Getting Real Column - 5
Then in June 1951, the side sills and center steps also became
orange, along with the entire car side. The arrangement of me-
dallions also changed, with the SP emblem now nearest the B
end on each side, making the two car sides different, with em-
blem arrangement reversed between the two.
In this 1949-1951 period of painting changes, the shops contin-
ued to repaint many cars, so examples of each of the 1949, 1950
and 1951 schemes can be readily found in photos. As a 1953
modeler, I can accurately include samples of each in my fleet.
A comment on weathering: with most prototypes, modelers
are accustomed to weathering more heavily for older paint
schemes, and the farther a particular paint job is in the past
(relative to one’s modeling era), the dirtier it should be. But
this really cannot be applied to PFE cars. We know that thou-
sands of them were washed every year, from the 1920s into
the middle 1950s.
19: Empties westward on Sherman Hill, also in
September 1955. This image also shows the variation of
weathering among the PFE cars. – photo, John E. Shaw
19
20: This model of PFE Class R-40-23 is an InterMountain
ready-to-run car. It models a repaint, using the paint
scheme introduced in 1951, though all side hardware
should be orange. The UP emblem is black and white,
and the SP emblem is toward the B end of the car on
both sides, thus making the two sides non-identical. In
the background, another reefer is about to be spotted at
the ice house in my layout town of Shumala.
20
During 1937-1942, for example, about 19,000 cars were
washed each year. So age alone cannot determine how dirty a
PFE car ought to be, see (18) and (19).
PFE classes
Now let’s look at how some of these classes can be modeled –
some have multiple possibilities. I begin with the larger classes.
Class R-40-23.
This was PFE’s largest class of new (as op-
posed to rebuilt) cars, and as Table 2 shows, was divided into
two number series, 5001-8000 and 46703-48702, totaling 5000
cars when new. The best and most accurate model in HO scale
MRH-Oct 2013
