Tim,
I can add to Ed's excellent information that this "small-feather"
paint scheme was used on other load-restrainer or
cushion-underframe cars purchased or rebuilt by the WP in the
mid-to-late 1950s. The WP had been pretty inconsistent about their
specially-equipped cars, and there were four or five paint schemes
floating around, with striking (some might argue garish) silver or
orange bodies, most with huge feathers. The paint is said by some
not to have held up well, and since these cars were rolling
billboards for WP's modest innovation programs, it was apparently
decided to come up with a new paint scheme based on BCR.
Repaints included 1961-1970, an oft-renumbered block of 40' PS-1s
with 8' doors and cushioned underframes delivered in 1954. In 1959
they were equipped with DF-2 loaders and given the small feather
paint scheme along with a large DF-2 plate on their doors.
WP 3011-3050, 50' single 8' door, riveted PS-1s with DF loaders
and cushion underframes received the small-feather repaint scheme
at some point. At least one of these, renumbered as WP 3997,
escaped repainting and survived into the 1970s as a storage car
outside the Stockton roundhouse. My photo is black-and-white, but
I remember the car sides were orange and my photo shows its
car-length silver feather was still intact.
WP series 55951-56000, 50' RBI boxcars with plug doors and DF
loaders, probably came in this scheme from PF&F in 1956.
Certainly sister cars 56001-56100 carried this scheme when new in
1957.
Subsidiary Tidewater Southern received several groups of RBLs from
PC&F. 610-610 in 1957 and 611-620 in 1958 were delivered in
the small feather scheme with CP in brush script on the doors to
advertise PC&F's "Car Pack" loaders. 810-840, also 1958, were
equipped with Evans DF loaders and carried the "DF" on their
doors.
Most of the above information is from Jim Eager's WESTERN PACIFIC
COLOR GUIDE.
Yours Aye,
Garth Groff
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
On 4/12/19 9:48 PM, Ed Hawkins wrote:
Anyone have the skinny on
this WP PS-1 box car? I -think- it was renumbered
by from what? And has it
been repainted as well? The photo date is 1956 but
I can't make out when the
car was built.
The image is a scan of a
slide that I own.
Tim,
In Oct.-Nov. 1951 the WP received 600 PS-1 box cars WP
20801-21400 built by Pullman-Standard in lot 8027. The first 20
cars 20801-20820 were equipped with Compartmentizers and
received aluminum-painted sides & ends along with a full-car
length orange feather. The other 580 cars were delivered with
freight car red sides & black car cement on the ends, a
detail of which will be later discussed.
Related to the story of WP 19531, starting in 1952 series
20801-20820 was renumbered 19501-19520 with the renumbering
being completed by 1-54. Also in mid-1952 the WP sent 20 cars
from series 20821-21400 back to Pullman-Standard to be be
equipped with Compartmentizers that were built in P-S lot 8121.
WP’s intent was for the 20 cars to be painted by P-S to match
the 20801-20820 cars & to be renumbered 19521-19540.
In a letter dated July 15, 1952 addressed to WP,
Pullman-Standard advised it would cost the railroad $295.02 per
car to sand-blast the black car cement from the ends because the
aluminum paint would not adhere well to the black car cement. I
came across the letter some 20 years ago while researching the
lot 8027 Pullman-Standard correspondence file, documents
relating to the construction of selected P-S freight cars that
are available for review at the Pullman Library in Union,
Illinois.
The railroad decided to not pay P-S to sand-blast the black
car cement from the ends, so after installing the
Compartmentizers Pullman-Standard returned the 20 cars to WP
still in original paint but renumbered 19521-19540. Two
additional cars numbered 19541-19542 soon followed to make a
total of 42 Compartmentizer-equipped PS-1 box cars by 1-54.
Upon the cars’ return to the railroad, the Sacramento car
shops repainted 19521-19542 with aluminum sides & large
orange feather to match the original 20801-20820 cars but with
the ends that retained the original black car cement as well as
black car cement on the roofs.
Fast-forward to early 1956 when WP 19501-19542 cycled through
the Sacramento shops to be repainted in an all freight car red
scheme as shown in your slide of 19531 with orange & yellow
stencil and small orange feathers. A few photos I’ve seen of
these cars denote “SAC. 3-56” when repainted & reweighed.
The door & end placards were also lowered at this time.
A photo published on page 25 of the WP Color Guide book shows
a MoW car in 1981 (out of scope for the STMFC) in the 1956 paint
scheme that remained 25 years later.
A long-winded answer to your question, but I thought it might
be of interest to reflect on some of the details in the sequence
of events.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins
