Trolley Thursday 11/24/20 - Pacific Electric Caboose No. 1969

Happy Thanksgiving from Twice-Weekly Trolley History! Despite the fact that we've been taking a month-long break through November, I thought it'd be a good idea to share on this special day a modelling project I felt very thankful for and that it'd be worth sharing with you, our wonderful readers. This is a project that took me most of October and I honestly couldn't have done it without a myriad of people giving me emotional support and practical advice on my very first scratchbuild. I hope you are all having a Happy Thanksgiving and here's to a solid return to our normal trolleyposting in December!

The Prototype

For my first kitbash (not necessarily my first modelling project), I decided to pick a prototype that was easy to get references of in real life and online. I already quickly completed an Accurail outside-frame boxcar in Santa Fe letters before I started this, so I at least had some practice in applying decals and weathering with panel liner. As I trawled through the internet, I decided I wanted to make a model not-at-all represented in HO scale: a Pacific Electric 1960-series caboose.

Pacific Electric Caboose No. 1961, showing its second-generation lettering style.
(W.C. Whittaker, Pacific Electric Ry. Historical Society)

PE Caboose No. 1965 trails a freight through Beverly Hills
late in the 1950s. 
(Donald Duke, Pacific Electric Ry. Historical Society)

The cabooses were Pacific Electric-built copies of the Southern Pacific's "C-30-2" class wooden cabooses, albeit with the cupolas chopped off. Ten were outshopped by the Torrance Shops between 1938 and 1941, just in time for the big freight boom in World War II, and were numbered 1960-1969. The cabooses were standard and spartan, riding on arch-bar freight trucks and fitted with a small stove and plenty of desks inside for the conductor and freight officer. The importance of these cabooses cannot be understated, as much of Pacific Electric's operating costs at this time were subsidised by both Southern Pacific and their own freight operations.

Shop photo of PE No. 1968 at Torrance, showing its unique St. Louis 23B trucks shared with 1969.
(Source Unknown)

The picture that inspired it all: Caboose No. 1969
leaves PE's State Street Yard in San Bernardino on Sept. 16, 1945.
(Donald Duke, Pacific Electric Ry. Historical Society)

Pacific Electric No. 1962 in service in the late 1950s,
showing off its final paint scheme of SP standard
red with orange ends.
(Southern California Railway Museum)

For whatever reason, the last two cabooses (Nos. 1968 and 1969) received St. Louis Car Company "23"-type trucks originally found on St. Louis Car Company interurbans. As the Pacific Electric was populated by so many St. Louis Car Company designs, it was easy to come up with plenty of spare parts from retired interurban cars. The trucks were most likely sourced from retired 500-Class wood interurbans and were said to have ridden much smoother compared to the then-standard Andrews freight truck.

Today, only one of these homebuilt cabooses remains at the Southern California Railroad Museum (SCRM), that being Caboose No. 1962. Still on its wheels, it remains stored in Barn 7 near the back of the museum property and is currently being used as a private bunkhouse. 

The Model 

The Walthers C-30-1, showing off its lack of railings and end pieces which justified
its low price. I bought mine for $15.
(Walthers)

After seeing a picture of Caboose No. 1969 and its unique trucks, I chose that prototype as the one to model for my eventual PE freight train hauled by, of all things, a steam locomotive that my friend Miles Callan is currently building. (Credits and acknowledgements at the end.) The donor caboose was sourced at the SCRM's Fall Railroadiana Swap Meet in September, which ended up being a Walthers Gold Line C-30-1 caboose lettered as "Southern Pacific 739". The main difference between the model and the prototype was that Caboose No. 1969 had two barred windows at both ends while mine only had one, but the goal here wasn't to completely accurately model the caboose. If a window was missing, fine, but the rest of the caboose will still look like the prototype. The detail-less kit was perfect, as I didn't have to feel bad about tearing it up, which I promptly did as soon as I got home. Little did I know how complicated this whole thing was going to be.

The Modelling Process

Off with its head! Ooh, a fully-molded interior!
(My Photo)

The new styrene plug for
for the car roof.
(My photo)

The first order of business was deleting the cupola and filling it in using some styrene sheets. The cupola came off easily because it was just a snap-on piece, and it showed how detailed the interior was inside. Unfortunately, due to the roof of the car being glued down for some reason and the chassis not coming off the bottom, it was impossible to even put lights or lamps in the car to begin with. I then sourced some .060 styrene sheet and made a couple of test fits, one just being a flat piece that I wanted to stack and sand into shape, then my eventual option of scoring a slightly larger piece to make it bend and fit the roof profile. This was later filled in with Milliput white modelling putty.

The worst part about this project, honestly, was drilling out all of the handrail holders. As some of my drill bits bent due to excessive force or just broke off due to being made of what I'll dub as "Chinesium", the holes I drilled ended up a bit larger than normal. This was also later filled in with Milliput for a seamless fit. On some of of the handrails, especially the end, I fitted a different style on each end because I lost one or another handrail and it'd look silly if I only fitted three. I also declined to put bars across the end windows just because it was way too complicated and I wasn't that much of a masochist. The mismatched railings on either end also give it a very homebuilt look, considering these cars were made from scraps. 

Drilling enormous holes for the handrails, which were secured with super glue, then putty.
(My photo)

The car after paint stripping, revealing it's just a lighter
shade of brown. It also felt very smooth to the touch.
(My photo)

Extra styrene was used to flesh out more details of the car, like using a different scored roofboard over the cupola patch to try and match the rest of the car and using channel pieces to form its "bumper bars" on either end. By the time it was near ready for painting, I soaked the car thoroughly in some 91% alcohol and discovered that Walthers really paints its cars super thick, sloughing off in chunks like I've never seen before.

After that was done, I then went a bit mad and decided that I didn't like the blank brake cylinder and pump the model had and needed to rectify this with a brand new brake set from Tichy (on recommendation from my boyfriend, Atticus van Astikatus). This problem was also compounded by the fact I had broken one of the stock brake wheels on the model and needed to buy a new one anyway. As I got to work installing a more detailed brake system under the car, I found out that the kit I bought (a Tichy 3034 "Split K" kit) lacked any kind of brake hangers. Always the type to embrace the bash, I fashioned new hangers out of staples and drilled new holes under the car frame to support the rods and linkages. (I also used a staple to fashion part of the handrails when one side snapped off. 

Before conversion...

...and after, now looking quite detailed (and a little messy).
(My photos)

Atticus' beautifully-modeled St. Louis 23B trucks
in Sketchup.
(His Photo)

For the trucks, there aren't really any St. Louis Car Company "23" trucks on the market (much less anything traction-related that isn't brass or a Bowser PCC car). As Atticus was still a long way from modelling these trucks for me, I decided to use some Walthers Railway Express Agency (REA) BX "Express" trucks made for high-speed passenger train boxcars. These closely matched the "23s" of the original, with its underslung equalizing frame and boxy friction bearings vaguely matching the prototype photo. I had to trim some of the ends off each of them so they could clear the steps. 

The Painting

Part of the painting was done at the OERM's Grizzly
Flats Barn, though obviously something had to go wrong.
(My photo)

For paint, Miles suggested I step out of my comfort zone a little and use acetone-based Trucolor rather than my normal brand of acrylic-based Badger. As he is a better modeler than I am, I decided to take his advice and use some "SP 1945-1960 Freight Car Red" all over the car, as it would have been painted when first outshopped. painting it all red went smoothly, and the little old rolls of masking tape I had helped clear the windows of any unwanted paint. After priming it white and airbrushing the red on, I used Tamiya white to carefully brush-paint the handrails.

The biggest paint problem was the roof, which still had an obvious patch despite going over it with putty and sanding it as flat as I could. After some brief research, I found that SP cabooses (and some PE ones) used tar paper on the roof to weatherproof it, so I'd do the same using some really fine-grit (2000 grit) sandpaper cup into strips. After numerous test-fits, I superglued the sandpaper directly on the roof of the car and went over it with some washed out Badger Engine Black in quick swipes to look cohesive. It worked out better than I expected!

Strips of 2000 grit sandpaper make for great tar paper analogues.
(My photo)

Decal application was, understandably, hell, especially when applying the tiny numbers just above the doorway and the small info sections along the car's sides. As the decals didn't sit right on the wooden sides, even with softening via Solvaset (a chemical that, when brushed, softens a decal and lets it bond to the model's often uneven surfaces), it still looked too flat and "perfect". After applying the decals and protecting it with both glosscoats and dullcoats, I took a modelling knife and gently slashed the decals along the wooden slats, finally achieving the effect I wanted of making them look slightly weathered. The last thing I did was I employed Tamiya Panel Liner (black) to carefully add weathered "weepmarks" along the bottom of the windows, the top edge of the car, and wherever surfaces were commonly touched like below the end rails. I also added Panel Liner to all the bearings to suggest grease and lubricant overflow.

The Results

The finished model on my desk, looking absolutely swish.
(My photo)

The result was my first finished scratch-build, which made its debut run at my friend Sam Antell's house during a friendly Tuesday night run session with him and my long-time modeler friend (and biggest pusher to finish) Tim Gutowski. Everyone from my friends to museum volunteer buddies really liked it and agreed a fabulous looking model. I hope to be able to enter it in a competition one day along with any other railroad kits I finish (of which there are plenty to do.) 

The finished caboose on its first run behind an actual train. The Accurail boxcar mentioned earlier is
just ahead of it, along with an AHM tank car Atticus decaled for me and a "Susie Q" Susquehanna boxcar.
(My photo)

The "What's Next"

A test-fitting of Atticus' first print of the 23 trucks (unpainted) on the caboose, showing the
different frame profiles. A 28" wheel diameter is being employed on the custom trucks.
(My photo)

Due to the nature of modelling projects, even a simple caboose like this isn't finished. Atticus' 23B trucks, while impressively detailed, didn't fit as well on this first printing so at best, they're display pieces or set dressing, for now. Maybe I can find a car to put them under, maybe. Some little details to further add include small red confetti pieces to act as reflectors on the end of the ladders, as well as a pair of decorative brass lanterns on the end as well to match the prototype and also inform which end is the "back end". I certainly learned a lot of lessons from my friends about going about my model, and it'll definitely help me later on when I continue doing more and more freight cars for a little electric locomotive (or steam locomotive) to pull. Until then, the sky's the limit.

Thank you for reading today's Trolley Thursday post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. The friends who helped me on this project included master modeler and voyeur Miles Callan, Tichy kit expert and 3D modelling whiz Atticus van Astikatus (who is also my lovely boyfriend and also runs his own Shapeways shop, K. Kadwell Mfg. Co.), award-winning modeler and advice-giver Timothy Gutowski, other fellow modeler and DCC expert Sam Antell, and all the other friends who've supported my descent into madness and modelling in a very voyeuristic fashion. Thank you all for considering me a worthy modeler. On Tuesday, we go back to our normal taking-a-break for the rest of November. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!