Tanks for the Memories (Part 1)

With apologies to the late Bob Hope...

Back in February Tony Thompson in his Blogspot (https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-note-on-shipping-of-tanks.html) discussed loading and shipping of military tanks on his SP Coast Line layout. This got me thinking about military freight traffic on my tiny layout/diorama.

I am not a militarist by any means but I did serve in the US Army, 3rd Armored Division 1967-69 in Germany and have since had an interest in US tanks.  My HO Little Port Costa layout is set in 1950-55 on the Western Division double track mainline between Oakland and Sacramento known as the Martinez Subdivision. Freight traffic is narrowed to what would be seen in 1950-52 with some exceptions for PFE cars. I check prospective acquisitions and rebuilds against a PDF copy of the ORER to verify the car number and existence of non-SP freight cars.

I researched on the web and found that at that time the US Army was shipping M46 tanks to Korea as the fighting intensified. The tanks were assembled at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan which was served by the NYC subsidiary Michigan Central. Military supplies for Korea and all US bases in the Pacific were usually loaded on Military Sealift ships at the Oakland Army Depot and Docks. The ocean route from Oakland and the San Francisco Bay area is the shortest route to Korea and Japan due to the westward curvature of the California coast. 

Finding an HO model of an M46 tank was not straightforward. Several HO modeling sources have M47's but production on these did not start until 1952 and none were shipped to Korea before the armistice talks and the winding down of the fighting. The M47 was shortly superseded by the M48 which was the main US tank until the M60's with which I was all too familiar in Germany. I finally happened on the Miniature Tank Company of College Place, Washington State. They produce an interesting variety of military equipment through 3D printing.  They were quite inexpensive and I ordered 4. They arrived and I spent some time finishing them to reasonable 2 foot viewing level. The primary problem was with the turret which came in two pieces with a very visible joint. It took several applications of Vallejo Plastic Filler and sanding to get a reasonable one piece casting appearance. 

The Miniature Tank Company HO prints had one other flaw in that the tank hull was designed a scale 12 inches too wide. I couldn't fix this so the tank treads are 6" to wide and thus hang over the side of HO 10'6" wide flatcar decks by a very visible almost 1 foot on each side. The M46 and M47 shared Patton Tank series hulls and a photo of the M47 being loaded show about 6" of overhang. 

At  first I was going to forget the project due to the overhang but finally decided I was going to live with it. The 4 tanks on separate 50 ton flatcars will normally only be seen on the  background  westbound mainline trackage about 2 feet from the layout viewer.

The other thing that I was needed was the addition of a travel lock to hold the main 90 mm gun in place outside of combat and training conditions. All modern US tanks travel with their turret and main gun pointed to the rear. Up until the M1 Abrams tanks this was a clamp at the rear of the engine heat ventilators. I fabricated a non-detailed stand in replica of the M46 travel lock based on the US Army M46 Technical Manual illustrations. 

I simply took a 1 mm slice of Evergreen 1/4 inch tube and a similar slice of 1/8 inch u shaped channel. I glued these together with plastic cement on a glass tile with the tube on the bottom of the channel. See illustrations. After the assembly was dried I sliced the tube party in half so I could fit it around the main gun. I glued the assembly around the gun barrel with canopy glue in case I needed to adjust the positioning. 

I painted the parts of the tank kit with rattle can Tamiya gray primer and then Tamiya TS-28 Olive Drab 2. This is a darker greenish olive drab flat that reflects brand new tanks. I have not weathered the tanks assuming reasonably good weather while in transit from Michigan to California.  These are the tanks awaiting appropriate flatcars for rail transport.

Now on to the flat cars on which the tanks are traveling to Oakland.

M46 tanks weigh 47 tons and there were few 100 ton flat cars available for shipping 2 tanks per flat car in 1951. the most available flatcars were AAR 50 Ton capacity 53 foot 6 inch length cars.  This means one tank per flatcar. Wide decks were needed for the tank tread overhang and as the tanks were going west this would mean cars from western railroads were used as they had wider cars for their more generous clearances. I pretty much ruled out SP flatcars such as the F70-7 of which I have models as they were in demand for lumber shipments to support postwar building boom still going on in California. 

I have a great photo o f6 M47 tanks being loaded onto  4 flatcars indoors at the Detroit Arsenal. I am not sure I should post this as I have lost the attribution.

The first flatcar which I can read the number on is probably Milwaukee 650007 or 6500107 (the number is partially obscured by the stake pockets), This according to the July 1950 ORER had a 10 foot six inches wide deck and was equipped with special tie downs in the deck and stake pockets for large vehicle loading. The tie downs show in the picture. I cannot read the road id and number of the the second car and the tank is already on deck being tied down. I can see the indent at the ends of the deck common to AAR 50 ton flatcars and it appears to have 2 axel trucks. According to the July 1950 ORER I have, the Milwaukee cars in this series are only 50 feet long not 53' 6" as most  postwar AAR 50 ton flatcars. 

I haven't found a 50 foot flatcar that will meet the wide deck design needed for tank shipments. Originally I was going to use a P2K car as it looks like the Milwaukee car but am now thinking I will remove the deck from an old blue box Athearn car I have in my collection and work from there for a more accurate car. 

Behind the first two cars are two flatcars with two tanks loaded on each. No markings are visible. I can barely make them out but they possibly have 3 axel trucks. These must be from the earliest Magor order for 100 ton flatcars or earlier USAX 100 ton flatcar purchases. 

In my own collection of non-SP equipment, I found 2 Tichy GSC 54 foot flatcars already built I acquired probably 10 or more years ago. They were not in my 1950 ORER but research showed the first large group of these flatcars was by the GM&O in the summer of 1951. For variety I am going to add one to the shipment. Decals are coming from NSC for these cars. I have repainted one of my Tichy GSC cars with a lighter shade than Tamiya primer freight car red (FCR) using Vallejo Model Color 70-xxx Cavalry Brown. As with the original kit I am not attempting to model the underbody details.

For the two flatcars shown in the picture I will use a C&NW 53' 6" AAR 50 ton car and a USAX AAR 53 foot six inch one that Jim Eager pointed has pointed out to met had been acquired by the DOD in two small orders in July 1950. For these I acquired a pair of P2K AAR 50 Ton flat car kits at the recent NMRA Pacific Coast Region Convention swapmeet. These have already been stripped of IT and NKP lettering, primed with Tamiya Fine Oxide Primer and are awaiting K4 decals to arrive.

One of the original P2K car's lettering being stripped using 91% IPA:

After priming I am debating whether to use the Tamiya Oxide Primer as the final FCR color for both cars or a different shade of FCR. My current information indicates the USAX car were probably US Army olive drab at this time.  I need to make the final decision before applying Future (I still have half a bottle of the old Johnson and Sons) floor finishing prior to decaling.

I understand the air brake components and piping cast into the frame of the P2K cars is fairly accurate for an AAR 50 Ton flatcar and does not need modification.

I am unsure about the fourth car. Only the GM&O flat cars fit my timeframe but more than one would seem unlikely. 

All that was ready for BAPM on June 27 were the GM&O, CNW and USAX flatcars so I added my SP F-50-16 42 footer to the parade in order to keep it to flatcars that would have been available in July 1951.

On June 26 I received the enlarged stake pockets by delayed mail from Jonathan Soares. I didn't have time to get anything further done with the MILW 650007 or 8 car so that is what I showed at BAPM.

I am  going to go back in the next post and cover some interesting research....

I am not lost and gone forever, just not having the personal bandwidth to keep a constantly updated blog. My ongoing medical issues have taken a lot of my personal time.

I have slowly continued my "lightening" update to the little Port Costa layout. The original plan was to re-align and re-ballast  the trackage west of the turntable and expand the use of 2 mm foam as the basic ground cover on almost all flat and almost flat surfaces except in the fiddle yard which is not a prototypic part of Port Costa trackage. It does however "represent" flat yard or siding trackage for freight car storage that existed "around the bend" curve of the Carquinez Strait towards the strait side location known as Eckley. Eckley, like 19th century main part of Port Costa was built on piles on the strait side of the SP tracks. 

The scope of the project has expanded as I have decided to split the structure and scenic model of the station and buildings behind the station for easier work on parts. 

The speeder sheds, Port Costa Station building and freight house are now on the main layout as separate mini scenic modules and the area behind and above the retaining wall including the large section house, water treatment building, and telegraph maintenance and maintainer's quarters cabin are on a new scenic base. 

The house track in front of the freight house, approach to the turntable, and the garden tracks have now been ballasted using ivory colored sanded grout. Rails have been painted a rust acrylic originally from 

This is a work in progress photo of the area:

 

The structures are still stand-ins built with illustration board. I have started work on the proper model version of the section house. I have been re-evaluating all of the sources I have about the prototype.  The outline of the existing section house is included in the scale drawing of the proposed new station building dating from 1930 that I obtained from the California Railroad Museum (CSRM). I have not found many photos of the section house itself in the 1950's but have pieced together the window locations and other features that appear behind photos of the station and other buildings.   I magnify the my copy of the original photo and then cut and save the part showing parts the section house and save them to the section house structure prototype folder. 

I also have some excellent photos of the section house and old freight house from 1905. These were sent to me by Steven Lane along with the rest of his collection of Port Costa photos.  The other sources for my Little Port Costa are photos of Port Costa from the Contra Costa County Historical Society (CCCHS) and photos purchased from the late Bob Morris. The source of timetables is the Espee.groups.io forum files section. I was mentored and provided with a lot of material initially by the late Ron Pies when I started this project in 2019. 

Another part of this rebuild is the yard area between the station and the mainline tracks platforms. Port Costa did not generate a whole lot of passenger traffic by the 1950's. The old town built of wood structures on piles west of the ferry slips had burned down in several fires prior to 1930. Only the homes, hotel, post office and the large concrete warehouse located in Bull Valley remained.   My guess is that most of the passenger traffic were SP employees working at the roundhouse and steam engine maintenance buildings behind the roundhouse.  They would likely have passes to ride between Martinez and Richmond. 

I have analyzed the April 1951 Western Division Employees Timetable and built a spreadsheet showing the passenger traffic eastbound and westbound on weekdays (which I model) through Port Costa on the double track mainline. 

Revised version due shortly

NOTE the above schedule is being revised with corrections)

The rows with a light blue background are passenger trains that could stop on the two open macadam platforms on a weekday basis. The At Port Costa time column is estimated for all except the late night #26 eastbound unnamed passenger train which has a scheduled stop (Train 26 in 1951 would run beyond Sacramento over the Sierras ito Reno/Sparks. The westbound would have been Passenger #25 from Reno/Sparks. This shows in the Sacramento Division timetables as arriving in Sacramento at 5:00 AM but is not appear in the Martinez Subdivision timetable continuing on to Oakland.) 

The Port Costa Time Estimated or Scheduled Column shows all named trains and Sacramento Oakland service trains did not have a scheduled time. I took the Martinez-Crockett scheduled time and split it to come up with an estimated time the train would come through Port Costa.The line is has no grades as it runs alongside the Carquinez strait.  

Distances used to estimate. The actual distances between the stations is:   

2.1 miles Crockett-Port Costa

3.6 miles  Port Costa-Martinez

Total 5.7 miles  Crockett-Martinez

The Ticket Required notation from the timetable indicates that at the passenger wanting to detrain or board a train at Port Costa must have a ticket to Port Costa or a ticket from Port Costa by the time the train stops at either Crockett or Martinez. The Engineer and Conductor would then be issued a train order to stop at Port Costa.  

A Flag Stop would only be allowed for the EB 24x Statesman and the EB 24x El Dorado.

All is the above is background to building the walkway and track foot crossings from the Port Costa station across 5 yard tracks to the mainline eastbound and westbound platforms. 

The walkway is shown in this drawing I obtained from the CSRM of the 1946 Proposed Water Tank Changes. 

This drawing is actually the closest I have of an official SP track plan for Port Costa for the 1950-1955 time period I am setting my layout. As the layout has limited space before curving to the left at the west end into staging, I am modeling the platforms as extending equally to the left and right from the footpath.

This 1950 photo looking east in the Port Costa yard area also shows the walkway detail.

This is the current state of the layout area modeling the walkway:

There is one track behind the short 4 car Sacramento-Oakland train westbound train at the platform at back pulled by a PA1 returning to service on long distance trains out of Oakland. I lack any SP Pacifics for these trains in regular service in the early 1950's. The dark roofed all day lunch and 2 coaches are GGD early releases with lot of problems and I have not relettered for the 1946 SOUTHERN PACIFIC instead of SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES. Upgrading these is another project.  The baggage is a highly modified MDC "Harriman" baggage closely approximating a 60-B-10 that I did back in 2018. 

The background in the above photo is my train room wall masquerading as the Carquinez Strait in a dense fog...

that's all for now folks.  

The Track Alignment effort I started in August is still going on

See the additions to the August post...When I finish the scenic stuff and track ballasting I will create a new post about it. 

In the meantime the layout looks like this as of today:

The white pad thing is a new battery light mounted on an old soldering stand that I am using in afternoons when the sun doesn't shine on my train room and office on the east side of my home.

Something was irritating me about the Trackage on my tiny layout....

Note this post has been updated and extended as of 10/12/2025. 

Something was irritating me about the trackage alignment

but I am having problems with my blogger/blogspot hosted blog pages uploading photos from my hard drive. 

Some new AI feature seems to be getting in the way. I may have to revert to hosting on my own website smadanek.com thus justifying the fees I have been paying to keep the domain. (This is not happening just yet).

In the meantime I will write this blog up in Open Office Writer. Maybe I will add the doc as a file in  blogspot and let google be darned. 

this is the aerial photo I was trying to add showing the locations of what I call the roundhouse outbuildings for workshops and locomotive maintenance supplies along with the blacksmith shop and the grounded coach used as the roundhouse employee washup and locker room. 

The white blips in the photo are parked cars of SP employees.  The big building in the center of the photo is McNears warehouse.  

Okay I solved the photo upload problem. I have to allow third party cookies when editing or writing a blog post in Chrome/Blogger/Blogspot.  I am exposed while doing so for that authorship episode.  

After creating or updating the blog I will turn 3rd party cookies off again. Stuff that up your google googlemeister. 

I'll finish this blog when I have re-aligned the turntable approach tracks from the east and west along with a re-alignment of the house track in front of the station, freight house and the stores unloading dock. At this point I doubt McNears warehouse was still being serviced. 

Something was irritating me about the Trackage on my tiny layout for the last year as I focused on the outbuildings in back of the Port Costa roundhouse. I could not get the alignments right with the way I had set up the western approach track to the turntable I am using analysis of my collection of photos of Port Costa including a very small crop the 1957 aerial photo of the Carquinez strait area from the USC collection  

I wish I had a better resolution photo but have not found one so I must interpret the fuzzy images and account for shadow and reflection from shiny cars.  I can't get Blogspot to upload the jpg crop I am using due to some Chrome problem probably my Google analytics opt out.

  A before picture

As of 10/12/2025, I am still working on the basic ground scenery for the re-aligned trackage.  New 2 mm thick foam in a tan color is the basic scenery for most areas as it is tie height for Peco and ME code 83 and 70 ties. A previous test of using 2 mm foam as an inlay between ties and tie ends hs proved to be too much work so I am going back to fine grout in an ivory color as the ballast for ties on the turntable approaches, the freight house track and the roundhouse garden tracks.  I can also use this material as a coating on the 2 mm foam to resemble the hardened rough clay surface.

This is the work in progress still as of 10/12/2025. 

The area in front of you is the station, freight house, elevated buildings including the section house, water treatment and signal/telegraph maintenance building module.

These are photos of the station area module sitting atop the staging/fiddle yard area. Building it as a module allows it to be removed for work on large areas of the layout. 

Another photo from the side you cannot see when the station module is in place showing the completed freight house and the mockup for the station building:

Back to work on my townhouse after an interlude on the layout.  The downstairs master bedroom and hall has brand new floors and much of my stuff is still in a storage locker to be sorted disposed of or returned to storage in the closet that runs besides and under the stairs between the two floors.  I have lots of medical issues and have to work on stuff rather slowly. 

Mid-July is Speeder'ing Along

Tempus Fugit and it takes too long for me to write an epistle of the blogging type. 

Tony Thompson's recent blog about Fairmont M-19 speeders (or motor cars) produced by Ken Harstine;  https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/07/correcting-my-mistake-speeder-paint.html stirred my thinking about adding what SP called Track Cars to the model of the double track car Port Costa shed as it existed prior to the mid-1950's when it was rebuilt into a single car shed possibly after a fire. As a double car shed it probably served both MOW track maintenance crews and the linemen of the telegraph department.  

So I got out an ancient 1959 Revell Maintenance Shed and speeder kit I had bought at an NMRA Coast Division auction a couple of years for about $5 as it was part of a package with some MDC shorty passenger cars that I wanted the roofs from to form the roof for my SP Port Costa layout grounded coach. Another story...

Anyway I opened the kit which was in complete in unbuilt condition and it included a speeder of unknown prototype and trailer. As the kit is fairly common, I don't think of it a a "collectable" and so I got out the speeder parts and decided to play around with them. They are not Fairmont speeders as I have a 1944 Fairmont Catalog and they do not resemble any of the configurations and features of the motor and grill of a Fairmont. SP pretty much bought Fairmonts so to me they will be temporary foobies until some 3D printed Fairmont H-19's that are on order arrive.

For a little photo fun, I removed the Track Car Shed mini module from the layout to get a few pictures in context taken on my workbench with a sheet of white plastic as a background.

The ties in the tie stack were modeled only 8 feet long . I am not sure what length Revell track ties were. In those days it was great to use fiber tie flex and turnouts. I was 15 in those days and didn't do much modeling with high school in full swing. But there was a 4x8 foot plywood sheet started when I was 12 in the basement of our Portland, Oregon house that I occasionally fiddled with while in high school. 

Vic's Hobby Shop on 40th Avenue was on the way I walked home from Grant High School and it was still worth a an interested glance every now and then when it wasn't raining and stopping in when it was.  I have some parts from this same kit bought many years ago one of which is the gray weathered wood track insert shown above next to the one from the recently purchase kit. The speeders were lost somewhere over the last 60 or more years.

One feature of all SP purchased SP "track cars" as SP called them was the fender additions from Fairmont to protect the feet of the speeder riders. These are modeled using 1/4 sections of 1/8" width 1/4" round Evergreen tube glued over the wheels. I brush painted them with Vallejo Model Color 70.910 Orange Red which was a close match to the body color Revell painted their speeder parts. Trailers were did not have fenders over the wheels. I painted the wheels with Mission Models Tire Black and used MM aluminum on the tread. I removed the paint from the foot rest and left it the color of the plastic casting.On the speeder trailing car is an overturned wheelbarrow and a water cooler for line maintenance personnel in the hot California sun.

 

I had worked with Ken Harstine back a couple of years ago on a 3D printed 73-SC-1 whaleback tender project as part of the oft delayed Owl Mountain Models Harriman stand-in conversion for a Bachmann 2-8-0. So I ordered his 3D printed M-19 speeders with the appropriate railing only ends for early 1950's and prior on the SP. They arrived yesterday one is shown here to get a size comparison with the Revelle Kit speeder on my double track ballasting test panel. 

Interesting the size difference. Possible that the 3D print is based on a 2 person speeder and the Revell model is based on an 6-8 person track gang model.  There are similar large and small size speeders in the Fairmont catalog.  The two person speeder would have to be lifted off the rails and moved out of the way of an oncoming train by two men.  It probably would have taken 4-6 men to move the much larger speeder.

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....

Modeling the PFE R-40-26 from the Accurail Plug Door Reefer Kit

Back in 2023 I was absorbed in a lot of projects and never published the story of my build of the PFE R-40-26 from the Accurail Plug Door Reefer Kit.

This is the writeup accompanying the finished kit at the June 2023 Bay Area Prototype Modelers meet. 

2000 PFE R-40-26 Ice Bunker Refrigerator Car were built in 1951-52 mostly at the PFE Los Angeles car shop. These were the first plug door mass production cars for PFE. They lasted into the 1970's. See Tony Thompson's massive Pacific Fruit Express volume pages 182-186 for more detailed information on the use and service life of these cars.

This model represents a brand new PFE R-40-26 in 1951-52 the first months of it's service life. The model is a bash of the Accurail plug door refrigerator car which has reasonably accurate roof and ends. The ends and sides are separate moldings that attach to a box structure. I did not attach the sides and ends until I was done with modifications, painting and decaling. Note that I consider this model to be a “2 foot” viewing distance model rather than an exact replica.

Modifications

Side Modifications:

• Removed placard boards from sides and created new boards from sheet plastic and attached in correct locations.

• Cutout side sills to match prototype and added shaft housing for precooling fans and control box. The model has the cutouts for this version indicated in the full length sill.

• Added Preco Electric Fan Medallions

• Removed and replaced grab irons but not ladder which was too difficult for me.

• Bent new sill steps to approximate PFE R-40-26 prototype from flat brass shapes. The sill step is unusual on this car and is inset a bit.

• Left Hand door stops added to both sides (bits of U shape plastic channel)

End and Roof Modifications

• A and B end replaced cast on grab upper irons.

• B end added retainer valve and pipe.

• B end replaced brake valve with Kadee Miner wheel

• B end replaced brake platform with Plano refrigerator car set platform

• Roof added corner hand rails using Tichy parts

• Roof replaced roof running board casting with etched Plano Morton running board

• A and B end added running board end supports from bent DA 2524 flat brass

Floor Underframe

• The Accurail underframe was retained but thecoupler boxes were cut off and replaced with Kadee 158's in narrow boxes with uncoupler trip pins removed.

• Air hoses were added from Accurail and Moloco parts

• The reservoir and AB valve are Tichy parts with .010 plastic rod used as pipes

• The Accurail brake cylinder and rodding slightly modified to approximate PFE rigging.

Paint

The original Accurail kit I started with were lettered for RATH meat packing. The lettering and paint were stripped as the orange was not close to the PFE color using Testors ELO. The separate sides made this easier than if the car was a single casting.

I do not use an air brush if I can avoid it any more (long story) so I rely on brush painting with Vallejo Model Color acrylics which level very well eliminating visible brush strokes. I have tried many different formulas to emulate the wavelength of PB Star Brand Daylight Orange. My current formula for brushing

• 3 drops 70.910 Orange Red

• 2 drops 70.911 Light Orange

• 1 drop 70.824 Orange Ocher

• 1-2 drops 71.261 Airbrush Thinner

PFE orange appears different depending on the strength and angle of daylight and the way individuals perceive the color. What you see is my interpretation.  

The Accurail roof color was fairly close to the SP FCR used by PFE. The running board and roof and were however covered over with Vallejo 7.814 Burnt Red.

The underframe and floor were painted with Vallejo 70.995 German Grey. Nothing on a railroad in true life is really that black a month after it is out of the paint shop.

Trucks

This past year (2023) Moloco released a series of new freight car trucks including plain bearing types that are usable for steam era modelers. After closely looking at photos from Ted Culotta's website and articles on PFE cars I was able to determine that the new Moloco Moloco TRK3 50T Ride Control truck that I fortunately had on hand were a match. Serendipity, as I hadn't planned for this use when I bought the Moloco trucks. Semi scale wheels have been used. These TRK3 trucks match the trucks in the photo of PFE R-40-26 9426 Ted Culotta's published in one of his PFE presentations and the specifications for the R-40-26 appliances published by Dick Harley.

Decals

These were a real problem. After a lot of messages on the espee.groups.io forum, it was determined that the Microscale set 87-501 1950's PFE Ice Cars, that Microscale itself was selling and I purchased on their website was an older version rather than the Dick Harley 2013 revised set, I was given a partially used set of the revised version with enough PFE R-40-26 specific decals to finish this project. I understand Microscale is in the process of fixing this problem.

The initial problem with whitening of the decal after decal setting was resolved by a tip from Dick Harley to use a drop of Windex to eliminate the problem.

Thanks to Dick Harley for help with the decal problems. Ted Culotta is planning to release a PFE R-40-26 side ladder etch kit at some time this year (2023) through his Speedwitch Media and new decals for the PFE R-40-26 through National Scale Car (NSC). This model was built between February and June 2023. Tony Thompson's PFE book is the major source of information on the design and building of the prototype R-40-26.

I am not including prototype photos due to copywrite considerations. 

This is the end result

Left side with Preco fan mount and control box.

Right Side

I have another Accurail plug door reefer kit that I have not built and may try the scratch built method for modeling the plug door in full relief along with standoff ladders at the ends and car ends as Fenton Wells has documented in his blog http://blog.resincarworks.com/upgrading-accurail-plug-door-reefers/

Just will take a long time to get to that with many other layout and equipment projects ahead of visiting the PFE R-40-26 again.