting marks for SP 15469, which reflects pre-1946 lettering scheme.

A good number of the SP's B-50-15 fleet wouldn't have been fully repainted in 1946+ and not been upgraded to steel-sides, so this model is to represent that part of the fleet.

SP 15564 - B-50-15 - Rapido - Rebuilt Steel-side

Lightly dusted steel-sheathed B-50-15, SP 15564 ready for service on the Jawbone Branch.

I didn't do much on SP 15564, mostly just some light weathering and tare dating the car for my era.  I may eventually replace the T-section trucks with a more correct U-section truck for the post-rebuild era.

SP 82239 - B-50-21 - Branchline Yardmaster Series

SP 83239 with stock as-built lettering from Branchline

I'll need to bring this car up to date with new tare date at least. I'll probably set the tare date for circa 1945 as the car is still lettered for the pre-1946 style with only "SP" initials.  I like the weathering on this car for any sort of cement or mineral loading on the Jawbone.

SP 83228 - B-50-21 - Branchline Yardmaster Series

SP 83228

The SP 83228 is lettered for the post-1946 scheme with the spelled out road name decal, back from when I could only get MicroScale's version and a LA 6-48 tare date now.  The lower carside on this car is more heavily weathered with acrylic paint 'dusty' technique.  I like having some variations in the weathering, especially in the representation of larger fleets of home road freight cars.

SP 102856 - B-50-28 1950 Pullman Boxcar - Tangent Models

SP 102856 renumbered Tangent B-50-28 Boxcar.

Modeled off a photo of this car at Owenyo being loaded with 100 lb bags of gypsum about mid-car high, which is about the 50-ton capacity of the car.  The car was the southern most car of those spotted at the large platform opposite from the Owenyo depot.

I cover this car and B-50-31 SP 106272 in the following blog post: Tangent B-50-28 & -31 Custom Decalled to Match Owenyo Prototypes

SP 106272 - B-50-31 1952 SPE Co Boxcar - Tangent Models

SP 106272 from Unlettered Tangent SP B-50-28+ RTR Boxcar

Also modeled off a photo of this car at Owenyo, at the southern end of the South Platform, just north of the Bulk Conveyor (Perlite) loader, which had a B-50-32 class T&NO boxcar spotted.  Notice the changes in lettering from the Pullman built B-50-28s (102856 above) and the SPE built B-50-31s only 18-24 months later.

I will update this roster photo after I give the car a little light weathering.

Foreign Boxcars

ACY 1195 - Mathers Boxcar - P2K RTR

Left side ACY 1195

The Proto2000 series cars were supposed to be prototypically accurate models, however it appears that the next number series higher for the ACY cars are more correct in height.  I'll probably be renumbering the car to ACY 1295 at some point in the future.

Right side ACY 1195

This ACY car will mostly be part of the Jawbone Branch fleet to fill the prototype photo of an Seaboard car at Bartlett.

ATSF 129872 - Bx-38 - IMRC RTR

ATSF 129782 at Owenyo, on my Jawbone Branch in 2021

The ATSF 129782 will be showing up on the Jawbone as an interloper of the "enemy" with the agreements between the SP and ATSF to allow ATSF to solicit traffic off the SP's Jawbone Branch customers, but then interchanging at Mojave to the Santa Fe to the destination.  Of course it could also show up as an incoming load from just about anywhere in the country.  There are photos around the early 1950s of all-steel ATSF cars at Lone Pine, so I know these did show up.

It was a blast to weather using both acrylics and colored Prisma Pencils, which I've covered in previous blog posts.

NP 11661 - Double-Sheath - Rapido

NP 11661 with light weathering

This is pretty much a stock Rapido Double-Sheath boxcar, which I've done some weathering on to replicate a recently retouched paint job with the new large monon herald of the NP.

The NP cars did show up on the Jawbone Branch, I'm not sure if these were empty cars being reloaded at Owenyo and then to be sent north, or if these were specifically cars bringing paper or lumber products south to the Jawbone specifically; maybe box shook, certain lumber, or cardboard or bags?

PRR 100305 - X29 - Red Caboose

I figure there's going to be some of the "Standard Railroad of the Wold" cars showing up from time to time on the Jawbone, so I'll be representing them with a small group of X29, X31A, & X43Bs to cover some different flavors of the unique PRR boxcar fleet.  

PRR 100305, with primered open door.

The ubiquitous X29s that we always hear about, "Every model railroad should have 10 of", I am slowly working on finishing this repaint from a Red Caboose "PRR Battery Car".  Mostly it just needs the detail parts mounted.

PRR 100813, a late X29 class car with Dreadnaught ends.

I have a couple more, including one that was factory painted for PRR and a couple more 'Battery Cars' to fully repaint. 

I cover the construction of the PRR 100813 kit in the following post:
Modeling X29 (Part 1) - PRR 100813 Basic Construction

PRR 504385 - X29 Early - IMRC

2023 production PRR X29 from Intermountain.

I cover the basic modeling with this RTR model in my general blog post: Modeling X29 (Part 3) - PRR 504385 Early X29s

This model has the early plate ends, 3-panel doors, a vertical staff handbrake, and the patched lower side panels.

CGW 85240 - X29 Early - Red Caboose

A couple years ago I also picked up this CGW X29, so at least I can say I have one X29 servicable!

This model represents one of the earlier X29s with the plate-ends and 3-panel doors, plus the ACR pattern rivets on the side-sheets.

To X29B, or Not to X29B?

I'm still pondering if I'll do an X29B rebuild, which numbered 2565 in the 1950 ORER.  While the plain X29 fleet still just over 22,000 cars in the 1950s era that I model.  The X29Bs looked like a narrower X29 frame with an wider AAR '37 boxcar body above the floor.  About 1 in 10 X29s should be a X29B.  Currently, I have 5 X29s in PRR paint.

PRR 27205 X29B - F&C Website photo - Kit 8160

They are available in resin or I have thought of how to kitbash one.  Pretty much I'll keep an eye out for resin X29Bs, but I'm not holding my breath for any to show up, and I have so many projects, resin X29Bs wouldn't get done anytime soon.  I already have 2 new resin boxcars I got in 2023 and the Westerfield B-50-15 to still build.

Update 2024-03-14: F&C X29B for $44.95 direct from F&C. - I'll think about it, if I get one, but I'll probably first snag one of the XM-1s to model the Seaboard B-3/4/5 from Bartlett.

Update 2024-04-27: I went ahead and ordered the F&C XM-1 kit to kitbash to SAL B-3/4/5 and they're offering a 2:1 deal.  So for ~$72 I will be getting the XM-1 and a X29B kit at the same time.  Two birds deal.  While not a "required car", I think it would be a fun one to have in the fleet.

PRR 67526 - X31A - Bowser

PRR 67526 XM X31A

I have a couple of these Bowser X31As from the late 1990s and early 2000s, several of which have 'odd' lettering fonts and sizes.  I may end up redecalling them with Speedwitch/National Scale Car Co decals for PRR cars.

PRR 601185 - X43B - BLBP

PRR's X43B post-war boxcars also with 7ft doors.

These cars were ordered by the PRR and were comparable to the SP B-50-28/33 series which had 7 foot doors, but these were 10'6" high boxcars, instead of the SP's standard 10'0" cars.  I was able to get a small flock of these cars 20 some years ago, before Branchline went under, and was bought up by Atlas.  I believe the tooling is being offered under the Atlas brand now.  While not a 'regular' car on the Jawbone, having one show up occasionally will be nice.

MILW 21078 - Rib-Side - Accurail

Rib-sided boxcar, MILW 21078 from Accurail

I'm going to represent the PNW a bit more on the Jawbone by including this signature MILW rib-side boxcar from Accurail (re-tooled Rib Side Model kit).  These were a unique car to see in a train anywhere they went.  While not super common, the PNW roads did seem to show up regularly on the Jawbone Branch.  I wonder if that was due to northbound loads out of the Jawbone Branch, resulting in the need to capture more of these cars around LA for reloading, before just sending back north with the rest of the empty lumber trains.

GN 10784 - Plywood Sided Boxcar - IMRC

GN 10784 "Plywood-side" Boxcar.

I was able to find this colorful car at the Bridgetown RPM meet in 2023.  My eye had been keeping a lookout for one of these after seeing a photo of a similar car in this scheme at Little Lake in the Owenyo Local, circa 1950.  Although, to be fair, it could have been other steel cars in this scheme too, very hard to tell an all-steel car from the plywood car at nearly 800 feet away in the photo.

Since I found the photo at Little Lake, there's a couple more photos of SP lumber and empty lumber trains at Caliente, which had multiple of these cars in them, so they certainly were common running down to Southern California to support the building boom or paper products from the PNW.

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler Boxcar - Accurail Kitbash

NC&StL 15337 "Fowler" boxcar kitbash

While this car was modeled on a prototype photo of a car in Chicago, IL, there's nothing saying one of these cars couldn't show up on the Jawbone Branch in the late 1940s.  It was a blast to kitbash, so it will have a home as one of the foreign cars on the Jawbone.

NYC "Standard" Steel Boxcars

NYC 121134 from Lot 559-B by BLI

I covered the options with theses cars on the NOM blog in the post:

NYC "Standard" Steel Boxcars by BLI (Part 1) - Another Signature Freight Car

Gondolas

SP 94645 - G-50-15 - Red Caboose kitbash

SP 94645, modified ends and outboard door link covers.

The SP used their steel GS-gondolas regularly for the ore and mineral traffic coming out of Owenyo off the narrow gauge trestle dump track.  The trestle as I plan to build it can hold about four cars at a time.  There was also an ore-dump at Little Lake, so I could also use a car or two there a week.

UP 65003 - G-50-13 - Red Caboose Kit

UP 65003, a G-50-13 by Red Caboose

I'm planning to have a fleet of 12-15 GS gondolas in use at any one time on the Jawbone Branch.  Mostly these will be for moving ore and minerals from Owenyo to points beyond Mojave (Los Angeles, Long Beach, or Bay Area mostly) or the occasional open load of ore/minerals from the bulk loader at Owenyo or the dump-ramp at Little Lake.

Tank Cars

Unfortunately the Jawbone doesn't need many tank cars, but here's a few that I think I can squeeze into operating on the branch.

UTLX 8302 - 6.5k Gallon - MDC/Tichy Kitbash

These cars would be more useful if I was able to model Lone Pine on my layout, but Standard Oil did control Chevron, which had the small fuel dealer with tanks at Little Lake, so I can use at least one UTLX car occasionally there.  Once US Hwy 395 was paved and became the main route in the Owens Valley by the end of the 1940s.  The attack at Pearl Harbor sealed the fate of the fuel cars on the SPNG, and all but 6 were sent to narrow gauge in Hawaii to service Pearl Harbor.  The remaining 6 cars lasted until 1955 when the SPNG moved the engine facilities from Keeler to Owenyo.   From 1942 until 1955 Natural Soda Products was also using the 6 remaining fuel oil cars, but with the movement of the engine facilities, all 6 tank cars were converted to water service.

UTLX 8302, kitbashed from MDC and Tichy parts.

I've had this car on the bench for over 15 years, hopefully I'll finish it up sometime in 2023 before the Rapido 10k X-3 models show up! - Haha, joke's on me, it's already 2024 and I haven't touched this car!

UTLX 33851 & 32157 - X-3, 10k Gallon Type - Rapido Trains

UTLX standard X-3 class 10k gallon tankcars

Finally prototype modelers have models of the standard X-3 type UTLX tankcars from Rapido Trains.  I was able to pick up two of these to cover and provide variety to the Standard Oil dealer at Little Lake and for older trans-loading to Laws on the Narrow Gauge at Owenyo.

UTLX 27172 - 8k Gallon - GA Type 17 - Tangent Models

UTLX 72176, Tangent's GA Type 17, 8k tankcar, pretty much stock.

I picked this car up in 2022, it's a very nice car.  I'll be using it mostly supplying the Little Lake Chevron-Standard Oil fuel dealer and gas station.

GATX 52456 - Tangent 6k Gallon 3-Dome Tank Car

GATX 52456, Tangent 3-dome GA tankcar.

Kinda a cool little car for shipping up to three different liquids, each in its own 2k gallon tanks.  While UTLX multi-dome cars would probably be used at Little Lake, I might use these instead, as I have them for shipping smaller loads of lubricating oils, diesel, kerosene, etc.  Although, I would think lubricating oil or engine oil would be shipped in cases or drums by boxcar.

GATX 54539 - Tangent 8k Gallon "Acid" Tank Car

GATX 54539 - Hydrochloric Acid GA 8k gallon tankcar by Tangent.

I also picked up a couple other acid tank cars to help simulate the chemical traffic between the Oakland/Pittsburg, Calif., Los Angeles/Long Beach, and the Gulf of Texas chemical plant areas via Tehachapi.  Obviously, I never finished up getting these cars into service yet before changing focus onto the Jawbone Branch.  I also picked up the Dow Chemical version, but those won't really find a home on the Jawbone that I know of yet.

GATX 81082 "Stauffer Chemical Co." - Tangent 8k Gallon "Acid" Tank Car

GATX 81082 - Tangent 8k GA "Acid" Tankcar.

Originally, I picked up the Stauffer Chem acid cars for the Sulfuric Acid loads which I'm claiming were shipped from the Stauffer Chemical plant at Richmond, California to the soda ash and pot ash plants at Trona and West End, California on the Trona Railway, at Searles Lake.

I'm not sure if the Southern Columbia Glass plant at Bartlett used SA shipped by rail, some of the research I've done suggests that the SA that was needed at the smaller operations at Owens Valley, were produced locally... where as the Trona operations needed it shipped in by rail.  For some spice, I'll probably use these cars occasionally for traffic interest at Bartlett.

Mixed Train & Caboose Equipment

A Baggage-RPO and coach were used on the Jawbone during the 1940-1946 era for the scheduled 6-day-a-week mixed train.  Leaving Mojave at about 2am, and arriving mid morning in Owenyo, then departing about 2pm and arriving back at Mojave around midnight, in time to make connection with the night passenger trains through Mojave.  I'm not exactly sure when the mixed train service ended, but it would be fun to play with a mixed passenger train during the operations.

SP 5187 - 60-BP-30-1 - MDC Kitbash

SP 5187, kitbashed MDC as 60-BP-30-1

I'll probably have options with which mixed train consist I want to run, the SP 5187 is one option.  I also have a Ken Kidder 60-BP-30-1, which I need to repaint... so I might go with the SPL decals on it or redecal the 5187 as I finish cleaning up the enlarged RPO door.

SP 2701 - 60-CC-1 - Model Power Kitbash

SP 2701 as lightly kitbashed from Model Power "67' Coach"

I've covered the kitbashing and changes that I made to the SP 2701.  I'll probably either use this car or SP 1005, a Soho 60ft Coach/Chair car for the mixed train service.