That old saying, “Ignorance is bliss”, definitely applies to Model Railroading. When my parents bought me that first Tycho train set for my birthday in 1969 with the Santa Fe Alco Century in that striking red & silver warbonnet finish, the thirteen-year-old me was in heaven. I’d caught the model railroad bug down the street at my friend Kevin’s house. His dad, H.B. Campbell had built an HO scale spaghetti bowl layout with the “passenger” and “freight” mains populated with the AHM Pere-Marquette, Cab Forward, and Hudson. Little did I know then . . . Fast forward to 1985 and I’ve become a member of the Santa Fe Modeler’s Organization (SFMO) and realized that the Century from my folks, the FM C-liner from my grandma and the Baldwin Shark in Santa Fe red and silver were all what I came to know as “foobies.” They are now either gone or listed as HFD (Hold for Disposal) on my version of the Santa Fe’s Form 1161 Report of Locomotive Assignments. That is all but ATSF 4301, my personal engine number 1, which I still have after all these years and is planned for display in HB Cambell Park on my forthcoming layout.
Another saying, “The more you know, the less you know,” also
applies. For instance the recent
discussion about the USRA Double Sheathed cars on the Steam Era Freight Car
List. One member queried the list about
which roads would be accurate for his 1944 modelling era, a question also
relevant to me as I’ve focused on December 1944 and Richmond California as the
time and place for my own layout. The good
news is that I had availed myself of the excellent article on these cars in RPC
16 and cross-referenced the January 1945 ORER listings to determine the number
of cars each railroad rostered then. I
used that information to guide my purchase of 10 Rapido models of various roads
including the SP&S 10275. I knew
that SP&S had almost 300 in service but what color scheme, K or AB brakes,
what kind of brake wheel and so on. I
knew more, but simultaneously knew less.
Then earlier today, came a post from the SP&S Railway
Historical Society Archivist with the individual car histories of their USRA DS
cars in spreadsheet format. Thank
You! More good news, 10275 was converted
to a flat car in 1953, yea, that car number was active on the rails in 1944 as
a box car. Now for the bad news, my
model came equipped with AB brakes as the scheme Rapido sold was from that
transition. But from the car history
that particular car didn’t get the AB upgrade until 1946. The good news is that several adjacent car
numbers got ABs in 1944 so I could renumber the car. The better news is that I have some extra
Rapido K brake parts from other models I can use to backdate without
renumbering.
None of us can afford to purchase or read all of the
wonderful information that is now being published. As a Santa Fe guy, I tend to concentrate on
my home road and that is fairly extensive and most of my railroad library is on
Santa Fe subjects. But it also covers a
lot of operations related documents like the 1944 List of Open and Pre-paid
Stations. One of my professors was big
about the Guzintas had to equal the Guzoutas for a system to be in
balance. That station list tells me
where my Guzintas could have come from and where my Guzoutas can go. I hope to share a digitized version in the
future. I only needed one line from that
SP&S spreadsheet, and I am grateful that it was so freely shared. I have and will continue to share the many
nuggets that I find, often while looking for something else (as Rich Franks
said in his recent lecture on the 80th Anniversary of the End of
WWII). I’ve found all kinds of things in
the background of photos like a Bx-26 freshly repainted with the Grand Canyon
Slogan beyond the subject flat car modified to carry B-29 wings. Please share your finds, don’t hoard
them. And plan to preserve them after
your passing as he who dies with the most toys doesn’t win, he’s just dead and
his toys end up in the landfill, lost to the rest of us.
And if you are interested in WWII history, I have been
combining the combat chronicles of the individual US services and posting daily
activities on this blog with the title
8x Years Ago day, date.
John Barry
Lovettsville, VA
16 August 2025
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