Model Railroading > SP Pike Size Passenger Trains - Trains that you can model

I have started a new series on my blog focusing on SP trains that are easily modeled in HO Scale. The focus is on prototypes local to the Bay Area (and Sacramento). Future articles will be released on a monthly basis and my first article will be about Train 223-224, The Senator. Enjoy!

https://spbayarea.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/sp-pike-size-passenger-trains-part-1-introduction/

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A very interesting modeling subject but of course I am prejudiced toward the SP.
Please show us more of your work.

Kinda partial to the Cal-P myself so count me as interested in your posts.

Steve
Henderson NV

Are you going to cover the NWP's Redwood?  I always thought the later, pre-Budd Car, version with the dedicated "Sun & Wing" logoed cars was begging to be modeled.
SR

Thanks for the feedback everyone, its good to know this is a topic that is interesting to others. If you would like to stay up-to-date with the blog, please subscribe by entering your email address at the bottom of any page on the blog.

SR-

I will add NWP's Redwood to the list of trains I will cover as its one that is very interesting and often forgotten. On that note, I am taking suggestions from the crowd on other trains you would like to see covered. My goal is to cover about 1 blog post per month on these trains.

Spencer

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> Are you going to cover the NWP's Redwood?  I
> always thought the later, pre-Budd Car, version
> with the dedicated "Sun & Wing" logoed cars was
> begging to be modeled.
> SR

Ah!  Great!  The Oakland section of the Lark would be another obvious choice- a stub train with Pullman service was fairly unusual.
SR

Aren't SP passenger cars needed mostly only available in brass?

There are a number of pike sized D&RGW passenger trains too, but same issue, basically it's brass.

Cheers, Jim

One would almost never see a ballast bed that high on the SP in the '50s/'60s.

I personally would like to see someone make an HO SP Pullman passenger car some day.... I grew up in Santa Clara and lived next to the peninsula service for over 25 years... Saw everything that came down those tracks back in forth to SF to SJ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/18 12:05 by SPboy.

Jim,

In the last decade we have seen quite a few manufacturers supplying great RTR cars or kits. I'll focus on how to use these cars. I will not be covering how to heavily modify cars to achieve cars only available in brass, there is a lot of work already done on this subject by Jason Hill (http://nightowlmodeler.blogspot.com/) and Vic Roseman (MRH magazine articles)

Here are just a few examples, by no means is this list exhaustive:

-Athearn genesis chair cars (paint schemes: Daylight, general service , two-tone grey, overland, green)
-Golden Gate depot harrimans (some accuracy issues, but decent stand-ins)
-BLI and MTH daylight cars (many chair cars were sometimes used on local trains or connecting trains such as the Oakland daylight)
-Walthers proto round roof baggage cars (some accuracy issues, but decent stand-ins)
-Southern car and Foundry kits for baggage and RPO cars

There are a few trains that inevitably will require a brass car. I'll cover these and show which cars may make an arguable stand-in.

Spencer




SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> Aren't SP passenger cars needed mostly only
> available in brass?
>
> There are a number of pike sized D&RGW passenger
> trains too, but same issue, basically it's brass.
>
> Cheers, Jim

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aren't SP passenger cars needed mostly only
> available in brass?
>
> There are a number of pike sized D&RGW passenger
> trains too, but same issue, basically it's brass.
>
> Cheers, Jim

Well, there is another aspect to this-  an understanding of prototypical practices.  Just knowing how the SP did things can be enlightening but doesn't obligate one do copy it EXACTLY.  Knowledge doesn't demand a budget.
I say: Bring it on!
SR

I totally agree with BoilingMan that being aware of what SP prototypes were and then deciding to what degree you're willing to accept the inaccuracies of a model is up to the individual. You have to realize that SP fans will call you on some of these issues and one should acknowledge their input if you're being honest with yourself. I purchased some Ken Kidder SP brass on eBay at a quarter of the price of most top end brass models knowing that there were some major issues that I couldn't fix but I was able to fix the underframe up to SP standards. With any model regardless of the accuracy of the model you can always find flaws if you look hard enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/18 18:47 by Cupolau.

American Model Builders produced an HO kit for the SP P-S passenger coach.
Here is the label with photos and a list of what is and is not included.
The contents appear very detailed with 9 pages of instructions although I have built neither of my 2 kits yet.

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Thanks Westbound! I have not seen one of these kits in a while!

Thanks for doing this. I always like to read ideas about pike-sized passenger trains.

Model Railroad published several pike-sized passenger articles. One of these articles featured an SP train, the El Dorado with an Alco PA and one Harriman coach.

The SP operated a number of pike-sized trains. These include the Redwood previously mentioned by BoilingMan (SD7 and a few cars), DelMonte (GP9 and 2 - 3 cars), Coast Mail (F7A/F7B and 4 cars) and a 1968-era Sunset Limited (E9 and 5 cars, a sad vestige of its former glory). If you extend into Amtrak's early days, there's the San Joaquin (FP7s and 4 or 5 cars). FP7s assigned to Amtrak's San Joaquins wore both SP and Amtrak schemes.

Adding commute and steam era trains would generate many more examples.

I think the most interesting SP pike-sized train is the Overland (PA and 3 or 4 cars). The Overland must have been one of the shortest overnight trains on America's rail network.

I look forward to more of your posts on this topic.

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for doing this. I always like to read
> ideas about pike-sized passenger trains.
>
> Model Railroad published several pike-sized
> passenger articles. One of these articles
> featured an SP train, the El Dorado with an Alco
> PA and one Harriman coach.
>
> The SP operated a number of pike-sized trains.
> These include the Redwood previously mentioned by
> BoilingMan (SD7 and a few cars), DelMonte (GP9 and
> 2 - 3 cars), Coast Mail (F7A/F7B and 4 cars) and a
> 1968-era Sunset Limited (E9 and 5 cars, a sad
> vestige of its former glory). If you extend into
> Amtrak's early days, there's the San Joaquin (FP7s
> and 4 or 5 cars). FP7s assigned to Amtrak's San
> Joaquins wore both SP and Amtrak schemes.
>
> Adding commute and steam era trains would generate
> many more examples.
>
> I think the most interesting SP pike-sized train
> is the Overland (PA and 3 or 4 cars). The
> Overland must have been one of the shortest
> overnight trains on America's rail network.
>
> I look forward to more of your posts on this
> topic.

Your talking about the Overland in the 60-62 era after the COSF took all the business away leaving the Overland as a
3 car train of a 6-6-4 sleeper in UP colors, diner either HW or PS lightweight and a coach, either HW or PS coach.