June 2025 Swoon Song

It's June 30 and half the calendar year is over. I have not done much in the last few weeks as the heat is setting in and I feel tired too much of the time.

I did attend the Bay Area Prototype Modelers RPM meeting this past Saturday June 21. Interesting to see people I know such as Jason Hill of Owl Mountain Models. Still hoping the SP 2-8-0 project will be completed. I also made the acquaintance of  Bob Zenk and discovered we both new the late Bob Morris back in the 60's and 70's.   Bab made an excellent presentation on the history of the SP 1955 dome cars built by SP Sacramento Shops.

Unfortunately I only took one picture of the Rapido table with the various versions of the upcoming HO model of the SP Domes in their many versions. 

Bob Zenk served as a consultant on the design of the models. I have one of the two Shasta Daylight versions on order in original 1955 Daylight colors. Rapido also showed models of the SP steel cuplola C-40-1 caboose and an unannounced SP "economy" baggage car. No production date has been announced for the caboose but I have reservations for two. The baggage car is later than my stretched end date for the Port Costa layout of 1955. 

I was able to ride in the SP dome car once on my treks in the mid 1960's from San Francisco to Seattle where I was attending University of Washington. The Shasta Daylight did not make connections northbound (SP Eastbound) in Portland with the trains between Portland and Seattle. In the fall of 1964 I arrange to meet a friend from Portland who had been living in the same dorm the spring quarter and stay overnight at his house and drive up to Seattle the next day. The Shasta Daylight was discontinued in 1965. 

My only structure model building this past two months has been on the final version one of the the two workshops behind the round house at Port Costa. 

The building is still waiting for a calm day when I can spray primer on the back deck. It has been either too windy or hot thus far.

The other freight car model I have worked on was a Branchline Trains Blueprint Series 40 foot postwar AAR boxcar. This cost me $1.50 at an NMRA auction (I bought two for $3.00). It is a foobie as lettered for UP so I stripped the lettering. A little research turned up it is a good replica of a NYC Order Number 764B car of 1948. I need a few more eastern RR cars to simulate the traffic from and to Oakland in the 1950-53 period of the Korean War. It turns out I have NSC NYC decals left over from the P&LE rebuild car. So this will turn out to be an inexpensive addition to the fleet.

I wound up with two other winning bids at that NMRA auction on June 1. An undecorated IM ACF Type 27 riveted 10,000 Gal tank car and a Shortline Model 32 foot resin open top trailer. I will need to research whether this would have actually been a flat car load in my Port Costa freight car period before I build it. 

One other modeling activity was to set up a Bucyrus steam shovel as a load on a depressed center flat car with the boom and shovel on another flat car.  The depressed center car is an Roco oldie model from the 1970's or 1980's. Bachmann is now selling the exact same model made in China not Austria for an extortionate price.  This project is not finished but this is how it looks on the company siding at Port Costa.  The roofless building in the background is the workshop being replaced by the new structure above.  

That's all for now folks....