HO Spokane, Portland and Seattle Freight Cars

[DavidBriel]

I would like for some HO model railroad manufacturers to produce some flat cars, gondolas and hoppers for BNSF pedecessor SP&S (Spokane, Portland and Seattle). I would buy a HO scale version of the now out of production Micro-trains N scale SP&S 50 straight side flat car if it was produced in HO. I feel that there is a market for more SP&S HO Freight Cars for SP&S, BN and BNSF HO modelers. I model the Eastern US but have freight cars from the Western US roads as well as the East Coast roads such as CSX and NS and their fallen flags. David Briel A US East Coast HO Modeler

[twhite]

Model Die Casting (Roundhouse) used to make SP&S boxcars--now that they've been bought out, I hope they will continue to do so. But remember, SP&S was owned jointly by GN and NP, so they really didn't have a lot of their own equipment. Until the coming of diesels, even their locomotives were either second-hand or new replicas of the parent roads. Their Northerns and Challengers were based on NP designs, and many of their Mikes and other smaller locomotive power was second-hand from the Great Northern. Frankly, the only 'home' cars I remember seeing from the SP&S in photos were the boxcars. There may have been others--anyone else got any ideas?
Tom

[Anonymous]

I saw a book on SP&S rolling stock at the Seattle's Train Center, www.seattlestraincenter.com. I saw what I thought was a gondola for sugar beets but what instead was an early chip car. I don't know if the book is still in print but I'm sure they'll be willing to answer that or other question.

[johncolley]

Also check out Red Caboose, for car kits I know they have some nice SP&S cars. Also have you tried getting undecorated and putting on the decals yourself?

[7j43k]

SP&S is certainly a fascinating railroad. It reminds me of the RF&P on the east coast.

SP&S didn't have any "real" hoppers, but they did have some ballast-style cars (21000-21024) that Atlas released in SP&S not too long ago. I doubt they went off-line a lot, but when freight has to move, you might use what's available. Also note that they didn't have any covered hoppers.

In gons, the Red Caboose cars are sort of close for SP&S--both as wood-chip and as regular. Red Caboose is threatening to make some in SP&S. Sunshine has just come out with models of the 23000-23199 gons--they're resin kits. MDC makes a 40' gon that might do as a stand in.

SP&S's 40' flats 32005-32054 can be modeled from the Tichy 40' cars--they're correct. You'll be decaling though. And painting.

Then there's boxcars. Various folks have done them. I think Branchline currently catalogs them.

If you're not modeling SP&S but are doing somewhere else, you may consider that it would be extremely rare to see an SP&S woodchip car in the East. Same for the ballast-style hopper. The cars that you would see would be mostly boxcars, a few flats and bulkhead flats (35000-35039 for the latter) and maybe a gon.

Finally, though, I must agree that I too would buy more SP&S cars if they were available. In my case, they would have to be correct models with free-standing ladders and grabs. Thus the MDC cars wouldn't work for my tastes.

Ed

[CBQ_Guy]

Not sure but I think possibly Accurail may sell an SP&S car (though I may be thinking C&S). I know for sure they have (had?) a FW&D box car.