Sunday, August 15, 2021

 



I Had To Have It: InterMountain HO Scale Borax Hopper

These past five years or so I have tried to make the overall look of my 1956-era Citrus Belt Railway Company more prototypical. To that end I have been eliminating many pieces of rolling stock that had special, overly gaudy paint schemes. Most of these cars were based on actual prototypes. The problem was that having too many of these cars on the railroad was not prototypical. A look at period photos of freight yards will confirm this.

Then InterMountain offered a Pacific Coast Borax Company two-bay hopper in bright yellow with a twenty-mule team graphic. The very definition of a special, overly gaudy paint scheme. I had to have it…if it was prototypical.

Thankfully, an inquiry on the Real Steam Era Freight Car Discussion Group (A great resource for modelers) produced a quick answer with a photo. STMFC discussions noted that five cars, series NAHX 30514-30518, were leased to Pacific Coast Borax. At least one of these cars had the paint scheme seen in the model photo below and that was documented by a prototype photo. Frank Hodina brought the photo to the attention of Ed Hawkins, who shared the photo with the group:

https://realstmfc.groups.io/g/main/message/186256?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%252Fsticky,,borax,20,2,0,84426119

The car on my railroad would be three years old so I plan to only lightly weather it before putting it in service.

Yes, it’s gaudy…but I had to have it.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA



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