Company Service Cars

 Today’s Thompson Blog is about a specific company service tank car built by and fir the SP. This article brings to mind  company service cars of all kinds.

On AIR 1 I built several small fleets of Company Service cars. The THREE types that first come to mind are the Sand Service Hoppers, Diesel Service Tank Cars, and Cinder Gondolas.

Athearn produces/produced (?) a series of company service tank cars for roads all over North America that modelers generally misuse.

Since I treated engine service as an INDUSTRY, that is to say it is something more generally treated as a regular industry to spot and pull cars, as opposed to a location to either simulate the servicing of, or simply display locomotive models, I thought I needed cars for company service. 

It would have been easier, and just as plausible, to spot any car owner’s car of the appropriate type at the industries, or loading spots, of the various engine service facilities on the AIR, but I chose to model “Company” cars, that is cars lettered for the Atlantic Inland and sub lettered for the particular service. As it turns out many decal manufacturers produce the sub-lettering, that usually either goes to waste or is mis-applied to cars, so good on me there!

My first diesel service tank cars were Athearn, oversized, single dome tank cars painted black, given the appropriate number series, yes I went to the trouble of building a numbering guide* and gave all the service cars their own numbering series, letter with just the reporting mark “AIR”, and sub-lettered on the tank, below the dome, “Company Diesel Service”. Later on I got some undec Walther’s 8000 gallon tank cars and produced the same car type only in a more realistic size (Athearn Single and triple dome tank cars look like Zeppelins next to the more realistically scaled 6000-8000-1000 gallon cars of the steam era).

The Cinder Service Gondolas were easier still, being freelanced the AIR can use any car type available, and on advice of Jon Cure as to eventual routing, I produced these cars with a sort of ping pong service in mind. Cinders are a additive to brick and block; “Clinker Brick” is one and “Cinder Block” (Duh, cinders, cinder block) is another, so these cars are spotted MTY for loading at the various cinder conveyors at the engine service as well as small company power plants around the layout, then spotted loaded at Halstead Brick for unloading. These cars were actually more uniform that the tank cars, I picked up a shit-pot* full of MDC 40’ gondolas. Actually by 1952 40’ gons were considered older and the 52’ cars were becoming more common, so this seemed to fit with downgrading them to company service. Additionally I wanted to represent gondolas in regular coal service, this was so common in photographs I have of the coal business of the steam era. I believe I have nearly a hundred 40’ gons in “coal service” with about ten sub lettered for “Company Cinder Service”. They are black, as are ALL AIR coal hoppers, except one a gift (Damnit), with “Atlantic Inland” spelled out on the side, and again YES, in their own dedicated number series.

The sand service cars were a different animal all together. I could have used the standard 70 ton cement hopper, but I wanted something distinctly different, to delineate these cars. After seeing company sand Hoppers built by WM Shop forces for the WM, I decided to go that route, but in the easiest manner possible.

I tool $2 Life-Like USRA coal hoppers, which are pretty good representations, and applied roof’s from standard covered hopper kits, the first needed filing and filling, but soon I actually found an exact match, and about 20 painted for CB&Q, but already built as covered Hoppers. All needed a new method to attach trucks, so the press fit bolstered were removed, filled, re-drilled and new trucks installed. The Life-Like cars had truck mounted tango trucks, so new coupler boxes were installed and Kadee #5’s mounted. Then the whole thing was painted grey, the official AIR MOW color grey being Krylon Rattle can primer grey (In what ever color shade is currently available at Home Repo), then lettered with Black Lettering, Champ Black Lo Data sheets, with only “AIR” reporting marks, and YET AGAIN, into the specific AIR Company Sand Service number series. I think I have about a dozen of these cars. Often they will be spotted at CURE BROTHER Sand & Aggregate for loading and then spotted at various engine service facilities for unloading.

I did experiment with some company service boxcars for tool and expendable’s deliveries, but there are only two, in a color brown that fell out of favor with management (I hated it!), so I use regular service AIR boxcars for this service.

I need to work on a small fleet of 40’ company service flat cars. By 1952, 40’ flats, while still around in great numbers, were considered somewhat obsolete, the 50-53 footers being far more utilitarian for shippers needs. So it would seem logical to see 40’-ers in company service. 

Next swap meet I’ll see how many cheap $2 forty foot flats I can buy. Home Depot primer black is still pretty cheap! Add some Tichy break rigging, and Kadee couplers and we’re in business, oh yeah decals… that will delay the process a few years!

I have also thought of water tank cars, but I’m not sure, I have made do with  UTLX tanks in water service, but they are not labeled as such. I’m still in the steam era so using old tenders seems like I’m jumping the gun, but maybe not. I’m sure I can pick up some tenders at a swap-meet. Cover over the coal bin with plastic simulating steel, to increase the water capacity. A couple on the layout would not hurt, but this is more a MOW car and less a company service car, strictly speaking.

What other cars would reasonably be used in Company Service in the Steam Era? What are YOU using? Are you modeling engine service on your layout, and if you do do you treat it more as an “Industry” that must be regularly switched, or as a service/display facility?

One final thought the RIP track should be included in your engine service switch job. RIP tracks generate a LOT of switching moves!

Thanks for watching, see you around campus.

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* Number series guide, I took a great deal of trouble, and to be honest it has created a great deal of headaches since, to design a numbering series for every car type, both freight, passenger, MOW and caboose, as well as locomotives, dividing steam from diesel, and dividing again by engine type (Diesel Switchers were all in 1-99 while 2-8-8-2’s were 1200’s, in short all diesels were between 1-999, while all steam was 1000-9999)

50 ton Coal hoppers were 1000-1999 and here I got a great deal of help from Ron at Rail Graphics. He printed me sheets of decals, in two sizes, one for ends and one for car sides, in ever number from 1000 to 1999, EVERY NUMBER. A THOUSAND NUMBERS.  It’s the one thing that has made numbering the hopper fleet with different numbers a bit easier.

What I started to do, and hopefully will do again is a car roster on the computer to keep track of what number in each series had already been used! I have too many cars!