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.

This SP 2-8-0 Mikado #3203 was Paul's first standard-gauge Mikado (he had built one in Sn3 before).

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

Another beautiful model by Paul, this time its a Magma Arizona Railroad (MAA) 2-8-2, built out of brass. This shortline railroad was started by the Magma Copper Company in Arizona in 1920 as a 3-foot narrow-gauge railroad, but upgraded to standard-gauge three years later. The Australian company BHP bought the company in 1996 and then shut its operations down the next year. The 2-8-2 was built by Baldwin in 1917 and MAA bought it in 1954. The engine had a role in the How The West Was Won movie, and since 1974 the engine has been a part of the Texas State Railroad, which restored it back to its original MAA lettering and paint scheme.

In late 2023 Paul finished the San Diego & Arizona Eastern (SD&AE) 4-6-0, class T-58. He built this model from scratch out of brass. The tender he built about 30 years ago, and he figured it was about time to have an engine to pull it. The model contains all of the details you can imagine. Paul installed working lights, and the model has a DCC decoder installed in it. The SD&AE ran from San Diego, through portions of Mexico, to El Centro, Arizona, where it connected to the Southern Pacific. Here's their 1946 route map. A portion of the line is still in use today.

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.

Paul Washburn built another Southern Pacific water car, #7904. The main tank was formed out of 0.010" brass sheet, and the dome was made from brass tube stock. The ends are O-scale plastic castings by Grandt Line (#11) that he turned down to the appropriate diameter. The other details are all styrene. He used the AB brake system and air hoses from S Scale America (Des Plaines Hobbies; part #SSA397 and #SSA399). The tank rivets are by Archer (part #AR88079). The model was painted using P-B-L Star Brand "Sunburn Red" (part #STR-31), and the decals are by Tichy Train Group (part #10252S SP MOW). The trucks are by W.A. Drake & Co.