southern pacific layout scheme

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

hi,

my era is in 1965 . 6X10. HO. sp loco diesels and one 0-4-0 steam camelback. i dont think the camelback was still being used but i gotta have at least one old steam to tromp around the yard. havent got a firm layout plan yet. have drawn up several and continue trying to improve on them. i believe i have a ‘problem’ though with the rolling stock. i’ve purchased all SP cars and locos. is there anything wrong with that? i like SP. grew up around SP. father worked for them 30+ years in lumberton ms and later in houston tx. when i line up some of the cars up behind a gp or sd on my test track; it looks good to me. not protypical i’m sure. i guess i’m just one track minded.

anybody else have just one railroad name on their layout?

thanks,

michael

2

Think a bit about the SP and its holdings. Look at a railroad map and you will see that the SP went from New Orleans, LA all the way to Portland, OR. There were many many interchanges and SP was a common carrier in Interstate Commerce. Even in the late '50’s/ early '60’s I remember cars from all over, even Canada. So you can relax a bit and get some “foreign” cars to add to your trains. That said, one would more likely see whole trains of PFE reefers going north or east in season, than all SP boxcars. And an all-out reefer drag (perishable express) was something to behold in the growing seasons of various crops. Some were even given first class rights over many passenger trains except the big name trains! Enjoy! jc5729

3

If I remember correctly, SP retired the last of its steam locomotives in 1957 or 1958. Only SP cars would be unprototypical. I only recall seeing an all SP train once, it was on a branchline and consisted of a GP9, three boxcars, and a caboose.

4

I am building a compilation of rolling stock that has only those railroads which went through my home city, or have the name of the city in their name. This may be seen as an excess of local pride. Or not. But it has been informative looking for the decals !

5

IIRC, the last 0-4-0 camelback was serving an industry in the early '60’s. After it was retired, it ended up on the Strasburg Rail Road (where it proved too light for the traffic.)

Someone once said that, on a '60’s era Class I, 55% of the freight stock should be home road, 35% should be connecting (direct interchange) roads and the remaining 10% should be non-connecting roads. For SP, those ‘non-connecting’ roads would include most of the rust belt and Eastern seaboard lines. Maine potatoes (carried in MEC and BAR cars) were common in Arizona supermarkets during your era.

As for that camelback, all you have to do is magically move the industry it served from Pennsylvania to SP country [:-^].

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

6

thanks for your input. gave me food for thought and a new perspective. looking at the cars and locos they look good for an SP consist, but after looking at it from a modelers eye it doens’t look ‘right’. i am going to intergrate other local lines that ran through the houston area. when i was growing up my Father wouldn’t let me or my mom mention locos or cars we had seen from other rail lines. maybe that had something to do with my ‘single line’ thinking after all these years. BIG thanks to you guys for taking the time to reply here.

7

i may put the steam engine in a park for display on the layout or next to a depot.

8

Or in excursion service like the SP steam loco that sometimes operates on the ex-SP line from Austin to Burnet.

Houston SP lines to model, radiating like spokes around the city:

the “Rabbit” line, Houston East and West Texas

T&NO mainline from the monster Englewood hump yard east to Beaumont and New Orleans.

“Texas Transportation Co” line paralleling Clinton Drive from near downtown to north of the turning basin, passing PTRA Basin yard and continuing along Clinton Drive on north side of the port of Houston.

LaPorte line on the south side of the Port of Houston from “Old Harrisburg”, south of Manhester, through Pasadena to LaPorte and then south through Texas City to go to Galveston.

the original Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado, first railroad in Texas, from Old Harrisburg south along Griggs Road to cross the Santa Fe/HB&T at T&NO Junction (near Long Point Road, Mykawa Road and Griggs, east end of Produce Terminal, and old Sears warehouse, thence west to run along Holmes Road (the city dump was there in the 1960s) to the South Main street overpass and West Junction and on to Sugarland…

the double track from Eureka Junction at northwest corner of Memorial Park, running south along the west edge of the park, crossing Buffalo Bayou, crossing under the Southwest Freeway and forming the east city limit of Bellaire, then joining the old BBB&C line west at West Junction.

the SAAP, San Antonio and Aransas Pass line which cut off from the westside double track at Bellaire Junction and paralleled the Southwest Freeway a mile or two west, continued west along the out of town extension of Westheimer

the Houston and Texas Central line from SP station west paralleling Washington Avenue to Eureka Junction and then paralleling Hempstead Highway…

last and LEAST, the Houston Heights Railroad, an SP owned

9

About half of your rolling stock should be from non-SP railroads.

The SP had only one Wooten-firebox/Camelback locomotive. It was Baldwin 18104 built September 1900 for SP’s Mexican subsidiary, the Sonora Railway, and was a Ten-Wheeler (4-6-0). SP purchased it in May 1901. The locomotive’s SP number was 2282, class T-27 (the only locomotive in the class). It was rebuilt with a with a T-1 boiler with the cab moved to the firebox end, and I assume modified to burn oil for fuel, in May 1906. It was scrapped in May 1928.

Mark Pierce