Atlas Undecorated N scale 50' Reefers... Decals?

[Kisatchie]

I have a ton of Atlas 50' undec reefer shells. They're custom painted with brown roofs and ends, and yellow sides.

Does anyone know of any appropriate decals (any roadnames) available for this type car/paint scheme? I saw Microscale makes custom decals, but their minimum order is 250 sheets - way more than I need.

Or can anyone recommend a decal maker with a lower minimum order. I've dealt with RailGraphics in the past, but just for their minimum for loco decals. I wonder what it would cost to get a ton of freight car decal sets. Maybe I'll give them a try again.

I suppose I can look for someone with an ALPS printer and have enough decals made, but since such printers are getting rarer, I'm not sure that will work.

Oh well, I'll see how this plays out...

Hmm... what's Kiz gonna
do with 100 reefers...?

[Mark5]

I believe this car is based on a Pacific Fruit Express prototype.

There's a pic of PFE 301037 on rrpicture archives, that appears to match the Atlas body, experts will hopefully weigh in.

Mark

[Kisatchie]

I believe this car is based on a Pacific Fruit Express prototype.

There's a pic of PFE 301037 on rrpicture archives, that appears to match the Atlas body, experts will hopefully weigh in.

The Atlas car doesn't have the fuel tanks (barely visible in the photo below):

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3378803

I'd have to buy the Micro-Trains 50' reefer underframe to get them. Unfortunately, the MTL underframe doesn't quite fit the Atlas car. Lawdy, I'd have to do some MODELING!


Hmm... Kiz has been in a
vegetative state for some
time now...

[Mark5]

Yeah, I'm guessing the reefer uses the same underframe as the 50' "Trainman" box cars.

[arbomambo]

This is your car......





and the decals are available.....

[Mark5]

I think its narrowed down to R-70-6:

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/reefer/r070-06.htm

Originally built 1946 for AMRX, then bought by PFE in 1950, then rebuilt to mechanical reefers in 1954.

Mark

[Kisatchie]

Yeah, I'm guessing the reefer uses the same underframe as the 50' "Trainman" box cars.

Yep.

I did a little "modeling" just now and actually tried to see how much work it would take to fit the Micro-Trains underframe on the Atlas car. It's a very tight fit, but no filing is necessary (whew). There is a God.


Hmm... I wonder how
Great Ape heaven is
different from human
heaven...

[Kisatchie]

This is your car......





and the decals are available.....

Thank you! That's great!

And don't complain, Dee!


Hmm... great??? I don't
like Santa Fe...

[Mark5]

The Santa Fe car is very close to the PFE car that Atlas modeled (but no cigar!):

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=sfrd3151&o=atsf

If you want to do the PFE car, here's the decals:

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=60-1341&Category_Code=NSCALE

[Kisatchie]

If you want to do the PFE car, here's the decals:

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=60-1341&Category_Code=NSCALE

Thanks! Microscale says the set does 40', 50', and 57' reefers. All I need are the 50' decals, but it looks like the lettering schemes for all the cars are almost the same. The set does 4 cars, so I hope I can get at least 3 correct cars.


Hmm... I'm getting
hungry...

[Kisatchie]

Thanks for all the interesting posts with photos/decal set recommendations. I learned a lot.

Mainly, that if I go the Microscale decal (SF and FGE) route, I'll have to do some painting of the Atlas shells I have. And since I don't have an airbrush, nor prospects of getting one in the foreseeable future, it looks like I'll have to go the custom decal route for my Kisatchie, Gulf & Northern. I'll use RailGraphics since I've ordered from them before.


Hmm... doesn't change
anything... I'm still
hungry...

[Cumbo2000]

This model along with all the other 50-ft mechanical refrigerator cars lack the correct type of roof eave. They should have the same of roof eave as correctly done on the MTL PFE R-40-10 or any of the IRC 40-ft reefers. (The the 5-5 Dreadnaught end is also incorrect on the Atlas model for a 1950 built car.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-Trains-PFE-Pacific-Fruit-Express-40-steel-reefer-w-PRECO-fan-NIB-/261966994107?hash=item3cfe731abb

This close-up of the Atlas Trainline models show it has the more common roof eave used on the majority of the box cars and stock cars, which is a "Z" eave.

http://www.atlastrainman.com/NFreight/tmn50mech.htm

Since, we often mostly look at the roofs of our N scale freight cars I find the incorrect eave objectionable, but others will not. So each to his own.

With all the new models being tooled a state-of-art 50-ft mechanical reefer would be a very welcomed edition either a PFE or a FGE prototype.

Bob Witt

[nkalanaga]

Adding fuel tanks is even easier than you might think.  The MT tanks are just blocks of metal, with three cast-on straps, so...  Get yourself some Evergreen styrene, a large strip that matches the MT tank cross section, and a small strip that matches the straps, probably 0.010x0.020.  Cut the large strip to length, glue bits of the small strip on for the straps, and glue the whole thing to the underframe.  Crossbearer in the way?  File a notch for it, it won't show behind the side sill.  The work is simple, and a lot cheaper than buying new underframes.

I did that MANY years ago, with basswood and paper, back when N scale was new.

[OldEastRR]

Adding fuel tanks is even easier than you might think.  The MT tanks are just blocks of metal, with three cast-on straps, so...  Get yourself some Evergreen styrene, a large strip that matches the MT tank cross section, and a small strip that matches the straps, probably 0.010x0.020.  Cut the large strip to length, glue bits of the small strip on for the straps, and glue the whole thing to the underframe.  Crossbearer in the way?  File a notch for it, it won't show behind the side sill.  The work is simple, and a lot cheaper than buying new underframes.

I did that MANY years ago, with basswood and paper, back when N scale was new.

Don't even have to make a full-sized tank. Use two smaller blocks of styrene to fit on either side of the center frame beam. Unless somebody crawls under the car to see it'll look like a full tank. Styrene is good because it glues easily to the Atlas styrene frame.
Don't forget to drill a .o8o holes near the edge of the roof on the diesel generator side and put a short piece of brass wire in it. Paint the wire black and you've got the exhaust stack these cars had.\

Isn't brown  roof and ends a PFE or FGE scheme? SFRDs had black. What kind of "yellow" are the cars? post a pic.

[nickelplate759]

I'm intrigued.  When were these cars introduced?

George