All of this brings to mind my days of modifying Athearn cars, since they and MDC were the only games in town.  In about 1970 I made a Santa Fe Fe-26 (40' double door box) by cutting up the Athearn model of the Fe-24 50' double door car.  I took one panel out of each side, with corresponding cuts in the roof.  This resulted in a 43' car, but it was distinctive and as far as I know, no one who saw it in that era ever realized the difference.  Even better, it was painted boxcar red as far as I can recall because the Floquil mineral red hadn't appeared yet.

The mention of the 14 roof panels triggered this memory.  I must have cut the panels in such a way as to preserve the spacing of the panels, because I worked with two end-roof-side pieces.

I may still have this car.  All of my Athearn cars that once operated on the club layout I belonged to are in one box somewhere.

Ron Merrick

I am assembling an old IMWX 1937 AAR Boxcar.   I have an interior detail kit and am planning on modeling the car with one door open.   The wooden floor and walls from the kit will show thru.   But the door that comes with the kit has no detail on the inside.   I know this almost never makes a difference, but it would be cool if I could show the inside corrugations of the closed door.   (It is a Superior door).   I thought about using the outside detail as a mold and  pressing aluminum foil on it, which would probably work but would really be delicate.   

Any ideas?

Steve Kay

I am assembling an old IMWX 1937 AAR Boxcar.   I have an interior detail kit and am planning on modeling the car with one door open.   The wooden floor and walls from the kit will show thru.   But the door that comes with the kit has no detail on the inside.   I know this almost never makes a difference, but it would be cool if I could show the inside corrugations of the closed door.   (It is a Superior door).   I thought about using the outside detail as a mold and  pressing aluminum foil on it, which would probably work but would really be delicate.   

Any ideas?

Steve Kay

I am assembling an old IMWX 1937 AAR Boxcar.   I have an interior detail kit and am planning on modeling the car with one door open.   The wooden floor and walls from the kit will show thru.   But the door that comes with the kit has no detail on the inside.   I know this almost never makes a difference, but it would be cool if I could show the inside corrugations of the closed door.   (It is a Superior door).   I thought about using the outside detail as a mold and  pressing aluminum foil on it, which would probably work but would really be delicate.   

Any ideas?

Steve Kay

Thanks Brian and all - Note that 19507 (aluminum) and 19531 (box car red) both show as Compartmentizer

Were 20821-21400 delivered in aluminum paint, or oxide red? The aluminum car shows no indication of
being repainted, but you say the renumbered cars were all repainted?

Or am I still confused? :-[:-D

Thanks for your help!

Tim O'


On 4/12/2019 8:33 PM, Brian Carlson via Groups.Io wrote:

 From Info that I got from Ed Hawkins
WP    20821-21400    580    10-51        8027    7    YSD-2    H    A    M    A3    Note 11
11 - 22 additional cars (various numbers) sent to Pullman-Standard in 1953 and equipped with Compartmentizers. WP repainted cars silver/orange feather with black roof & ends, re# to 19521-19542.

Brian J. Carlson, P.E.
Cheektowaga NY


-----Original Message-----
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Tim O'Connor
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 7:26 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: [RealSTMFC] WP 19531

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 O'

On Apr 12, 2019, at 6:25 PM, Tim O'Connor <timboconnor@...> 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

From Info that I got from Ed Hawkins
WP 20821-21400 580 10-51 8027 7 YSD-2 H A M A3 Note 11
11 - 22 additional cars (various numbers) sent to Pullman-Standard in 1953 and equipped with Compartmentizers. WP repainted cars silver/orange feather with black roof & ends, re# to 19521-19542.

Brian J. Carlson, P.E.
Cheektowaga NY


-----Original Message-----
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Tim O'Connor
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 7:26 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: [RealSTMFC] WP 19531

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 O'