Micro-Trains announces late REA reefers. Yay!

[Ngineer]

Micro-Trains is finally (Or did they before?) offering the model 052 in (late?) REA painting.   

My questions are:

- Are they prototypical? (I am going to buy them anyway, but would like to know.)

- Did they only travel in passenger trains? They are lacking the capacity, load limit, and further stenciling. Or were they allowed in freight trains? In the E-Zine "The Seaboard - Coast Line Modeler" Vol. 1, No. 2 there is a picture on page 49 with an ACL Railway Express Agency reefer in a freight train, not a passenger train.

- Did they travel all over the country, or did they have certain regions (e.g. New England) they never left? One of the model is announced as having travelled on the New Haven, but did it travel ONLY, without exceptions, on the New Haven?

- How quickly did the REA change "Referarigtor" into "Refrigerator"? Rather quick, or did they wait until the next regular inspection?

Looks like they jumbled the stencil:

Ref era rig tor
Ref rig era tor

- AND: Did they make that error on both sides or just on one side?

All in all, a great model IMHO. Thank you, Micro-Trains.

   Javier

[bbussey]

Yes, prototypical, including the mis-stenciled car. This is the first time the model has been released in these earlier schemes. Previous schemes released are post-1960.

[up1950s]

https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?_route_=railway-express-agency-rd-7006-rel-4-18-05200120

[bbussey]

@Ngineer — to answer your other questions:

These are earlier schemes. Not the as-built scheme, but the schemes that were in use the longest.

Yes, prototypical.

Primarily in passenger consists.

Yes, they traveled nationwide and were not specific to New England.

I don’t know the specifics of the error car, only that the stencil error is legitimate.

[brokemoto]

There was an issue of MR in the 1970s that had a photograph of an REA express car where whoever painted REFRIGERATOR on it must have had a liquid lunch.  The painter seemed to have had some trouble keeping his letters on the same line.

[Cajonpassfan]

Yes, prototypical, including the mis-stenciled car. This is the first time the model has been released in these earlier schemes. Previous schemes released are post-1960.

Bryan, just a clarification. Theese have been released in the earlier cca 1948 silver/green REA and silver/purple ACL "band" schemes some time ago, see fourth car below. This release with the large logo replaced that scheme in a few years (sometime after 1952 as I recall; too new for me).
Otto K.

[bbussey]

I missed that MTL had released the early green/silver REA scheme. I was under the impression that the ACL scheme was from a later era, but I certainly could be wrong on that point.

[thomasjmdavis]

Now I regret not picking up one or two of the "silver" cars- I just assumed those were later than all green cars.  Once upon a time, I had a magazine with info on REA paint schemes, but I think that was one that I lost when the roof leaked on the storage unit I was renting once upon a time many years ago.

Per Larry Goolsby's ACL Passenger Service- the Postwar Years, the aluminum and purple ACL scheme was in use on express reefers from their purchase in 1948 until about 1957, when the road began its "austerity" moves, which included painting those reefers dark green with "aluminum" lettering (most passenger cars got yellow lettering, express boxcars white lettering).

MT also released a car that was generally similar to the "April Fools" car, but had white rather than dulux gold lettering.  And a version of the late scheme that had "Santa Fe" lettering in dulux gold above the door- as shown in the ATSF painting and lettering book.  I have repainted mine coach green and relettered as an "as delivered" 4050 series.

Although from what I have read (and implied on the MT page for the new release), the prototype is a late 50s car for the REA.  But it certainly has a strong resemblance to the late 40s car of the ACL and the 1953 Santa Fe 4050 series (not to be confused with the 1952 rebuild of the 4000 series). 

[OldEastRR]

Aren't these cars based on the 1957 REA prototype? Which differs from the earlier 50' reefer version?
If you want a prototypical REA reefer for 1948, get a Roundhouse 50' express reefer in REA colors.

[Mark5]

This thread sort of highlights something that has always been surprising to me for a company as iconic as Railway Express Agency - there is very little info on the web (the fallen flag site appears to have no info at all!).

Mark

[Point353]

This thread sort of highlights something that has always been surprising to me for a company as iconic as Railway Express Agency - there is very little info on the web (the fallen flag site appears to have no info at all!).

The Fallen Flags site has some REA photos on this page: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-frt/misc-frt.htm

[Mark5]

The Fallen Flags site has some REA photos on this page: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-frt/misc-frt.htm

Awesome! Greatly appreciated.

I found this on the 1947 6100 series (including the clones built for ACL): http://www.sunshinekits.com/sunimages/sun27e.pdf

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Now I regret not picking up one or two of the "silver" cars- I just assumed those were later than all green cars.  Once upon a time, I had a magazine with info on REA paint schemes, but I think that was one that I lost when the roof leaked on the storage unit I was renting once upon a time many years ago.

I wouldn't sweat it. The good news is that there's a pretty robust second hand market for MTL cars. Especially if you don't care about the factory air.

[Cajonpassfan]

....
If you want a prototypical REA reefer for 1948, get a Roundhouse 50' express reefer in REA colors.

The photo below was taken in San Bernardino in 1948. The MT green/silver REA car is spot on, as is the ACL car in purple/silver. The current MT release is the same car, in a later, "large diamond" scheme.
Otto K.

Edit: Perhaps I should have pointed out that the MT car is a riveted version, whereas the 1947 cars apparently had welded seams and limited riveting. In that sense, its not "spot on". I'll live with that...

[wcfn100]

Edit: Perhaps I should have pointed out that the MT car is a riveted version, whereas the 1947 cars apparently had welded seams and limited riveting. In that sense, its not "spot on". I'll live with that...

Also has a different door, different trucks and different ends.     But it is a good match for other series of the car.

One issue with the MTL car is the ends.  Instead of notching the end to clear the coupler, they raised the whole bottom edge. so it doesn't line up with the sides.  I imagine this compresses the rib pattern too, but haven't measured to see.


Jason