Model: SP Beet Gondola With Cull Lemon Load
Awhile back someone told me they had seen an SP beet gondola with a load of cull oranges parked at the old Sunkist juice plant (now gone) in Ontario, Ca.
I don¡¯t know about oranges, but I do know that SP hauled cull lemons from Arizona to an Anaheim juice plant and (via the Santa Fe) the Exchange Lemon Products plant in Corona. Exchange Products also received cull lemons by boxcar.
An article on prototype gondolas for transporting lemons was posted on this group in 2018:
The article kindled my interest in building an HO scale gondola with a cull lemon load. I reported on this project five years ago:
I followed up that project with a second gondola from Red Caboose/Intermountain.
For this third project I started out with a R-T-R Intermountain SP beet gondola with the board sides used prior to the use of plywood sides. Is this load prototypical? Maybe not but I do have an authorized modeler¡¯s license issued by¡me.
For lemons I used some of my stock of JTT Scenery Products #92124 miniature fruit, which included a packet of lemons. JTT now is owned by Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC), who marketed this product as JTT #0592124.
Be advised that these probably are the last lemons available in HO scale, but they are listed as out-of-stock by MRC. Woodland Scenics did not offer scale lemons. Alpine Division Scale Models did but they no longer are in business.
For lemons your best source is E-Bay for the Alpine, the old JTT or MRC products.
I scratch-built a base for the upper interior section of the gondola and installed it. I then attached the upper section (the board extension section) to the main body of the gondola. I coated the base with Pacer Technology's Formula 560 Canopy Glue and sprinkled on some lemons. Adhesion was good. When dry I gave the first layer another coat of diluted (20% water) Canopy Glue and added more lemons. I added a third coat just for insurance. This produced a good, built-up layer of lemons with no bare spots showing through to the base.
When this was dry, I shook off the excess lemons. Done.
The photo below is the finished model temporarily parked on a siding next to a scratch-built shallow relief model of a packing house. This packing house would not have processed cull lemons, so this car is waiting to be switched to the nearby Exchange Lemon Products Plant, which on my railroad had yet to be modeled.
Bob Chaparro
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Bob Chaparro