Scratchbuilding by Paul Washburn

Paul Washburn is a prolific scratchbuild modeler. It seems that every few months he comes out with a new car or engine that he has built from scratch. For some he will provides us details, or step-by-step photos, and for others he'll offer a final photo. Either way, they are inspirational.

Locomotives

The following links are to dedicated pages for scratchbuilding projects Paul has built for which he provided more details than just one photo.

ATSF 2-8-0 #1962
ATSF 2-8-2 (still under construction)
ATSF Tender (for the ATSF 2-8-2)
Southern Pacific 2-6-0
Southern Pacific 4-8-0 #2921
Southern Pacific 4-8-0 #2914

Engine #1727 is a Southern Pacific M-6 mogul that Paul scratchbuilt from brass. The prototype engine is displayed in Dunsmuir, California.

Engine #1807 is a Southern Pacific M-9 mogul scratchbuilt from brass sheet, bars, and round stock. The tender is a SouthWind Models 7,000-gallon with lots of modifications.

AT&SF 1950 class consolidation.

Paul scratchbuilt #17 from brass. This is a 3-foot narrow-gauge model.

Passenger Cars

The San Diego & Arizona Eastern is a scratchbuilt, 60-foot combine made out of styrene with a wood roof. The rivet detail was done using Archer's rivet decals.

Freight Cars

The following links are to dedicated pages for scratchbuilding projects Paul has built for which he provided more details than just one photo.

Paul scratchbuilt this Santa Fe refrigerator car #9516 from styrene. The rivet detail was achieved using Archer's rivet decals.

The Southern Pacific G-50 class, general service gondola was scratchbuilt out of styrene. All rivet detail work was done using the North West Short Line's riveter.

This outside-braced, door-and-a-half SP box car was built out of styrene. Paul used PRS trucks, Grandt Line details, and P-B-L Star Brand paint. The figure is by Aspen Modeling Company (part #S-08).

This is a heavily-modified Pacific Rail Shops box car, where Paul replaced the sides with scribed styrene siding. He used C-D-S dry transfer decals.

Paul scratchbuilt this tank car from parts from left-over cars and other parts from his parts box. The interesting thing about this car are the decals. These are the new S-scale Tichy Train Group decals (since Tichy bought out the Jerry Glow decals). Paul feels that those are the best decals he has ever used.

The photos below are of a Southern Pacific flat car, an F-50-10, that Paul scratchbuilt. He built two of them at the same time. The model represents one as it was used in maintenance-of-way service. The car was built using Evergreen styrene, with detailing parts from Des Plaines Hobbies and Grandt Line. The trucks are ones from Pacific Rail Shops, with the wheels being from NorthWest ShortLine. The NBW rivets and the decals are by Tichy Train Group. The model was painted with P-B-L StarBrand paint, "SP/UP Freight Car Red".

Below are photos of a pair of Pacific Electric B-50-13 box cars that Paul scratchbuilt. Paul used Evergreen Scale Models styrene, using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (part #TAM87182) for the glue. He used the S Scale America AB brake set (part #SSA397) and air hoses (part #SSA399), Kadee #808 couplers, and Pacific Rail Shops ASF Ride Control trucks to complete the models. The cars were primed with Tamiya Gray Fine Surface Primer (part #87064), and painted with P-B-L Star Brand "Sunburn Red" paint (part #STR-31). Next, he applied Pacific Electric Outside-braced 40-foot box car decals by K4 Decals (part #K4-PELB-64-01).

Caboose

Paul scratchbuilt a Pacific Electric caboose that represents one as it ran in 1950. The caboose was a former Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad one.

M.O.W. Cars

The Southern Pacific water car #7281 was built from brass and styrene by Paul. The Andrews trucks were made by S-Helper Service.