Centralia Car Shops - CCS6621-03 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside - Spokane Portland & Seattle - 304

Prototype History: In the post-war period, passenger rail service boomed. In order to increase efficiency, the railroads set to replacing their old wood, steel and concrete heavyweight passenger cars with newer lightweight, streamlined cars. The new cars were made from stainless steel, aluminum and Cor-Ten steel. These cars required less motive power to pull and were cheaper to manufacture. Production was also concentrated in a few manufacturers rather than each railroad making its own. This led to standardization which further reduced costs. The new "lightweight" cars were also given "streamlined" designs to make them more visually appealing. Budd, Pullman Standard and ACF were all well known manufacturers of these cars.

Smoothside cars are typically painted, unlike their corrugated brethren. This meant that they typically required more maintenance, but this also allowed the railroads to apply distinctive paint schemes to their fleets, typically matching the paintwork on their locomotives.

Road Name History: The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) (reporting mark SPS) was a United States-based railroad incorporated in 1905. It was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank of the Columbia River. Remnants of the line are currently operated by BNSF Railway.

The railroad was chartered in 1905 by James J. Hill to connect the two transcontinental railroads owned by him, the Northern Pacific (NP) and Great Northern (GN), to Portland, Oregon from Spokane, Washington, to gain a portion of the lumber trade in Oregon, a business then dominated by E.H. Harriman's Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. Construction began in 1906 under the name Portland & Seattle Railway, proceeding eastward from Vancouver, Washington. 1906 also saw the start of construction of the line between Vancouver and Portland, including work on three major new bridges, crossing the Columbia River, the Oregon Slough and the Willamette River. The northernmost of these was the first bridge of any kind to be built across the lower Columbia River.

In January 1908 "Spokane" was added to the railroad's name, making it the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. SP&S freight and passenger service (from Pasco) to Portland was inaugurated in November 1908. By 1909 the railroad had completed construction of its line up to Spokane along the Snake River. In 1910 SP&S gained control of the Oregon Electric interurban railway, which the Great Northern had acquired two years before. Under the control of the SP&S the railroad was extended southward to Eugene, Oregon by 1912. SP&S also operated a second subsidiary railroad in western Oregon, the Oregon Traction Company, which owned a route to Seaside, Oregon. A third route on which the SP&S operated extended southward from Wishram, Washington to Bend, Oregon was the Oregon Trunk Railroad.

Read more on Wikipedia and The Spokane Portland and Seattle Railway Historical Society

Brand/Importer Information: Centralia Car Shops is an N-Scale manufacturer based in Des Plaines Illinois. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Des Plaines hobbies. Des Plaines Hobbies was founded by Ron Sebastian in 1984. Centralia subcontracts its manufacturing to InterMountain and 'piggy-backs' the production runs onto the InterMountain runs using the same factories in China as InterMountain. Shipping from factories in China is also coordinated with InterMountain as is distribution to retailers.

Des Plaines Hobbies is a old fashioned hobbyshop with an emphasis on Model Railroading. It was started 33 years ago when you could purchase a tube of glue and sticks of balsa wood. That is still true today, although we have added a few items. About 20 years ago we ventured into some light manufacturing and are also home to Centralia Car Shops, S Scale America, and O Scale America lines of kits, decals and parts. Also along the way we have purchased a few small lines that we still offer such as Microscale's S Scale decal line and Mullet River Model Works HO and S lines.

Des Plaines Hobbies is located 3 1/2 miles north of O Hare International Airport at 1524 Lee/Mannheim (US 12-45). Pace buses conveniently run north and south on Lee/Mannheim from O Hare and the Des Plaines Metra station (1 mile north). For drivers, there is parking for a couple hundred cars out front and on the right side of the store. We are located on the south side of the Jewel food store under the red awning. Come for a visit. ADA restroom available. Coffee is usually hot, if not, ask and we will put a pot on.