The Howard Fogg Power Car Builds
By Harry M. Haythorn, UPHS #4043
Welcome to the March 2018 edition of the UP-HUB! The New Year brings a few changes to the magazine, including a name change that is discussed in the opening of this issue. But fear not, the quality of the articles will not wane; in fact, they will only continue to improve and this article will be no different. Now let’s get on with the build article.
This is the article that many Union Pacific modelers have been asking about for over two years, and I finally got around to writing it. Why is this such a hot topic among Union Pacific modelers? The Howard Fogg is used with #844 and #3985 (and soon it will be used with #4014) when they are on the road.
Car History
UPP (Union Pacific Passenger) No. 209 Howard Fogg started its life as American Car and Foundry baggage dormitory No. 6006 in 1949 for use on the Union Pacific’s City Fleet trains. In 1962, it was converted to a boiler baggage dormitory and was renumbered to 304 to be used with the UP #8444. It was also used to provide steam heat to passenger cars that were on excursions and other public relations trips during that time. By now, the 304 was also used to provide “house steam” to the locomotives while they were being maintained without a fire in the boiler.
In 1987 the car was renumbered again to 209, and it was assigned to the heritage fleet full-time in 1990. In 1996 the car received the name Howard Fogg after the world-renowned railroad artist passed away.
In 2000, the car was upgraded again to accommodate a Head End Power (HEP) generator. The steam and HEP are fed to the train by a diesel generator that is housed in the former baggage compartment of the car. The car also has a laundry room, a shower room, a freezer and fridge room, and three large staterooms for the steam locomotive crews.
Build it Already!
This car is only available in two ways: either buy it or build it.
The car model was produced by Overland Models Inc. in brass and currently sells for close to $1,000 on the secondhand market. Even at this price, it’s a hot commodity and any available cars usually sell within hours of becoming available.
The alternative to building it yourself makes for an ambitious weekend project. If you have been a regular reader of this column for any length of time you already know that if I can’t find it, then I build it. And that’s what I did – rewinding the clock to four years ago when I started to build it.
At the time, I had it finished in about three weeks and ran it for the first time on the club layout during the North Platte Railfest. Two gentlemen saw it and asked where it came from. I told them that I had built it and could construct more if they were interested. I sold that car that day and immediately built the second gentleman one. The third car that I built went to my buddy who ended up switching to N scale. Needless to say, that car has been sold off.
This car is easily built using one of two American Car and Foundry baggage-dormitory cars available from Walthers. Walthers released these as part of their Union Pacific City series of cars a few years ago. The part numbers of these cars are as follows: 932-9560 is the Union Pacific lettered car and 932-9564 is the CNW lettered car in UP colors.
Both cars work well, however one involves more paint and decal work than the other. Both cars have the word “Baggage” next to the baggage door which will need to be removed, and if you chose the CNW-lettered car then it is necessary to re-decal it to a UP car. Sometimes the Micro Sol trick works in removing the pad-printed letters, and other times it doesn’t.
In the case of the latter, your best bet is to completely repaint the sides. Be sure to remove the sides from the car then remove the windows from the car’s walls before you paint. If you use high-quality masking tape, you can mask the car at the stripes and not have to repaint the Harbour Mist Gray below the bottom red stripe thus saving some time and effort. I have done twelve of these builds, seven of which I started with CNW cars. Of those seven, I have had to restripe four. (See Figures 1 and 2.)
Starting the Build
Let’s get started on this build. Before we set off, we must decide on which car we are going to build. Over the years there have been a few changes made to the 209, most notable of the changes have been the trucks. The 6000-series baggage dorms were originally equipped with 41-N-11 two-axle trucks; these were removed from the car in the 1980s and were replaced with a 41-NDO-11 two-axle truck on the dormitory end and an A62-UDO-11 three-axle truck under the baggage/generator end thus making it a five-axle car. This configuration lasted until 2010, when the two-axle truck was replaced with another A62-UDO-11 truck, now making it a six-axle car. There have been other small parts added or removed over the years, but the basic roof items and vents on the side have been the same for a long time.
To add the correct A62 six-wheeled truck you must shorten the center (underbody) water tank by about a half inch. This is easily done with a razor saw, trim the end back to the first under-floor rib near the front of the tank. Save the end cap to put back on the tank. If you are building the five- or six-axle version, the dormitory end needs no modification for the trucks.
The Rooftop Modifications
Let’s start with the roof modifications; these include removal of a section of the roof walkway, and installing some boxes, antennas, and other rooftop details as well as building a cableway and a roof panel.
The first modification required is the removal of the section of the roof walkway to install the rest of the rooftop details. I use a single-edge razor blade and cut the walkway at the fourth set of double rivets from the front (baggage door) end of the car and then I make a second cut at the eighth set of rivets. (See the white strip on the rooftop in Figure 3.)
The cableway can be made in a few different ways, based on your skills and your available tools. My chosen method is to cut the needed piece from a .020” sheet of styrene with a nibbler so that it is a one-piece item that is .148” (3.15mm) wide by 3.010 inches (76.45mm) long. To do this, I first make a template out of .010” sheet that I lay over the top of the thicker sheet. This ensures that each copy of the component is the exact same.
Another good method is to instead use .020” strip that is .148” (3.15 mm) wide and piece it together. I used this method on some of my customers’ cars and it works very well. This piece is then glued to the roof on the left-hand side, between the section cut out of the roof walk and runs to the outside rivet row on the roof. (See Figures 3 and 4.)
To build the roof panel, I use two pieces of .010” styrene sheet which measure 1.675” (42.52mm) by .871” (22.12mm). The bottom sheet should be cut a few millimeters smaller than the top sheet to give the illusion that the plate is not just stuck directly to the roof surface. I then add a small box at the front right-hand corner just slightly back from the edge of the panel. The exhaust stack in the middle is made from a piece of .070” styrene rod with a piece of .010” styrene sheet glued to the top to simulate a rain cap. This roof plate should be positioned in the area bounded by the first rivet row from the inside of the cableway to the outside rivet row on the right-hand side. The final details to add are the four lift rings at the corners of the plate.
The rest of the rooftop details and boxes are a mix of commercial and scratch-built parts. The forward-angled top box is made out of a piece of ¼-inch square strip with angles cut into the top and the bottom and curved to match the roof; it is glued at the first rivet row behind the cableway. The exhaust stack behind this box is made using a piece of scrap plastic and a Detail Associates EMD non-turbo exhaust stack. (See Figures 4 and 5.)
The other pieces on the roof include a round GPS antenna (positioned at the ninth double-rivet row on top of the walkway), a Sinclair radio antenna on a ground plane (placed on the single rivet row between the ninth and tenth double-rivet rows), and a firecracker antenna (located on the tenth double-rivet row). Both antennae are on the left (fireman’s) side of the roof walk. On the right (engineer’s) side, there is a TV antenna on the 11th double-rivet row right along the side of the roof walk. Because this part is very hard to come by, I usually omit it from the model. However, if you wish to include it, a good way to simulate it is to fabricate it out of .010” styrene rod by cutting it in the basic shape of the TV antenna. With all the parts installed it is a whole different roof. (See Figure 6.)
Adding Grilles
Now let’s work on the right hand (engineer’s) side where the vents go. (See Figures 7 and 8.) This is comprised of eight separate pieces that must be added to the side of the car, three pieces of .010” styrene sheet and five etched-metal grilles from Detail Associates.
The three pieces of styrene are used to add the grilles to the body as they do not fit flush on the sides of the prototype. Each of these styrene pieces must be cut to fit as each is of a specific shape.
The biggest panel is the air intake for the diesel generator. This plate measures .503” (12.78mm) wide by 1.522” (38.66mm) long. I like to paint this piece a flat grimy black before gluing the air intake panels to it. It is attached to the body on the right (engineer’s) side of the car, .404” (10.25mm) ahead of the first big window and straddles the window’s bottom batten strip.
The next plate is what I call the football plate (because it is shaped like a football), which also has a grille on it. It measures .841” (21.38mm) long by .377” (9.57mm) wide. I paint this piece yellow first then add a black strip where the grille will go. Using a spare grille from the set of six you purchased (see the list of materials at the end of this article), cut one section from the large grille. Glue the cut grille horizontally on top of your football plate which is approximately .210 inches (5.36mm) ahead of the big grille.
The third grille is the smallest and it goes ahead of the baggage door, at .372” (9.45mm) and measures .197” (5mm) wide by .440” (11.18mm) tall. There is a grille that fits in this space. This one is also painted yellow before it is attached.
There are a few tanks and other underbody details on the prototype that I don’t always recreate on the model, but they are easily made with sheet styrene and parts available from many suppliers.
The finishing touches to the car are the decals. There are a few options available to you based on with which car you started, and how much paint work was required. If you need to add stripes, the “Union Pacific”, the “Howard Fogg”, and the “209” letters and numbers, you will need a set of Micro Scale Decals UP Business Cars (87-1056) decal set, and a set of Union Pacific Red Stripes (87-632). If you just need the “Howard Fogg” lettering, Circus City Decals sells them on sheet #UP205. On the prototype car, the last half of the word “Pacific” – the “I-F-I-C” – runs on top of the LARGE grille. I have tried a few times to get the decals to stay applied to this area of the model with no success.
Building the Consist
Now that you have your car finished, you might be asking yourself where and how this fits into a steam trip. This car is always the second car within the train consist, positioned behind the 85’ ACF baggage/machine shop car 6334 Art Lockman. A sample of a ferry move might be set up as follows:
#844 and tender, water tenders 809 Jim Adams (Flag tender) and 814 Joe Jordan, BE-70-1 boxcar 9336 (if you model before 2012, when it was wrecked in Herne, Texas), 6334 Art Lockman baggage car, 209 Howard Fogg baggage dormitory, 5714 Lynn Nystrom baggage car, 5818 Reed Jackson/Sherman Hill concession car (named Sherman Hill prior to 2009 and Reed Jackson after 2009) one of the Flag Baggage cars, and the CA-13 Steam Crew Caboose (which, interestingly, is now at the Rail Giants Museum in Pomona, California). These pieces are all stabled at and maintained in Cheyenne, Wyoming, whereas the rest of the passenger cars are stored in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (See Figure 9.)
I hope that you have enjoyed this build and if you have been patiently waiting for me to write this for over two years, thank you! This article has been needed for some time in the Union Pacific modeling community. I have a few other business/heritage fleet car builds in the works and they will probably end up in The Modeler’s Journal in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact me through Google+, YouTube, or Facebook should you have any questions regarding this build and the techniques I used.
About the Author
Harry is a rancher in Nebraska who works with his father and grandfather to help run their 22,000-acre, 1,500-head of mother cow, ranch. Harry has been model railroading for over 20 years and models the Union Pacific Steam era from the 1930s to the 1960s, in central and western Nebraska. Harry is a Sustaining Member of the Union Pacific Historical Society and a member of the UPHS Streamliner 100 club. He is a National Model Railroad Association member currently working on his Master Model Railroader Certificate. Harry regularly posts videos on his YouTube page. You can follow Harry as he works on his 7th layout at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-MPHmYU3Cc2uEVfjZDIcQ.