ACL P Series 40' flatcars Part 2 - The P-9 and P-11 workhorses

Some progress has been made on the ACL P series flatcars as modeled with the Tichy 4040 kit. The Tichy ACL P series flatcars were some of the longest living examples of early freight car production throughout the 20th century with some examples lasting into the 1970s. A full article is planned on the necessary modifications to make the cars more prototypical and also allowing for unique Maintenance of Way conversion cars. 

By the 1960s modeled, most examples will be lettered in the 65XXX and 68XXX series of cars to account for their non-revenue assignments. Many of the cars served the signal, bridge, and wrecking crews throughout the SCL system. Additional 41'4" models to account for roster acquisitions from the AB&C are also planned, along with SAL F-4 and F-5 41' flatcars also placed in Maintenance of Way service.

The above photo demonstrates the differences between the Tichy 4021 and 4040 kits, both of which are universally appropriate for ACL based cars.

ACL P Series 40' flatcars Part 1 - The P-9 and P-11 workhorses

 

After all these years, I finally decided to take on a long standing challenge for a truly excellent kit. The confusion surrounding the prototype has not deterred my efforts to document the ACL P-9 and P-11 series of 40' flatcars. Along the way, I managed to determine some lesser known facts that show the true resiliency of these cars. These cars first appeared on the ACL roster in 1913 and many outlived the railroad itself.

The majority of these unique cars are a bastion for the kit builder because of their unique identities in the later years. Examples of the P-9 and P-11 flats were converted in part to larger capacity cars, with others serving M-of-W service roles well into the 1970s and beyond. The lettering and painting is sparse, but when you decide to construct a fleet of them, sometimes less is better.

The lettering set needed for these cars can be sourced from two sources to include Tichy and the ACL & SAL Historical Society by way of custom decals for larger cars, but these will require some letter by letter application. For the uninitiated, ACL lettering looks like simple, but following the prototype, the modeler should consider the appearance of the A, the C, and the shape of the numerals. 

Ultimately, I will author a large article for those cars once I can determine some critical facts about their builders and other details, however, here is but one sheet from a roster I have drafted trying to determine the basics. The Tichy 40' flatcar kit (part number 4040) is an excellent kit and with some additions, it becomes quite better when specifically building ACL flats. 

Modeling SAL 40' PS-1 Beer cars and others

"A man walks into a bar.....", and now you find yourself curious about Seaboard Air Line beer cars. "Welcome", says the bar tender, and you order up a round. For many, any silver Seaboard Air Line boxcar was considered to be a "beer" car used in the transport of Tampa's finest Schlitz and Anheuser Busch lager, however, there are several interesting facets to these cars. 

The fleet of beer cars was in assigned service to Hillsboro, Florida (not to be confused with the alternate spelling of the county of Hillsborough), which was a jointly operated yard by the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line. The line was accessed from the west by the Seaboard which switched the area alternately with rival ACL. The area was once home to Hillsborough Army Airfield which can be seen to the southeast of the topographic map.

In 1958, Joseph Schlitz Brewing opened its Tampa, Florida brewery as major brewers made inroads to relatively untapped Florida markets. In 1959, Anheuser Busch brewery was opened in the same area with the two breweries separated by less than a 1/4 mile from one another. Today, the Schlitz brewery remains active as part of the Yuengling family of beers, while the Anheuser Busch brewery is now shuttered.

Schlitz Brewery, Tampa, Florida (above), and the Anheuser Busch brewery (below) courtesy of Florida Memory.

It's not always been as easy as you think to model these unique SAL cars. The bones are there by way of Kadee's excellent 40' PS-1, but the decals have always been lacking until recently.

Looking at the scale models of the Pullman-Standard 40' PS-1 boxcars as produced by Kadee Products, a majority of the models are assigned to Tampa (Hillsboro) for beer loading. The models are truly excellent and capture so many of the fine details Kadee is known for producing. The comparable Intermountain model of the PS-1 lacks the small changes that can be found on the Kadee model, but is acceptable for later built cars. To date, Kadee has produced only three SAL beer cars as SAL 25403 (part number 5109), SAL 25255 (part number 5114), and SAL 25099 (part number 5121). 

Finally, we have some excellent decals to work with from K4 Decals that are specific to these cars and can open up several additional paint schemes. 

Previously, only Speedwitch Media, now National Scale Car, produced decals (sets D103 and D194, seen below) for the earliest schemes but these could be cobbled together with others to create several variations.

   

Lastly, Microscale has two decal sets of use, 87-965 and 87-1287 of use but these are limited in scope to larger 50' cars and the heralds are inaccurate.

Seaboard Air Line's 40' PS-1 Loading Assignments

 

Seaboard Air Line's fleet of Pullman-Standard 40' PS-1s consisted of 1,900 examples which were comprised of cars constructed in 1948 to 1955. Production changes throughout the fleet were rampant as were specialized loading assignments. I began a project to outline the fleet's loading assignments which ranged from beer to biscuits, as well as coffee, appliances, paper, aluminum and mineral service. The following assignments have been referenced from SAL loading assignment documents from 1964 to 1971 and have been reconciled against one another to determine the best information.

By and large, SAL assigned the majority of 40' PS-1s to appliance loading with 106 cars in dedicated service to and from various shippers, with the largest being General Electric. In 1951, General Electric's Appliance Park, Kentucky 900-acre site was opened which required a considerable amount of dedicated cars. 

General Electric photograph, Appliance Park, KY

SAL also serviced other appliance and electronic manufacturers throughout the midwestern United States to include Hot Point, Maytag, Whirlpool, Norge, Gibson, Westinghouse Electric, Tappan, and Kelvinator.

The most iconic SAL PS-1s were those used in beer service which served the Tampa, Florida, breweries in Hillsboro, FL which was a jointly serviced yard by the ACL and Seaboard Air Line. These 39 PS-1s were the most colorful and memorable of all Seaboard Air Line Pullman Standard boxcars. There were no fewer than 5 paint schemes applied to this group which frequented the Tampa area.

Schlitz Brewery, Tampa, Florida. Images courtesy of Hillsborough County Public Library and Florida Memory Project.

Warren Calloway photograph

In researching these cars, a particular group of cars were loaded at Quincy, Florida at the Floridin Company, which opened the nation's first mine of Fuller's Earth in 1893. Fuller's Earth is used in a variety of chemical, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. The images below show the company's facilities during the 1940s which shipped Fuller's Earth as a bagged commodity.

Both images courtesy of Florida Memory Project

The majority of SAL's PS-1 fleet was assigned for loading in Florida with 64 cars, followed by Kentucky with 59 cars, and South Carolina with 28 cars. Aside from beer and Fuller's Earth, SAL loaded coffee in Jacksonville, Florida from the Maxwell House plant using 13 dedicated cars.

Maxwell House coffee plant, Jacksonville, Florida Time-Union photograph

Seaboard Air Line assigned 28 cars to Bowaters paper located in Catawba, South Carolina for shipment of coated paper from the massive plant served by both SAL and Southern Railway. The paper industry was served extensively throughout the southeastern United States by Seaboard and rival Atlantic Coast Line. Successor Seaboard Coast Line maintained one of the largest fleets of high capacity paper cars to many paper mills and plants throughout the area. The usage of the 40' PS-1 in paper service required the addition of two louvered vents on the car ends to reduce moisture intrusion and allow for ventilation of the lading. SAL assigned only cars from the earliest orders, Pullman Lot 5919B, to this service which were constructed in October 1948. 

These early PS-1s featured the standard brake retainer location, the absence of roof ribs on the outermost panels, straight end ladders, a grab iron was fastened below the ladder on the ends, three point end grab irons, and no embossments immediately below the roof eaves on the car ends. The early PS-1s which are represented by the Kadee 4300 series bodies, have a unique bolster tab in addition to the aforementioned details, but to date, the model has not been released with an 8' door opening to match the cars specified by Seaboard Air Line.

SAL assigned 15 cars to the Ampthill, VA Rayon plant located south of Richmond, VA. The plant, located on the banks of the James River, was served by the Southern Railway and Seaboard Air Line. With increased production of products such as Rayon, Dacron, Tyvek, Nomex, Corian, Mylar, and Lycra this became an important commodity for SAL.

The final few assigned cars were in aluminum can, salt cake, biscuit, general distribution, and grain service. 

The Tampa area was once again a major producer of aluminum cans during the 1960s for use in the brewing industry and was served by American Can Company.

 Interestingly, SAL assigned three cars, 25996, 25613 and 25771, to Streitmann Biscuit, the predecessor to Keebler, in Norwood, Ohio. The final few cars present some interesting service possibilities those being the two assigned cars, SAL 24802 and 24813, to Tampa grain service. Tampa serviced two major mills in the area those being Cargill and a downtown mill located adjacent to City Yard in the Ybor City area. The mill was sold in the 1960s and ultimately purchased by Ardent Mills. The mill was recently demolished as has much of Tampa's remarkable industrial heritage.

Cargill's Tampa mill located on the Ybor Channel. Image courtesy of the Florida Memory Project.

While examining the assignments there were a few additions and subtractions over the years, for instance three cars were assigned to the Sunshine Biscuit company in Ft. Benning, Georgia, however by 1971 these assignments had been transferred to cars serving Floridin Company in Fuller Earth service.

Several other changes included the loading point for Norge Corporation was changed from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  SAL cars 25544, 25622, and 25684 were reassigned to Fuller Earth service after having been assigned to AVCO in Glencliff, TN and routed via the L&N. 

One car, SAL 25552 was assigned to Southern Industries, in Richmond, Virginia, via the SAL, however, by 1971 this car was found in the massive General Electric pool serving Appliance Park, KY.