It has been a long story of the construction including a couple of periods of disability that put me off any model railroad activities beyond surfing, reading publications and maintaining https://plasticfreightcarbuiilders.groups.io/ which I own.
Anyway, I have also started a couple of projects including building a few Shasta Daylight cars to go with the Rapido SP Shasta Daylight dome car I have on order and am expecting sometime this year. Shasta Daylight cars were smooth instead of ribbed sided daylight cars with larger windows. They were built in 1949 by Pullman Standard.
In order to clear my workbench I needed to get the grounded coach finished and onto the layout. I have finally done enough that the partially completed and of course unpainted coach can be placed on the layout for a "first view".
Area behind roundhouse which is to the left.
From one of the 1956 Port Costa photos (copyright prevents including here) it appears that then vestibule doors and windows had been removed. The colorized(?) photo appears to show the car had been recently painted SP engine facilities barn red as opposed to the very weathered round house building behind it. It also appears from cars parked nearby that the grounding was quite low to the ground. Perhaps tie height wood supports with several used to support the car body after the truss roads and queen posts were removed.
In building the kit, I had no inclination to carve the wood clerestory roof from the LaBelle kit so I found a couple of clerestory roofs from old MDC shorty "Overton" coaches. I measured and spliced them using tons of plastic filler to cover the joint. I have sanded that joint smooth. Unfortunately the roof is about 3 mm too long. As the grounded coach is staying in one place on the layout and the back end of it will not be visible to normal viewing, I have adjusted it so the visible end meets the coach body.
Closeup of the unfinished grounded coach.
This is the information I have on a similar coach from an SP record card I was given that was used until 1957. I do not have the actual record card for this coach grounded at Port Costa. The Port Costa coach is also one of the 1886 Barney & Smith coaches I believe for the Central Pacific.
1097 SP RR Boarding (Pass) (Bunk) Built 10/27/1886 Barney & Smith Retired Coach 1638 7/15/1929 Oakland
Work order 5/31/1956 Ex-SP 118 circa 1891. Laid aside 5/1929. Converted from Laid Aside List. First assigned Oakland. Assigned use of Western Union Telegraph Co. unknown date. Last assigned Compton. Dismantled LAGS 6/14/1957.
I can't seem to type right now with out multiple keystroke errors. So that's all folks...
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